Kazem Sami ( fa, کاظم سامی; 1935 – 23 November 1988) was Iran's minister of health in the transitional government of

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 ...

and leader of The Liberation Movement of People of Iran (''JAMA'').

Political career

Kazem Sami was one of the leaders and organizers of the Iranian revolution. He served as the minister of health in the Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first minister of health after the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

of 1979. He ran in the first Iranian presidential elections, but lost to

Abolhassan Banisadr Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنی‌صدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abo ...

, coming sixth out of the seven presidential candidates. He served as a deputy in the first post-revolutionary Iranian Parliament. After distancing himself from the revolutionary government, Dr Sami remained one of the few active opposition leaders in Iran, openly criticizing the Islamic Republic government. He also wrote a famous open letter to

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

, criticizing him for the continuation of the Iran-Iraq war after Iran had recovered her occupied territories, notably the

liberation of Khorramshahr The battle of Khorramshahr, also known in Iran as the liberation of Khorramshahr ( fa, آزادسازی خرمشهر, translit=Âzâdsâzī-ye Khorramshahr) was the Iranian recapture of the city of Khorramshahr on 24 May 1982, during the Iran� ...

Murder

Sami was murdered in his private medical clinic in 1988, under suspicious circumstances. He is believed to be one of the first victims of the " chain murders",An Iranian Health Authority Is Reported Slain at a Clinic
/ref> a series of murders and disappearances of Iranian dissident intellectuals in the 1990s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sami, Kazem 1988 deaths 1935 births 20th-century Iranian physicians Candidates in the 1980 Iranian presidential election Government ministers of Iran Iranian murder victims Iranian psychiatrists JAMA (political party) politicians Male murder victims Members of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights National Front (Iran) student activists Party of the Iranian People politicians People murdered in Iran Unsolved murders in Iran Muslim socialists

Political career

Murder

See also

References