 For example, Dr. Mehdi Ha’iri Yazdi, the son of the late Shaykh Abdolkarim Haeri, the founding member of the Qom Theology School, has written a book about criticism of velayat-e faqıh.The regime has responded with force, convening special clergy courts to silence and imprison scholars, in violation of seminary norms of scholarly debate.These conspicuous acts of discipline seem to have backfired, as each escalating punishment has generated new critics within.