Genealogy of the Concept of Justice during the Transition Period of Iranian Society in the Constitutional Era

For the genealogy of the concept of justice in Iranian society can be returned to the distant past. But if justice is to be considered in its modern sense - with the emphasis on the human subjects- the most important moment of this transition is the Nasseri's era and the Constitutional Revolution (1906), as a primitive stance. It takes the main controversy of constitutionalists and Sharia proponents over the meaning of equality and basic rights, especially gender equality and religious equality. The important point is the reference of the laws that attribute some to God and others to the people's vote. This paper attempts to illustrate the views of 40 elites and influencers of the Constitutional era (clerics and Western educators familiar with modern concepts), to delineate The plurality of meaning in the concept of justice, the substitution of some of the traditional concepts to Modern, and the position of human in their thoughts. As a result, the main point of the article is that it is necessary to re-read the main issues of the transition society to understand conceptual changes in the face of western perspectives.

In Iran, that era has occurred, changing the understanding of justice from "putting everything in its place" into "accepting the equality of basic human rights." The main strategy of justice in that era is "reduce inequality", instead of "expanding justice"; "fairness" and paying attention to justice as a "moral virtue." The less importance is "equality in the opportunities and resources of scarce" and even "distribution of wealth" in Iran in the transition to modernity. In the constitutional era, cruelty has been the main issue with the distance raised to the issue of poverty. Therefore, even at that time, left Marxist groups in Iran, are seeking to solve the problem of oppression.