In contemporary nation states with a rising, or well-established, commitment to a state religion, converts face a hostile legal system that transforms conversion into a deeply political act, with sometimes devastating consequences. The case studies in this panel show how the governments of both India and Iran place significant burdens on converts. They discuss how anti-conversion laws in India weaponize the rhetoric of Christianity as “foreign” and how the legal ambiguity of Iranian marriage laws deny converts the rights and protections afforded Muslim citizens. Employing the lenses of postcolonial theory, history, legal studies, sociology and theology, these papers explore the constraints faced by converts in contemporary theocracies or quasi-theocracies.
| Eliza Kent, Skidmore College | ekent@skidmore.edu | View |