Asghar Sayyed Javadi

Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi (Persian: علی‌اصغر صدر حاج‌سیدجوادی; 1925–2018) was an Iranian writer, journalist and activist.[1] Politically, he was a dissident to both Pahlavi and Islamic Republic governments.[2]

Asghar Sayyed Javadi
Sayyed Javadi in 1979
Born
Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi

1925
Qazvin, Iran
Died2018 (aged 92–93)
Paris, France
NationalityIranian
Organization(s)IWA
ICDFHR (1977–1980)
ChildrenNégar Djavadi
RelativesAhmad Sayyed Javadi (brother)
Nasser Katouzian (brother-in-law)

According to Farhang Rajaee, he was "a leading intellectual of the day".[3]

Early life and education

He was born in 1925 in Qazvin. In 1951, he obtained a PhD in philosophy from University of Paris.[1]

Career

During his youth, he was a member of Tudeh Party of Iran but he later became a social democrat.[4] He was an essayist on Islam and Socialism and over a fifteen years period, his gained a large following who were mostly religious laymen.[4] An Iranian Writers Association member, he also wrote for Kayhan.[4][5]

Mehrdad Mashayekhi argues that he belonged to the Third Worldist current in Iran, and considers him among "radical nationalist intellectuals" who were closely associated with the League of Iranian Socialists.[6] Afshin Matin-Asgari states that he had an "independent socialist background" that he shared with people with Jalal Al-e-Ahmad. He was critical of the U.S. government neocolonialist policies from a Third Worldist perspective, as reflected in his columns published in the 1960s.[7]

In 1977, he was among the members and founders of the newly formed Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights (ICDFHR).[8] Mehdi Bazargan was elected as the head and Javadi as the vice head of the committee.[8] He became the head of the ICDFHR after the revolution.[8] However, the committee's office was closed in November 1980, and Javadi had to leave Iran in the fall of 1981.[8]

In 1979, he founded Jonbesh (lit. 'The Movement'), a relatively small group that belonged to the political center.[9] and ran for a Tehran seat for the Assembly of Experts for Constitution under the banner of Quintuple Coalition.[10] He garnered more votes than any defeated candidate and about one million less than the last elected candidate.[11]

Asghar Sayyed Javadi is featured on the front page of the newspaper The Shah Is Gone.
Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights (ICDFHR) session, Bottom left: Unknown, Top left: Ahmad Sayyed Javadi, Top middle, Mehdi Bazargan, Top right: Ali-Asghar Sayyed Javadi, Middle right: Unknown, Middle right: Unknown, Bottom right: Abdolkarim Lahiji

Electoral history
YearElectionVotes %RankNotes
1979Assembly of Experts298,36011.8111th Lost[11]

References
  1. Boroujerdi, Mehrzad (1996). Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism. Syracuse University Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-8156-0433-4.
  2. Daneshvar, Parviz (2016). Revolution in Iran. Springer. p. 212. ISBN 978-1349140626.
  3. Rajaee, Farhang (2010), Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran, University of Texas Press, p. 235, ISBN 9780292774360
  4. Hiro, Dilip (2013). Iran Under the Ayatollahs (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. p. 67. ISBN 978-1135043810.
  5. Amir Taheri (2 July 2018). "Leading Iranian Writer Dies in Exile". Asharq Al Awsat. London. Archived from the original on 23 July 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  6. Mashayekhi, Mehrdad (2005). "The Politics of Nationalism and Political Culture". In Farsoun, Samih K.; Mashayekhi, Mehrdad (eds.). Iran: Political Culture in the Islamic Republic. Routledge. p. 60. ISBN 9781134969470.
  7. Matin-Asgari, Afshin (2018). Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity. Cambridge University Press. p. 177. ISBN 9781108428538.
  8. Houchang E. Chehabi (1990). Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini. I.B.Tauris. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-85043-198-5.
  9. Daneshvar, Parviz (2016). Revolution in Iran. Springer. p. 138. ISBN 978-1349140626.
  10. Near East/North Africa Report, Joint Publications Research Service, vol. 2010, Executive Office of the President, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1979, p. 13
  11. Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 195, Table 6; pp. 203–205, Table 8, ISBN 9781850430773
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