Why this book?
- A rare case: a political prisoner's legal reflections on the justice system from the inside
- Expert, well-grounded treatment of torture, detention, and defendants' rights
- Direct questions about clerical guardianship, religious authority, and political legitimacy
- An examination of religion, the state, and religious minorities in contemporary Iran
- Clear, direct prose, free of emotional exaggeration
About the book
Essays from the Banquet of Prison collects sixty-three short notes written by Mohsen Borhani, a law professor at the University of Tehran, during his detention and imprisonment in the summer of 2024. Opening with an introductory piece titled "Love, Affliction, and the Pen," the essays are arranged not by theme but in the order they were written during his confinement, each a self-contained reflection on a pressing legal, political, or social question.
Writing as both a legal scholar and a political prisoner, Borhani takes up subjects such as freedom of expression, torture, the handling of judicial case referrals, the requirement of ijtihad for political office, the guardianship of the jurist, and the status of religious minorities. He insists these are not prison memoirs or personal confessions, but a systematic attempt to think through citizens' rights and freedoms and the nature of governance — from someone directly subject to the very judicial system he examines.
The book suits readers interested in public law, political philosophy, and Iran's current affairs who want the perspective of a legal scholar caught up in events, written from lived prison experience rather than from the outside.