Cleric, Ayatollah, or Mullah; How Are Today's Rulers of Iran Defined?

Cleric, Ayatollah, or Mullah? Names that Iranians have used over the past four decades to address religious propagandists. These names can reflect their relationship with this ruling group in Iran. After the protests of 2022 known as "Women, Life, Freedom," the existence of religious clerics entered a new phase. Their entanglement with power created such a gap that the protest movement referred to as "turban throwing" posed a psychological threat to this group. In this week's "Paragraph One" program, along with Arash Honarvar Shojaei, a former teacher at Qom seminary, and Farough Bahmei, a theology expert, both residing in Germany, we discussed the social position of the ruling religious propagandists in Iran and the reflection of their actions over 45 years of religious rule. Arash Honarvar Shojaei, who studied and taught at Qom seminary, states that none of these names apply to him. He considers the use of the term "Cleric" to be a newly emerged term that became popular during the Constitutional Revolution with the translation of Western texts from the word "Clergy" in Iran. According to him, "Mullah and Ayatollah" are also "respectable" names that indicated the academic rank of these individuals. Despite wearing clerical clothing, Honarvar Shojaei distances himself from these three names, stating that those referred to by these names follow a "subculture" or a specific class defined by their means of sustenance, type of clothing, and even their speech and accent. Farough Bahmei believes that using the titles "Mullah" or "Cleric" diminishes the status of this class by citizens who, in their own words, want to return these individuals to their origins. Therefore, they take the name "Cleric," which they think is a "chic" term, away from them to say they are the same as "Mullahs." Arash Honarvar Shojaei returned to Iran from Germany in the 1980s. He states that he was disillusioned with studying in schools and turned towards the seminary but never entered the clerical ranks. For this critical cleric residing in Germany, his arrest and trial in the Special Clerical Court led him to emphasize what he calls his "clerical identity" to provide a basis for criticizing the government that holds power in the name of clericalism. Farough Bahmei believes that there is no accurate statistic in Iran regarding the number of people who have joined this class, and therefore, one cannot consider the increase or decrease of their presence in political competitions as a reason for diminishing their social presence. According to this researcher, there is no institution called clericalism in Iran, and what society is facing is an intertwined network that lacks a clear beginning or end. Ms. Bahmei discusses the transnational activities of "Al-Mustafa International University" and mentions clerics who, to avoid what she calls "harassment," remove their clerical clothing in their social interactions; in a sense, the clerics are "unclothed." However, Arash Honarvar considers clericalism to be a "civil institution" that, apart from what he calls "the tyranny of power," was sustained through the people. Nevertheless, Mr. Honarvar is not oblivious to the patriarchal hierarchy that concentrated power and funds in the hands of prominent clerics. He states that after Ayatollah Khomeini, who at least outwardly believed in the independence of Shia seminaries, Ayatollah Khamenei adopted a policy of governmentalizing this institution with the physical presence of clerics in power. This issue, according to the former seminary teacher, has caused a group of clerics to engage only in their chambers, discussions, and scientific work to fill the created void, but this has made them "small-minded" regarding current political and social issues. Farough Bahmei defines the clericalism before the Islamic Revolution as one that was "forced" to keep the people, who provided his "earthly salary" through "spiritual services," satisfied. She states that during Ayatollah Khamenei's rule, clericalism becomes an institution that is above the people. Arash Honarvar also believes that the legitimacy crisis of the government, clericalism, and the seminary now affects religion and Shi'ism.