Western discourses often do not reflect the heterogeneity of Islam and shiite clergy. Instead, it is assumed that the Iranian Shia is an obstacle to modernity.
Little is known about how religious-political actors actually comprehend Islam, modernity, modernisation or democratisation and how their religious-political contributions may promote or prevent a non-violent democratisation.
Semiramis Akbari detects a large group of progressive clerics and religious intellectuals in Iran who, on the basis of reason, would like to allocate religion an autonomous role, who disapprove of paternalism by religious authorities and defend a restructuring of governmental institutions.
She thoroughly examines inner-Iranian discourses among advocates and opponents of political reforms in order to identify the obstacles for a democratisation.
This eighth edition of the "Studien der Hessischen Stifungen Friedens- und Konfliktforschung" (Studies of PRIF) "Religiöse Wissensgenierung und Modernisierung" ("Religious knowledge acquirement and modernisation") by Semiramis Akbari was published at Nomos Publishing House. It is available in book stores for EUR 49,-.