1907 - 1995
Muslim intellectual and politician in Iran.
Mehdi Bazargan was born in Tehran. In 1931, he went to Paris to study engineering. Returning home in 1936, he taught at the college level. During the 1951 oil-nationalization movement, Bazargan worked with Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and served as the director of the National Iranian Oil Company. After Mossadegh was deposed by the 1953 coup, Bazargan resumed teaching.
In the early 1960s, with the help of Ayatollah Mahmud Taleqani, Bazargan founded the Freedom Movement (Nehzat-e Azadi), which played an important role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. After the revolution, Bazargan became the premier of the provisional government. With its fall, Bazargan lost much of his political influence but was elected, with a huge margin, as Tehran's representative to the parliament of the new Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1980 election. Throughout his career, Bazargan was a leading advocate of democracy. He also was a prolific writer, publishing more than twenty books and articles.
Bibliography
Chehabi, H. E. Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990.
— MANSOOR MOADDEL
.svg){kind=small}
