Mostafa Rahimi

Mostafa Rahimi, born in 1926 in Nain and died on 31 July 2002 in Tehran, was an Iranian jurist, sociologist, writer, translator, university professor, and one of the independent intellectuals of contemporary Iran. He studied law at the University of Tehran, then continued his education in France, earning a doctorate in law from the Sorbonne. In Paris, he became acquainted with the atmosphere of existentialism, committed literature, and the thought of Jean-Paul Sartre—an encounter that later left a deep mark on his translations and writings.

In the 1960s, Rahimi played a role in introducing modern Western philosophy and literature to Iranian intellectual life through his translations of works by Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, and Brecht. He was not merely a translator; his central concern was the relationship between freedom, law, intellectualism, social justice, and human moral responsibility.

Rahimi was among the intellectuals who forged links between law, literature, and philosophy. On one hand, he was well-versed in the legal tradition and pro-democracy thought; on the other, through his translations of Sartre, Camus, and Brecht, he introduced the language of “commitment,” “freedom,” “responsibility,” and “choice” into Iran’s cultural sphere.

His famous letter titled Why Am I Opposed to the Islamic Republic?, written in January 1979, is one of the most significant pro-democracy texts before the victory of the revolution. Its central argument was a defense of unconditional republicanism and a warning against restricting the concept of a republic with any ideological qualifier; the text of this letter continues to be reread as an important document in the history of Iranian political thought.