How to Gain Access to Governmental Positions in an Islamic

To gain access to governmental high positions as a specific ‘civil right’ is considered to be among the major constituents of democratic governments and one may claim that, with the neglect of this civic right, the supposition of having a democratic state seems to be unrealistic. The question is that “Does religion, in political system of Islam in general andin the Islamic Republic of Iran in particular, have any effect on granting people their civil rights?” The present article, while analyzing the nature and scope of civil rights and giving its definition as “the rights which have been established with regard to what is implied by legal and juristic principles in a given society indicating indexes of people’s fundamentalrights to have an active personal and social life in that society,” deals with rights in two planes: ‘general civil rights’ and ‘particular civil right’, seeking to show that religion in the former plane constitutes no cause for a distinction between citizens in having their own rights. Rather, religion, particularly Islam, persuades governments to grant people their rights in an equal manner. The article 20 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran supports this claim. However, for certain reasons, including the rule of “rejection of the dominion of disbelievers over the believers” or the rule of ‘nafyi sabil’ as well as certain requirements for ruling people such as principles of coherent aim, respect to the opinions of the majority, commitment and faithfulness, religion is regarded to beessential and effective in granting people particular civil rights (having rights to take charge of higher governmental positions).