The Role of Law in Iranian Society: Past, Present, and Future
Special Editions No. 18 and 19 – Freedom of Thought Journal (Summer and Winter of 2026)
Freedom of Thought Journal will devote its next two issues to examining the role of law in shaping Iranian society. Adopting an interdisciplinary lens, the series invites critical analyses of discursive, institutional, and lived transformations of law in Iran—law which, from the Constitutional Revolution to the present, has served both as an instrument of power and a platform for resistance, for reimagining justice and rights, and for articulating social demands.
We welcome submissions grounded in legal anthropology, sociology of law, gender studies, critical legal studies, and other relevant interdisciplinary approaches, including intersectional perspectives.
Special Edition No. 18:
Transformation of Legal Perception and Human Rights Discourse in Contemporary Iran
With a Festschrift in honor of Dr. Abdolkarim Lahiji
This issue explores the historical, theoretical, and social evolution of key concepts—“right,” “law,” and “human rights”—in Iran’s public discourse and legal-political structures. As a Festschrift, it honors Dr. Abdolkarim Lahiji, a pioneering thinker and activist in the field of human rights in Iran.
Suggested themes include:
- Genealogies, turning points, and forces shaping legal perception and exprience in Iran.
- The role of human rights lawyers and institutions (e.g., the Bar Association) in articulating and advancing human rights discourse, with case studies such as Dr. Abdolkarim Lahiji.
- Shifts in the concepts of law, justice, freedom, and equality within public and political discourses.
- Intersections between social movements (women, students, minorities) and legal discourses.
- Rights-based resistance to authoritarianism and the role of civil society institutions.
- The impact of international human rights bodies and instruments on domestic discourses and structures.
- Capacities, challenges, and ruptures at the nexus of rights concepts and socio-political change.
- Legal education in Iran: institutional frameworks, curricula, and their role in reproducing or transforming legal discourses.
- Legalism and its effects on citizens’ political action.
- Intersectionality of power, discrimination, and mechanisms of exclusion and domination—across gender, sexual orientation, “race,” class, and religion—in shaping the concepts of law and rights.
Special Edition No. 19:
Law and Norms—from Construction to Everyday Reinterpretation in Local and Global Contexts
This issue focuses on the circulation and institutionalization of law in social life, lived experience, and modes of engaging with legality. Law is approached not merely as a body of formal rules but as social practice, a site of contestation, a means of mediation, and a resource for resistance. In addition to Iran-focused studies, we also welcome engagements with global developments that may illuminate paths for Iran’s future.
Suggested themes include:
- Legal pluralism: interactions among fiqh, custom, state law, and international law.
- Law in everyday life: gender, family, employment, education, the digital sphere, and migration.
- Criminal justice, penal policy, the death penalty, and modalities of legal resistance; environmental justice and legal frameworks for environmental protection.
- Informal dispute resolution and customary legal orders.
- Everyday legal mobilization and the formation of legal consciousness.
- Lived experiences of citizenship, and access—or barriers—to justice.
- Law in contexts of war and unrest: from international humanitarian law to field-based experiences.
- The role and place of human rights in challenging global authoritarian, far-right, and anti-gender discourses.
- Equality, gender, minorities, and plural legal discourses.
- Comparative constitutional studies and theoretical debates.
Submission Guidelines
Azadi Andisheh is an academic, peer-reviewed journal in the humanities and social sciences. Scholars and researchers are invited to submit original manuscripts that meet the following criteria:
- Language & Editing: Manuscripts must be well-written, properly edited, and free from spelling or grammatical errors.
- Length: Recommended length is 6,000–8,000 words.
- Citation Style: Use the Chicago Style (Notes and Bibliography).
[Persian Guide] [English Guide] - Submission: Articles must be submitted only through the online submission portal. Submissions sent by email or other methods will not be reviewed.
(Note: Registration in the article system will be open from November 1, 2025) - Peer Review: All manuscripts are evaluated through a double-blind peer-review process. Results will be announced within three months after submission.
