Re-Interpreting Citizenship Rights in the Context of Iranian Modernity: A Case Study of "Yek-Kalameh" Treatise

According to the theory of Multiple Modernities, Western modernity is reinterpreted in non-Western cultures and civilizations, and it paves the way for the creation of diverse modernities in different cultures. Since the confrontation with the modern West, the Iranian elites have tried to present an Iranian and Islamic interpretation of various elements of Western modernity. Citizens' rights, as one of the main components of modernity, have been re-interpreted in Iran. The purpose of this article is to understand the quality of the re-interpretation of citizenship rights in the "one word" (Yek-Kalameh) treatise by Mostasharoddoleh and identify the cultural schemas used in this re-interpretation. In this article, the qualitative content analysis method has been used to study the text of Yek-Kalameh. Findings: Analyzing the content of the text, suggests that the author refers to all three civil, social and political rights. The author has tried to explain and justify any of these rights using a cultural schema in the Islamic tradition, and to show the citizenship rights are not incompatible with Islamic law. The schemas used in the text, often refer to the Quran verses and the hadiths. Iranians have re-interpreted citizenship rights, as well as other components of modernity, in the cultural and historical context of Iran. In this redefinition process, new meanings were attributed to the principles of citizenship rights that were not in the original meaning of Western citizenship rights, and as a result, the understanding of Iranian audience of the treatise on citizenship rights, inevitably, was different from the understanding of the citizens of the Western countries of them.