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The Iranian Studies Initiative at UCSB and Farhang Foundation present

Policing, Punishment, and Authority in Iran

a free live lecture event by Dr. Farzin Vejdani

Drawing on a rich array of primary sources in multiple languages, Farzin Vejdani argues that the ambiguity in defining the boundaries between private and public in Qajar Iran often corresponded with the jurisdictional friction between government authorities and religious scholars regarding who had the authority to police and punish public crimes. This ambiguity had implications for the spaces in which illicit acts were carried out: “private” parties in domestic residences where music, alcohol, and prostitution were present were often tolerated by local police officials but raised the ire of religious authorities and their followers, who raided these residences, ironically in violation of strong Islamic norms of privacy.

Crimes that were manifest but remained unpunished triggered a crisis of legitimacy that often coincided with upstart Islamic religious scholars challenging the state’s authority. Even when the government had every intention of punishing a crime, convicted criminals sought shelter in sanctuaries—including shrines, mosques, royal stables, and telegraph offices—which were even more inviolable than private residences. This inviolability, grounded in both Islamic prohibitions of violence on sacred grounds and Iranian imperial traditions of redress, allowed criminals to negotiate a lesser sentence, safe passage for voluntary exile, or forgiveness.

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About Dr. Farzin Vejdani

Farzin Vejdani is an Associate Professor of Middle Eastern History at Toronto Metropolitan University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University’s Department of History in 2009. Dr. Vejdani has been a Visiting Fellow at Massey College (2021-2022) and Harvard Law School’s Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (2019-2020). His recent book, Private Sins, Public Crimes: Policing, Punishment, and Authority in Iran, was published by Yale University Press (2024). His first book, Making History in Iran: Education, Nationalism, and Print Culture (Stanford University Press, 2014), received an Honorable Mention for the Houshang Pourshariati Iranian Studies Book Award. In his other publications, Dr. Vejdani has explored the themes of everyday urban crime, folklore, transnational Persian print networks, and connected histories of the Ottoman Empire, India, and Iran.

The subjects, views, and opinions expressed in the Farhang Foundation Lecture Series are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Farhang Foundation.