Ayatollah Khamenei and Reformism in Iran

Abstract

The Islamic Republic of Iran, as an Islamic and independent country on the original ideology of Islam, announced freedom of political parties within the Constitution (Act, 26). After the Islamic Revolution victory in 1979, two main political fronts formed, "Principlism Front and Reformism Front." Reformism seems a challenging issue to the Iranian nation as it may appear adopted on the Western ideology. The present study aimed to remove any ambiguity on this issue to help politicians, scholars, and ordinary people. To this aim, the following question should answer: what are Ayatollah Khamenei's criteria for Reformism in Iran? Moreover, the research hypothesis was that Ayatollah Khamenei approves of Reformism in Iran based on some defined criteria. For the analysis, the political thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei were recorded as written texts which contained the word Reformism and selected and obtained from the following official Website. The collected documents analyzed through Discourse Analysis to elicit and specify the criteria for Reformism in Iran. The results indicated that: Reformism is essential and required, and has to implement in the country; Reformism should be value directed and comply with principles of Islam and the Revolution; the exact definition of Reformism is needed to specify the goals; the Reformism should be organized and controlled from a powerful and aware center according to Constitution foundation; comprehensiveness and concordance, reforms have to implement in all areas in the society synchronically; a tolerable and influential center should control the Reformism to avoid immethodically, and the structure of the Constitution has to protect in Reformism issues.