By the time of his death in 2009, the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri was lauded as the spiritual leader of the Green movement in Iran. Since the 1960s, when he supported Ayatollah Khomeini’s opposition to the Shah, Montazeri’s life reflected the crucial political shifts within Iran. In in her talk, Sussan Siavoshi presents the historical context and its influence on Montazeri’s political and intellectual positions. In the process she explains the paradoxes of the life of a man who moved from being a major architect of the Islamic Republic and a one time designated successor to the Supreme Leader, to an outspoken critic of the very same political system.
Sussan Siavoshi is the Cox Chapman Professor of International Relations at Trinity University. She received her B.S. degree in economics from Pahlavi University in Shiraz, and her Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University. She is the author of several books and articles on different facets of contemporary Iranian politics, including political movements, elite factionalism, elite political thought, and Islamic feminism. Her recent book, Montazeri: The Life and Thought of Iran’s Revolutionary Ayatollah, published by Cambridge University Press, was the recipient of the 2018 Houshang Pourshariati’s book award for outstanding work on Iranian Studies.