In Iran’s modern history, few concepts have been as contested — or as transformative — as that of the citizen (shahrvand). From imperial subjects under ancient empires to the revolutionaries of the Constitutional era, and finally to the youth-led movements of today, the idea of citizenship in Iran reflects a deeper struggle over identity, authority, and inclusion.

This article draws on three distinct yet intersecting frameworks of Iranian political thought: the Iranshahr theory, developed initially by Seyyed Javad Tabatabai and later championed by thinkers such as Shervin Vakili; the republican critique of centralized nation-state formation articulated by Hesam Salamat; and the democratic philosophy of citizenship (Shahrvand-e Iranzamin) offered by Aram Hessami in Two, Three Words (Do Se Kalameh).

Building on earlier publications by the Iran 1400 Project — including our coverage of Abbas Amanat’s insights into the dilemmas of modernity and Hessami’s reflections on civic agency — this essay offers a holistic view of how citizenship in Iran has evolved: from inherited cultural frameworks to modern legal definitions, and ultimately, to an emerging ethos of democratic responsibility.

Citizenship as Civilizational Continuity (Shervin Vakili)

Drawing on the “Iranshahr Theory” (nazariye-ye Iranshahri), Shervin Vakili asserts that Iranian identity is rooted in a stable civilizational order stretching back millennia. This identity is neither recent nor borrowed. Rather, it is characterized by a long-standing capacity to manage diversity — religious, ethnic, and linguistic — within a historically coherent state.

For Vakili, the disruptions of the past two centuries — especially the imposition of the European-style nation-state — have fragmented Iran’s natural pluralism. He views the modern concept of the centralized state as a foreign framework that misconstrues Iran’s actual historical experience. In his view, tensions around ethnicity and regional autonomy are not signs of timeless conflict but products of an alien model forced upon a resilient, inclusive civilization.

Vakili advocates not reinventing the Iranian polity but reviving and reinterpreting the civilizational logic of governance and identity outlined in the Iranshahr tradition, which historically emphasized coexistence over conformity.

Citizenship as Political-Legal Equality (Hesam Salamat)

In contrast, Hesam Salamat presents the emergence of citizenship as a modern and constructed reality. He locates its roots in the Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century, which first introduced the principle that sovereignty could rest with the people, not just with the monarch.

For Salamat, the citizen is a new political identity, not a historical inheritance, defined by equal legal and political rights under a republican order. But this project, he argues, remains dangerously incomplete. The drive for centralization (linguistic, cultural, and administrative) has come at the cost of silencing diverse voices and undermining the promise of equality it was meant to establish.

Salamat calls for a founding act — not a revival — to establish a democratic order that truly reflects the rights of all Iranians. He identifies this as the “unfinished project” of the Constitutional era: one that aimed to limit the arbitrary power of rulers and replace it with popular sovereignty and equal citizenship.

Citizenship as Democratic Agency (Aram Hessami)

In Two, Three Words (Do Se Kalameh), Aram Hessami introduces a compelling synthesis. He accepts that modernity has transformed the concept of the citizen. Still, he roots this transformation not in elite constitutionalism or pre-Islamic grandeur, but in the collective moral agency of the people themselves.

For Hessami, the Iranian citizenry is not a cultural abstraction or a legal status — it is an emancipatory force. The citizen becomes the subject of history: the one who asks questions, demands justice, and reclaims the public sphere. His analysis, as highlighted in The Role of Iranian Citizenry, emphasizes that democracy is not merely a political arrangement; it is a civic ethic grounded in shared responsibility, pluralism, and the rejection of authoritarianism.

What distinguishes Hessami’s view is his focus on the youth as agents of civic transformation, and on citizenhood as a form of resistance against both political tyranny and cultural fatalism. In this model, the path forward is not to merely restore or complete past frameworks, but to redefine the meaning of national identity through civic action, democratic participation, and ethical responsibility.

Citizenship and the Challenge of Modernity

In The Challenge of Modernity in Iran, Abbas Amanat reminds us that the collision between tradition and modernity has long defined Iran’s political evolution. The idea of the citizen is a central node in that collision. While the modern world introduced new frameworks of governance and rights, these ideas did not take root in a vacuum. They were shaped — and at times distorted — by Iran’s unique experience of colonial pressure, dynastic decline, religious authority, and revolutionary rupture.

Amanat’s contribution underscores that the tension is not between Iran and modernity per se but between various interpretations of modernity—whether imposed from above, claimed from below, or derived from cultural memory. In this light, citizenship becomes the battleground for resolving these tensions.

Citizenship as the Future of Iran

These three visions — civilizational continuity (Vakili), republican legality (Salamat), and civic-democratic agency (Hessami) — are not mutually exclusive. Instead, they represent layers in Iran’s evolving discourse of belonging, participation, and rights.

• Vakili urges us not to forget Iran’s capacity to manage differences.
  
• Salamat reminds us that equality must be constructed, not assumed.
  
• Hessami insists that the future depends on a citizenry that sees itself as the engine of transformation, not the passive subject of change.
  

Together, they provide a conceptual map for navigating one of Iran’s most pressing challenges: how to build an inclusive, just, and democratic society without erasing the depth of its history or the plurality of its present.

As the Iran 1400 Project continues to explore the evolution of institutions and ideas in Iran’s modern journey, the concept of citizenship, in all its complexity, remains central to imagining a viable future.

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