A letter from Soroush to Khamenei Mohammad Nourizad, the brave and free-minded artist, who has opened the way to critical admonitions and admonitory criticism, has invited writers and thinkers to join him; to perform their duty of enjoining virtue and opposing vice; and to do their share in reinforcing the criticism in the hope […]
A wretched judiciary is tyranny’s strength and a strong judiciary makes for wretched tyrants, and today the weakest and most wretched branch of power in Iran is the judiciary. Today, in democratic states, the most unprotected of people find some protection in the law and the judiciary, which lends them a hand to fend off […]
“There is no God, I swear to God there is no God…” These were words that Hamed spoke in a pained voice, which brought tears to my eyes. After fleeing Iran with a battered body and a shattered mind and seeking refuge elsewhere, he was pouring out his anger and pain to me over the […]
First. Iran’s current rulers are suspicious of the human sciences for a single reason: these sciences are secular. The theocrats expect the human sciences to use concepts such as God’s will, spirit and other intra-religious teachings in their explanations about human beings and societies, and since the human sciences do not comply with these expectations, […]
Mr Khamenei I heard your speech on 4 June 2010. It was an error-strewn oration. It ebbed and flowed between slips of the tongue and slips of the mind. It testified to flagging oratory. Our accomplished sermonizer, who had surpassed all others in deftness of speech in the thirty years since the revolution, seemed […]
With greetings to the distinguished scholars and elders of religious learning. I would like, if I may, to address a few words to you. The anniversary of the Green Movement and the people’s Judgement Day is approaching, and the people have growing expectations of righteous clerics. The movement’s prisoners and martyrs have a message […]
When you don’t lose yourself, the beloved is like a thorn When you lose yourself, the beloved is the purest gold When you don’t lose yourself, a fly can fell you When you lose yourself, elephants fall before you When you don’t lose yourself, you’re a cloud of grief When you lose yourself, […]
The bloody wedding has ended and the fraudulent groom has left the bridal chamber. The ballot boxes tremble and ogres dance in the dark. The dead, in their white shrouds, stand and watch, and the prisoners clap with severed hands. And, with a mixture of rage and hatred, the people of the world see off […]
(Forms and Formlessness 5 ) This is the published version of the last of a five-part series of talks given by Dr Soroush under the general heading “Surat va bi-Surati” (Forms and Formlessness). This fifth part was published in the November-December 2001 edition of the now-banned journal Aftab. It also includes the question and answer […]
Years ago, when, in my courses on ethics, I was explaining Aristotle’s theory of moderation and speaking about the vice of going to one extreme or the other and the virtue of “the just mean” – in those same years, I also embarked on a serious study of Mowlana Jalaleddin Rumi’s Masnavi and entrusted my […]
