From my article:
"Let us imagine a society with a long history of violence against its minority groups. This society has been experiencing organized violence against minorities supported by the government for almost four decades. Taking into account social and political structure, the question arises as to the stance of its intellectuals toward government’s discrimination and whether they are to be held responsible for the organized and consolidated violence against minority groups. Now call this imagined society Iran; Iranian intellectuals have been persistently evasive on whether and how the Islamic regime has been a cause or a catalyzer to human rights violations in Iran. Instead, they have tried to establish a philosophical and mystical justification according to which they could cultivate moral virtues of the people based on their own desired objectives and rally support for their own agenda."