ABSTRACT
However, the ideal has not eventuated during the past three decades because the Islamic Republic, as defined by its theocratic constitution (that replaced Iran’s 1906 modern constitution), is not an ordinary republican form of governance as understood in modern political vernacular. Islamic Republic is lofty “divine governance” whose stated objective is the creation of a “model society,” based on Islamic criteria that, among others, cover policing. The reconstruction of this utopian society and policing philosophy is not just hyperbola, but a strategic aim of the Islamic state expressed in postrevolutionary police literature and police training manuals. Therefore, from 1979 till present, an Islamic policing philosophy whose mottos are Jaameh-e Mas’ul (Responsible Society) and Polis-e Paasokhgoo (Accountable Police) has emerged. At first glance, these mottos sound novel, considering the fact that prior to the rise of the Islamic Republic, the thrust of Iranian policing discourse was that although police functioned as an organized
deterrent force against criminogenic social elements, in order to protect society against crime and perversion, police-like other organs of the stateserved the wishes and commands of the monarch in accordance with the Persian theory of kingship, the hegemonic political theory upon which the Persian monarchs had ruled from the time of the Achaemenids. The theory maintained that monarchs ruled on the basis of divine authority; thus, it was incumbent upon the state and its organs (e.g., police) to submit to the reigning monarch’s wishes and commands. It was through this total submission that both the realm (molk) and the nation (mellat) would be secured, the taxes would be collected on time, and the malcontents would be vanquished. Reflecting this rationale, under the Pahlavi monarchy the mottos of the state and its organs, including police, were Cheh Farman-e Yazdan (Whether the Command of God) and Cheh Farman-e Shah (Whether the Command of the King). These mottos, in essence, put the reigning monarch(s) authority at par with that of the Almighty. As will be discussed shortly, the Iranian National Police functioned in the capacity of both the ideological and the Praetorian Guard of the monarchy. Modern police in Iran (be it under the Qajar or Pahlavi) were utilized for both ordinary law enforcement operations and suppressing political dissent (Alibabaie 1385/1999; Kusha 2006).
