Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi ( fa, علی‌اصغر صدر حاج‌سیدجوادی; 1925–2018) was an Iranian writer, journalist and activist. Politically, he was a dissident to both

Pahlavi Pahlavi may refer to: Iranian royalty *Seven Parthian clans, ruling Parthian families during the Sasanian Empire *Pahlavi dynasty, the ruling house of Imperial State of Persia/Iran from 1925 until 1979 ** Reza Shah Pahlavi (1878–1944), Shah of ...

and

Islamic Republic The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a theoretical form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been u ...

governments. According to Farhang Rajaee, he was "a leading intellectual of the day".

Early life and education

He was born in 1925 in

Qazvin Qazvin (; fa, قزوین, , also Romanized as ''Qazvīn'', ''Qazwin'', ''Kazvin'', ''Kasvin'', ''Caspin'', ''Casbin'', ''Casbeen'', or ''Ghazvin'') is the largest city and capital of the Province of Qazvin in Iran. Qazvin was a capital of the ...

. In 1951, he obtained a PhD in philosophy from

University of Paris The University of Paris (french: link=no, Université de Paris), Metonymy, metonymically known as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, active from 1150 to 1970, with the exception between 1793 and 1806 under the French Revo ...

Career

During his youth, he was a member of

Tudeh Party of Iran The Tudeh Party of Iran ( fa-at, حزب تودۀ ایران, Ḥezb-e Tūde-ye Īrān, lit=Party of the Masses of Iran) is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in i ...

but he later became a social democrat. He was an essayist on Islam and Socialism and over a fifteen years period, his gained a large following who were mostly religious laymen. An

Iranian Writers Association Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

member, he also wrote for ''

Kayhan ''Kayhan'' ( fa, کيهان, '' en, The Cosmos'') is a newspaper published in Tehran, Iran. It is considered "the most conservative Iranian newspaper." Hossein Shariatmadari is the editor-in-chief of ''Kayhan''. According to the report of the '' ...

''. Mehrdad Mashayekhi argues that he belonged to the

Third Worldist Third-Worldism is a political concept and ideology that emerged in the late 1940s or early 1950s during the Cold War and tried to generate unity among the nations that did not want to take sides between the United States and the Soviet Union. The ...

current in Iran, and considers him among "radical nationalist intellectuals" who were closely associated with the

League of Iranian Socialists League of Socialists of the National Movement of Iran ( fa, جامعه سوسیالیست‌های نهضت ملی ایران, Jāmeʿa-ye sōsīalīsthā-ye nahżat-e mellī-e Īrān) or Society of Iranian Socialists ( fa, جامعه سوسیال� ...

. Afshin Matin-Asgari states that he had an "independent socialist background" that he shared with people with

Jalal Al-e-Ahmad Seyyed Jalāl Āl-e-Ahmad ( fa, جلال آل‌احمد; December 2, 1923September 9, 1969) was a prominent Iranian novelist, short-story writer, translator, philosopher, socio-political critic, sociologist, as well as an anthropologist who wa ...

. He was critical of the U.S. government neocolonialist policies from a Third Worldist perspective, as reflected in his columns published in the 1960s. In 1977, he was among the members and founders of the newly formed

Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights The Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights ( fa, جمعیت ایرانی دفاع از آزادی و حقوق بشر) was an Iranian organization that was founded in 1977. Establishment At the initiative Abolfazl Zanjani ...

(ICDFHR).

Mehdi Bazargan Mehdi Bazargan ( fa, مهدی بازرگان; 1 September 1907 – 20 January 1995) was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government. He was appointed prime minister in February 1979 by Aya ...

was elected as the head and Javadi as the vice head of the committee. He became the head of the ICDFHR after the revolution. However, the committee's office was closed in November 1980, and Javadi had to leave Iran in the fall of 1981. In 1979, he founded ''Jonbesh'' (), a relatively small group that belonged to the

political center Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...

. and ran for a

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

seat for the

Assembly of Experts for Constitution The Assembly for the Final Review of the Constitution (AFRC; fa, مجلس بررسی نهایی قانون اساسی) also known as the Assembly of Experts for Constitution ( fa, مجلس خبرگان قانون اساسی), was a constituent a ...

under the banner of

Quintuple Coalition The Quintuple Coalition refers to the electoral alliance of five revolutionary groups contesting in the 1979 Iranian Constitutional Convention election. The groups in coalition had Islamic and radical orientations. After the elections, the coaliti ...

. He garnered more votes than any defeated candidate and about one million less than the last elected candidate.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyyed Javadi, Asghar 20th-century Iranian politicians 1925 births 2018 deaths Iranian essayists Iranian expatriates in France Iranian human rights activists Iranian political journalists Iranian Writers Association members League of Iranian Socialists politicians Members of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights People from Qazvin Third Force (Iran) politicians Tudeh Party of Iran members University of Paris alumni