What it means
وکیل (vakil) means “lawyer” in everyday Persian. The word is borrowed from Arabic و-ک-ل (w-k-l), “to entrust,” and the original sense is broader: an agent, a representative, a proxy who acts on someone else’s behalf. In modern Iran the legal-profession meaning dominates in daily speech, but the older sense survives in compound terms and shows up in religious and political vocabulary.
How to use it
- وکیل گرفتم (vakil gereftam) “I hired a lawyer”
- وکیل پایه یک دادگستری (vakil-e pâye-ye yek-e dâdgostari) “first-tier bar lawyer”
- وکیل تسخیری (vakil-e taskhiri) “court-appointed defense lawyer”
- وکیل مدافع (vakil-e modâfe’) “defense lawyer”
- وکیل من (vakil-e man) “my lawyer”
- به وکیلت زنگ بزن (be vakilet zang bezan) “call your lawyer”
- وکالت (vekâlat) “power of attorney; the practice of law”
Iranian legal context
The Iranian bar (Kânun-e Vokalâ-ye Dâdgostari) has a tiered system. A vakil-e pâye-ye yek can argue any case in any court, including the Supreme Court; a vakil-e pâye-ye do has limits on the cases and courts they can take. Both tiers require passing the bar exam, completing apprenticeship, and ongoing certification. Vakil-e taskhiri is the court-appointed defense lawyer assigned when a defendant cannot afford private counsel, common in criminal cases.
The role is regulated and socially respected. Vakils have their own dress code in court (a robe for senior bar members), their own professional culture, and their own ethics board. The bar has historically pushed back against state pressure to expand state-appointed counsel and has been a site of friction between the legal profession and the judiciary, especially around political and security cases where private vakils are sometimes refused access to clients.
The word also appears in وکیل مجلس (vakil-e majles), “member of parliament,” literally “agent of the assembly,” preserving the older Arabic sense of representative. وکالت (vekâlat) is the abstract noun, meaning “power of attorney” in legal contexts and “the practice of law” in professional contexts.
Related
ghazi judge. دادگاه (dâdgâh) court. موکل (movakkel) client (the one who entrusts the vakil). وکالتنامه (vekâlat-nâme) power-of-attorney document, often needed for diaspora Iranians who manage Iranian property or paperwork remotely. کانون وکلا (kânun-e vokalâ) the bar association.
References
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