Rethinking political secularism in the works of post-revolutionary Iranian intellectuals: Akbar Ganji, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Mohsen Kadivar

Abstract

This thesis argues that the discourses of post-revolutionary Iranian reformist, religious intellectuals transformed from a vague notion of “religious democ-racy” to more concrete concept of “political secularism” in the second part of the 2000s. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the works of Akbar Ganji, Abdolkarim Soroush, and Mohsen Kadivar. Examining their works and dis-courses it is clear that an alternative and democratic conception of secular-ism - namely “political secularism,” which rejects both secular and religious fundamentalisms that Iran experienced in the last century - emerged as a political principle that to maintain the unity of society on the basis of socio-political equality and freedom.