In contemporary Iran, the enforcement and scope of Islamic criminal law remain among the most intensely debated issues in the country’s legal and religious landscape. Following the Twelfth Imam’s Occultation, some Shi’i jurists long disagreed over whether divinely mandated Hudūd punishments could be applied in his absence. Yet after the 1979 Revolution, the pro-hudūd position became state doctrine, entrenching these punishments in Iran’s Islamic Penal Code.

Today, facing mounting doctrinal and sociopolitical challenges, legal reformers have advanced new politico-juridical mechanisms to justify the suspension of hudūd. Their proposals have opened a crucial debate at the heart of the Islamic Republic’s criminal justice system.

In this lecture organised by RIMO, Bahman Khodadadi explores how these reformist arguments confront resistance from conservative and orthodox jurists and why these critiques continue to constrain meaningful legal change.