In this panel, Leyla Hajimehditajer (Independent Scholar), Maryam Heydarkhani (Visiting Researcher, Center for Arabic Language and Muslim Cultures, University of Calgary), and Zahra Khoshk Jan (Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Sociology, University of Chicago) will discuss literature, architecture, and religion and politics in Iran. The panel will be moderated by Professor Nayareh Tohidi (Professor Emerita at California State University, Northridge). The event is part of the MESA Global Academy, and is organized by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies.
Presentations:
From Nafs to Tranquility: Rumi’s Path of Love and Self-Transcendence (Leyla Hajimehditajer)
Human beings are innately endowed with the capacity to love and the deep desire to be loved. Love is a powerful force that enhances happiness and well-being, though it may also bring sorrow. Despite this dual nature, love remains essential to attaining a high level of personal and spiritual development. While love for others manifests as compassion, this compassion cannot flourish without first cultivating love for oneself. In this sense, self-love becomes the foundation for authentic empathy and spiritual energy. Sustaining this energy requires conscious self-awareness and observation. Such awareness initiates the journey of spiritual growth, ultimately leading to self-realization—a path echoed in the hadith, “Whoever knows themselves knows their Lord.” For Rumi, divine or pure love functions like alchemy, transforming the base nature of the soul into spiritual gold. In his Mathnawi, Rumi expands on the concept of the self, or nafs, blending Qur’anic teachings with Sufi poetic tradition. This presentation explores the pivotal role of the self on the path of love as depicted in Rumi’s Mathnawi, emphasizing the spiritual and psychological journey toward divine union.
Understanding Architecture Through Everyday Life (Maryam Heydarkhani)
Understanding historical architecture requires looking beyond buildings as static monuments and instead exploring them as dynamic spaces shaped by everyday life. Architecture is not merely a backdrop to history; it is an active participant in social, religious, and political transformations. By examining how people interacted with spaces—how they lived, prayed, studied, and even resisted authority within them—we gain deeper insight into the evolution of built environments. In the case of Islamic architecture, spaces such as madrasas, mosques, and bazaars were not just centers of worship or education but also arenas where power, identity, and community were continuously negotiated. This presentation highlights how religious institutions, particularly in Qajar Iran, evolved in response to shifting social structures, urban transformations, and political movements, demonstrating that the true significance of architecture lies not only in its form but in its lived experience.
Iranian Shiism as a Discourse of Political Religion and Political Spirituality (Zahra Khoshk Jan)
In this presentation, Jan offers a discursive analysis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, conceptualizing it as a political religion system. She begins by defining the key discursive elements that construct political religion and by outlining the processes through which these elements are articulated. Building on this framework, she will address several pivotal questions: Why is Iran’s government regarded as a political religion? How can it be understood through the lens of discourse analysis? How and why is political spirituality constructed within this discourse?
About the Speakers
Dr. Leyla H. Tajer is an Iranian scholar specializing in Islamic studies, comparative religion, and Sufi literature. She earned her PhD from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), where she won the Best PhD Student Award for her dissertation on love in Sufi and Hindu traditions. Dr. Tajer has presented at 27 international conferences and has published 16 research articles, 14 book reviews, and two books. Currently, she is a MESA Global Academy Scholar (2024-2025) and a co-investigator at the Oxford Centre for Christianity and Culture. She advocates for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Dr. Maryam Heydarkhani’s research interests encompass a broad spectrum within architecture, art history, and cultural heritage, with a primary focus on Islamic art and architecture of Iran. She has explored diverse topics such as architectural forms in Islamic societies, comparative studies between Islamic and European perspectives, and the evolution of architecture in Iran. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the relation of form and life by focusing on the social role of Qajar madrasas, revealing insights into their transition into sociopolitical hubs during Iran's constitutional era. She plans to expand this research by investigating the transition from Safavid to Qajar madrasas, with a focus on the influence of religious ceremonies and women's attendance. Dr. Heydarkhani’s ultimate goal is to illuminate the complexities of Islamic cultural heritage and its significance in today's global context. She is a Mesa Global Academy fellow and a visiting researcher at the Center for Arabic Language and Muslim Cultures, University of Calgary.
Dr. Zahra Khoshk Jan’s main area of expertise is the political sociology of religion. She aims to comprehend and analyze political constructions of religion and religious constructions of politics. As a constructionist, she believes that reality (political, social, or religious) is contextual and socially constructed and should be understood according to its context’s features, especially in regard to systems with a “political religion” government like Iran. Dr. Jan’s approach to research methodology is qualitative, and she employs discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, grounded theory, and content analysis. She has published many papers in English and Persian and two books in Iran, Suffering in the Political Meaning System of Iranian Shiism and Judaism and Social Constructionism and the Issue of Meaning. She is currently investigating the political stability of Iran’s government, analyzing Khamenei’s viewpoint about good governance, the hijab, and civil society, and is researching the future of democracy in Iran after the Islamic Republic. She is a Mesa Global Academy fellow and a visiting assistant professor of Political Sociology at the University of Chicago.
Moderator:
Nayereh Tohidi is a professor emerita and former chair of gender and women’s studies, and the founding director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic studies (from 2011 to 2021) at California State University, Northridge. She has been involved in Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran since 2003, co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and UCLA Iranian Studies. She specializes in the fields of gender, Islam, feminism, modernity, and democracy; ethnicity and ethno-religious movements; and human and women's rights in the Persianata and Turkic Societies of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Middle East Studies Association Global Academy