View source for Asghar Sayyed Javadi

{{Short description|Iranian writer, journalist, and activist (1925–2018)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Asghar Sayyed Javadi
| image              = Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi.png
| alt                =
| caption            ='' Tehran Mosavvar'', 1979
| birth_name         = Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi
| birth_date         = 1925
| birth_place        = [[Qazvin]], [[Iran]]
| death_date         = {{Death year and age|2018|1925}}
| death_place        = [[Paris]], [[France]]
| nationality        = [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]]
| organization       = [[Iranian Writers Association|IWA]]<br>[[Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights|ICDFHR]] {{small|(1977–1980)}}
| other_names        =
| occupation         =
| years_active       =
| known_for          =
| notable_works      =
| children           = [[Négar Djavadi]]
| relatives          = [[Ahmad Sayyed Javadi]] {{small|(brother)}}<br>[[Nasser Katouzian]] {{small|(brother-in-law)}}
}}
'''Ali-Asghar Sadr Haj Seyyed Javadi''' ({{langx|fa|علی‌اصغر صدر حاج‌سیدجوادی}}; 1925–2018) was an Iranian writer, journalist and activist.<ref name="Boroujerdi"/> Politically, he was a dissident to both [[Pahlavi dynasty|Pahlavi]] and [[Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran|Islamic Republic]] governments.<ref>{{cite book|first=Parviz|last=Daneshvar|title=Revolution in Iran|publisher=Springer|page=212|date=2016|isbn=978-1349140626}}</ref>
According to Farhang Rajaee, he was "a leading intellectual of the day".<ref>{{Citation|first1=Farhang|last1=Rajaee|title=Islamism and Modernism: The Changing Discourse in Iran|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=2010|pages=235|isbn=9780292774360}}</ref>
== Early life and education ==
He was born in 1925 in [[Qazvin]]. In 1951, he obtained a PhD in philosophy from [[University of Paris]].<ref name="Boroujerdi">{{cite book|first=Mehrzad|last=Boroujerdi|title=Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism|year=1996|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-0433-4|pages=196}}</ref>
== Career ==
During his youth, he was a member of [[Tudeh Party of Iran]] but he later became a social democrat.<ref name="Hiro"/> He was an essayist on Islam and Socialism and over a fifteen years period, his gained a large following who were mostly religious laymen.<ref name="Hiro">{{cite book|last1=Hiro|first1=Dilip|title=Iran Under the Ayatollahs (Routledge Revivals)|publisher=Routledge|year=2013|isbn=978-1135043810|page=67}}</ref> An [[Iranian Writers Association]] member, he also wrote for ''[[Kayhan]]''.<ref name="Hiro"/><ref>{{cite news|author=Amir Taheri|title=Leading Iranian Writer Dies in Exile|newspaper=Asharq Al Awsat|url=https://english.aawsat.com//home/article/1318051/leading-iranian-writer-dies-exile|access-date=9 August 2021|date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723061302/https://english.aawsat.com//home/article/1318051/leading-iranian-writer-dies-exile|archive-date=23 July 2021|location=London}}</ref>
Mehrdad Mashayekhi argues that he belonged to the [[Third-Worldism|Third Worldist]] current in Iran, and considers him among "radical nationalist intellectuals" who were closely associated with the [[League of Iranian Socialists]].<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Samih K.|editor-last1=Farsoun|editor-first2=Mehrdad|editor-last2=Mashayekhi|first=Mehrdad|last=Mashayekhi|title=Iran: Political Culture in the Islamic Republic|chapter=The Politics of Nationalism and Political Culture|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|page=60|isbn=9781134969470}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|first=Afshin|last=Matin-Asgari|title=Both Eastern and Western: An Intellectual History of Iranian Modernity|year=2018|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=177|isbn=9781108428538}}</ref>
In 1977, he was among the members and founders of the newly formed [[Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights]] (ICDFHR).<ref name=Chehabi1990>{{cite book|author=Houchang E. Chehabi|title=Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini|year=1990|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-198-5|pages=231}}</ref> [[Mehdi Bazargan]] was elected as the head and Javadi as the vice head of the committee.<ref name=Chehabi1990/> He became the head of the ICDFHR after the revolution.<ref name=Chehabi1990/> However, the committee's office was closed in November 1980, and Javadi had to leave Iran in the fall of 1981.<ref name=Chehabi1990/>
In 1979, he founded ''Jonbesh'' ({{literal translation|The Movement}}), a relatively small group that belonged to the [[Centrism|political center]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Parviz|last=Daneshvar|title=Revolution in Iran|publisher=Springer|page=138|date=2016|isbn=978-1349140626}}</ref> and ran for a [[Iranian constitutional election 1979 (Tehran Province)|Tehran]] seat for the [[Assembly of Experts for Constitution]] under the banner of [[Quintuple Coalition]].<ref>{{citation|title=Near East/North Africa Report|volume=2010|page=13|year=1979|publisher=Executive Office of the President, Foreign Broadcast Information Service|series=Joint Publications Research Service}}</ref> He garnered more votes than any defeated candidate and about one million less than the last elected candidate.<ref name="ri">{{citation|author=Ervand Abrahamian|title=Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin|publisher=I.B.Tauris|date=1989|isbn=9781850430773|volume=3|series=Society and culture in the modern Middle East|at=p. 195, Table 6; pp. 203–205, Table 8}}</ref>
[[File:Ettelaat13571026.pdf|thumb|[[Asghar Sayyed Javadi]] is featured on the front page of the newspaper [[The Shah Is Gone]]. ]]
[[File:Executive committee of defence of freedom and human rights-Iran.jpg|thumb|[[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: [[Asghar Sayyed Javadi|Ali-Asghar Sayyed Javadi]], Middle right: Unknown, Middle right: Unknown, Bottom right: [[Abdolkarim Lahiji]]]]
== Electoral history ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Year !! Election  !! Votes !! % !! Rank !! Notes
|-
|1979||[[1979 Iranian Constitutional Convention election|Assembly of Experts]]||298,360||11.81||11th
| style="background-color:#C66"|Lost<ref name="ri"/>
|}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyyed Javadi, Asghar}}
[[Category:20th-century Iranian politicians]]
[[Category:1925 births]]
[[Category:2018 deaths]]
[[Category:Iranian essayists]]
[[Category:Iranian expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Iranian human rights activists]]
[[Category:Iranian political journalists]]
[[Category:Iranian Writers Association members]]
[[Category:League of Iranian Socialists politicians]]
[[Category:Members of the Iranian Committee for the Defense of Freedom and Human Rights]]
[[Category:People from Qazvin]]
[[Category:Third Force (Iran) politicians]]
[[Category:Tudeh Party of Iran members]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]