Editing Ali Shariati (section)

===Views and popularity===
{{Main|Shariatism}}
[[File:Shariati7.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Shariati and his family one day after his release from prison.]]

Shariati sought to revive the revolutionary currents of [[Shia Islam|Shi'ism]].<ref name=ostovar>{{cite web |last=Ostovar |first=Afshon P. |title=Guardians of the Islamic Revolution: Ideology, Politics, and the Development of Military Power in Iran (1979–2009) |url=http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/64683/afshon_1.pdf;jsessionid=DF7BFA33BF18FF73E9117CB0504F14E1?sequence=1 |publisher=University of Michigan |access-date=26 July 2013 |format=PhD Dissertation |date=2009}}</ref> His interpretation of Shiism encouraged revolution in the world and promised salvation after death.<ref name=milani>{{cite book |author=Abbas Milani |title=The Myth of the Great Satan: A New Look at America's Relations with Iran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YTrRom48fhAC&pg=PA123 |year=2010 |publisher=Hoover Press |isbn=978-0-8179-1136-2 |page=122}}</ref> He referred to his brand of Shiism as [[Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism|"red Shiism"]] which he contrasted with non-revolutionary [[Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism|"black Shiism"]] or [[Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam|Safavid Shiism]].<ref>Ali Shariati, "[[Red Shi'ism vs. Black Shi'ism]]".</ref> His ideas have been compared to the Catholic [[Liberation Theology]] movement founded in South America by Peruvian [[Gustavo Gutierrez]] and Brazilian [[Leonardo Boff]].<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, (2006), p. 129</ref>

Shariati was a prominent [[philosopher]] of [[Islam]], who argued that a good society would conform to Islamic values. He suggested that the role of government was to guide society in the best possible manner rather than manage it in the best possible way.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0evSkdzXF_4 |title=- YouTube |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> He believed that the most learned members of the {{lang|ar-Latn|[[Ulema]]}} (clergy) should play a leadership role in guiding society because they best understand how to administer an Islamic value system based on the teachings of the Prophets of God and the 12 Shia [[Twelver]] Imams.<ref name="youtube.com">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RjiWLcuyQA |title=- YouTube |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> He argued that the role of the clergy was to guide society under Islamic values to advance human beings towards reaching their highest potential, rather than to provide or serve the hedonistic desires of individuals as in the West.<ref name="youtube.com"/>

At the same time, Shariati was very critical of some clerics and defended the [[Marxists]]. "Our mosques, the revolutionary left and our preachers," he declared, "work for the benefit of the deprived people and against the lavish and lush [...] Our clerics who teach jurisprudence and issue ''[[fatwa]]s'' are right-wingers, capitalist, and conservative; simply our ''fiqh'' is at the service of capitalism."<ref>{{Cite book |title=''Jahatgiri-ye Tabaqati-e Islam'' [Class bias of Islam], in ''Collected Works'', 10 |author=Ali Shariati |location=Tehran |pages=37–38 |year=1980}}</ref>

Shariati's works were highly influenced by Louis Massignon and the [[Third Worldism]] that he encountered as a student in Paris, including ideas that [[class conflict|class war]] and revolution would bring about a just and [[classless society]]. He was also highly influenced by the epistemic [[decolonisation]] thinking of his time. He is said to have adopted the idea of ''[[Gharbzadegi]]'' from Jalal Al-e Ahmad and given it "its most vibrant and influential second life".<ref>Mottahedeh, Roy, ''The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran'', p. 330</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Afari|first1=Janet|title=Sexual Politics in Modern Iran|date=April 27, 2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press; 1st edition|language=en|page=240}}</ref>

He sought to translate these ideas into cultural symbols of Shiism that Iranians could relate to. Shariati believed Shia should not only await the return of the [[Muhammad al-Mahdi|12th Imam]], but should actively work to hasten his return by fighting for [[social justice]] "even to the point of embracing [[martyrdom]]". He said that "every day is [[Ashoura]], every place is the [[Battle of Karbala|Karbala]]".<ref>Nasr, Vali, ''The Shia Revival'', Norton, (2006), pp. 128–9</ref>

When he was writing the three letters to Fanon, unlike him, Shariati believed that it is not true that one must put away religion to fight imperialism. He felt that people could fight imperialism solely by recovering their cultural identity. In some countries, such an identity was intertwined with fundamental religious beliefs. Shariati refers to the maxim of returning to ourselves.<ref>{{Cite book |title=From Blank Revolution to Islamic Revolution |author=Naser Gharagozlu |page=87 |year=2006}}</ref>

Social theorist [[Asef Bayat]] has recorded his observations as a witness and participant in the [[Iranian revolution]] of 1979. He asserts that Shariati emerged at the time of the revolution as "an unparalleled revolutionary intellectual" with his portraits widely present during the marches and protests. His nickname as "mo'allem-e enqilab" ("revolutionary mentor") was chanted by millions, and his literature and tapes had already been widely available before the revolution. Bayat recalls that "[his] father, barely literate, had his own copies" of Shariati's works.<ref name="Bayat">{{Cite book |title=Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring |last=Bayat |first=Asef |date=2017 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9781503602588 |language=en-US |page=47}}</ref>

====On the role of women====
In ''Expectations from the Muslim Woman'', also called ''Our Expectations of the Muslim Woman'', first given in 1975,<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00219096231207891 | doi=10.1177/00219096231207891 | title=Ali Shariati and Crafting a Collective Revolutionary Islamic Identity for Women: A Socio-Historical Perspective | date=2023 | last1=Moqadam | first1=Mahbubeh | journal=Journal of Asian and African Studies }}</ref> Shariati discusses [[women's rights]] in Islam. The point of his lecture is not to show that women's rights do not exist in Islam, but to show that what Shariati saw as anti-Islamic traditions have had tragic results for Muslim women. He uses [[Fatima Zahra]], the daughter of [[Muhammad]], as an example of a woman who played a significant role in political life.

He begins his lecture by stating that:

<blockquote>Most often, we are satisfied by pointing out that Islam gives great value to science or establishes progressive rights for women. Unfortunately we never actually use or benefit from this value or these rights.<ref name=ALone>[https://www.al-islam.org/our-expectations-muslim-woman-ali-shariati/part-1 Al-Islam website, ''Our Expectations on the Muslim Woman'' Part 1]</ref></blockquote>

He continues by stating that:

<blockquote>From the 18th through to the 20th century (particularly after World War 2) any attempt to address the special problem of the social rights of women and their specific characteristics has been seen as a mere by-product of a spiritual or psychic shock or the result of a revolutionary crisis in centers of learning or as a response to political currents and international movements. Thus, traditional societies, historical societies, religious societies, either in the East or in the West (be they tribal, Bedouin, civilized Muslim or non-Muslim societies, in whatever social or cultural stage of civilization they may be) have all been directly or indirectly influenced by these thoughts, intellectual currents and even new social realities.<ref name=ALone /></blockquote>

He argues that the liberation of women has begun in the West, and many fear it occurring in the Muslim world. In part because they are misinformed, and have not looked at Islam through a historical perspective, and are relying on their misinterpretation of Islam:

<blockquote>In such societies the newly-educated class, the pseudo-intellectuals, who are in the majority, strongly and vigorously welcome this crisis. They themselves even act as one of the forces that strengthen this corrupting and destructive transformation.<ref name=ALone /></blockquote>

Shariati believed that women in Iran under the [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi|Shah]] were only sexually liberated and did not have any social freedom. He attributed this in part to the "rather bourgeois cognition" and in part to the Freudian ideal of sexual liberation.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/162994 |page=288|jstor=162994 |title=Women and the Islamic Revolution |last1=Ferdows |first1=Adele K. |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |date=1983 |volume=15 |issue=2 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800052326 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.shariati.com/english/woman/woman2.html Dr Ali Shariati website, ''Expectations from the Muslim Woman (Part 2)'']</ref> To Shariati, Freud was one of the agents of the bourgeois:

<blockquote>Up to the appearance of Freud (who was one of the agents of the bourgeoisie), it was through the liberal bourgeois spirit that scientific sexualism was manifested. It must be taken into consideration that the bourgeoisie is always an inferior class.<ref name=AS>[http://www.shariati.com/english/woman/woman1.html Dr Ali Shariati website, ''Expectations from the Muslim Woman (Part 1)'']</ref></blockquote>

He concludes that a scholar or scientist who lives, thinks, and studies during the bourgeois age, measures collective, cultural, and spiritual values based on the economy, production and consumption.<ref name=AS />