Adapted from lectures by Ali Mirsepassi

Every society is imagined—shaped not only by its history but by how it chooses to remember, narrate, and project that history into the future.

In two recent public lectures hosted by the YouTube channel PERSICA, Professor Ali Mirsepassi offers a compelling interpretation of identity and modernity, urging Iranians to move beyond inherited scripts and engage with the evolving nature of national self-understanding. Drawing on thinkers such as Mohammed Arkoun, Charles Taylor, Kant, Habermas, and Benedict Anderson, Mirsepassi argues that national identity is not a mirror of the past, but a creative and political construction that shapes a society’s institutions, imagination, and civic possibilities.

Identity as Imagination: Constructed, Contested, Consequential

Mirsepassi stresses that national identity and what Taylor calls the social imaginary are not passive reflections of shared culture. Instead, they are narrative frameworks built from empirical history, myth, literature, art, and theology. These frameworks are often treated as fixed truths, even though they are continuously constructed and revised, shaped by poets, prophets, politicians, and institutions.

“National identity is not just what a nation is—it’s what a nation wants to be.” This reframing directly challenges the notion of identity as a fixed historical inheritance, positioning it instead as an imaginative and aspirational construct.

This insight challenges the assumption that identity is a fixed inheritance of the past and emphasizes its aspirational and imaginative dimensions instead.

While Arkoun emphasizes the role of elite reasoning and imagination in shaping identity, Taylor focuses on how ordinary people imagine their place in society through shared cultural stories and images. These collective perceptions become the moral and emotional glue that connects a society.

This perspective aligns closely with Unity, Identity, and Civic Belonging in Iran, which explores how different conceptions of Iranian identity—from religious and nationalist to civic and pluralist—coexist and contend for influence in shaping Iran’s future.

Winners, Losers, and the Politics of National Narratives

All national imaginations carry consequences. Mirsepassi emphasizes that identity narratives determine who is included and excluded in a society’s story. In multiethnic societies like Iran, dominant narratives—especially those sanctioned by the state—often marginalize minority communities, shaping not only political outcomes but also access to cultural and civic legitimacy.

These imaginative hierarchies, often enforced through state-controlled media and censorship, function as factories of meaning that generate, reinforce, and circulate dominant narratives while obscuring alternative ones. They create “winners and losers”—those whose histories are affirmed, and those rendered invisible.

This dynamic reflects broader historical shifts explored in The Evolution of Meta-Narratives in Iran Over the Past 100 Years, which traces how sacred, ideological, and civic narratives have each competed to define legitimacy and belonging across different eras.

This dynamic is also examined in Iran Is More Than Persia: Ethnic Politics in Iran, which looks at how Persian-centric narratives have sidelined other ethnic identities and calls for a more inclusive national discourse.

The “Iranshahri” Discourse: A Case Study

One powerful and polarizing example of a dominant identity narrative is the Iranshahri discourse, often associated with Javad Tabatabai. While it seeks to revive Iran’s pre-Islamic civilizational heritage, Mirsepassi critiques it as a “total state” theory. This metaphysical construction idealizes unity between state and society while neglecting the pluralistic and rights-based demands of modern politics.

“The Iranshahri idea is not a history—it’s a discourse. And one that often seeks to replace real diversity with a singular metaphysical identity.”

Inspired by Hegelian unity, this vision downplays the productive tension between state and society, a concept that lies at the heart of democratic governance and modern political thought. That tension supports the separation of powers, civil liberties, and minority rights.

This critique parallels arguments in Justice in Iran and Its Civic Future, which explores the dangers of monolithic state ideologies through the lens of justice, legitimacy, and participatory governance.

Modernity, the Nation-State, and the Public Sphere

Mirsepassi locates the debate on identity within the broader context of modernity, not merely as a Western export but as a historical transformation, such as the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which introduced the concepts of a parliament, citizen rights, and legal limits on monarchical power in Iran. In political and institutional life. The rise of the modern nation-state brought with it the need for national imagination and new political concepts: rights, civic equality, public debate, and institutional constraint.

He draws on Habermas to highlight the centrality of the public sphere and on Kant to emphasize the productive tension between state and society—a tension that protects individual freedoms from state overreach. These models stand in contrast to older or revivalist models that seek seamless unity between state and identity.

These civic tensions are explored in historical context in From Sacred Defense to Civic Resistance, which traces how state narratives of unity and sacrifice are being reimagined by a new generation toward civic resistance and pluralist belonging.

The Challenge Ahead: Imagination with Accountability

For Iran, the stakes are high. When frozen into ideology, national identity becomes a tool for domination rather than cohesion. But when reclaimed as a shared civic project, it can become a space for healing, inclusion, and democratic renewal.

Building on Mirsepassi’s call to reclaim identity as a civic project rather than a metaphysical blueprint, insights from Iran 1400 Project contributors suggest that Iran’s future hinges not only on institutional change, but on reimagining national belonging as a shared civic space—one where multiple stories, cultures, and futures can coexist.

This conclusion reflects the broader argument that identity is not destiny but an evolving dialogue. Mirsepassi’s intervention invites us to continue that conversation with courage, imagination, and civic responsibility.

Further Viewing

Adapted with gratitude from public lectures by Ali Mirsepassi, originally published on the PERSICA YouTube Channel.

This lecture is part of an ongoing series by Ali Mirsepassi on the PERSICA YouTube channel, with new episodes released weekly.