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
Died	2018 (aged 92–93) Paris, France
Nationality	Iranian
Organization	IWA ICDFHR (1977–1980)
Children	Négar Djavadi
Relatives	Ahmad 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]

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.[5] 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.[6]

In 1977, he was among the members and founders of the newly formed Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights (ICDFHR).[7] Mehdi Bazargan was elected as the head and Javadi as the vice head of the committee.[7] He became the head of the ICDFHR after the revolution.[7] However, the committee's office was closed in November 1980, and Javadi had to leave Iran in the fall of 1981.[7]

In 1979, he founded Jonbesh (lit. 'The Movement'), a relatively small group that belonged to the political center.[8] and ran for a Tehran seat for the Assembly of Experts for Constitution under the banner of Quintuple Coalition.[9] He garnered more votes than any defeated candidate and about one million less than the last elected candidate.[10]

Electoral history

Year	Election	Votes	%	Rank	Notes
1979	Assembly of Experts	298,360	11.81	11th	Lost[10]

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 1349140627.
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 1135043817.
5. 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.
6. Matin-Asgari, Afshin (2018). Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity. Cambridge University Press. p. 177. ISBN 9781108428538.
7. 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.
8. Daneshvar, Parviz (2016). Revolution in Iran. Springer. p. 138. ISBN 1349140627.
9. Near East/North Africa Report, Joint Publications Research Service, 2010, Executive Office of the President, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1979, p. 13
10. Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 195, Table 6; pp. 203–205, Table 8, ISBN 9781850430773