View source for Mehdi Azar

{{Short description|Iranian physician and politician (1901–1994)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox medical person
| image             =
| image_size        =
| alt               =
| caption           =
| occupation        = Physician
| years_active      =
| known_for         = Founder of the first dialysis ward in Iran
| relations         =
| profession        =
| field             =
| work_institutions = University of Tehran
| specialism        = [[Kidney disease]]
| research_field    =
| notable_works     =
| prizes            =
| module2 =
{{Infobox officeholder
| embed             = yes
| office            = Minister of Culture
| primeminister     = [[Mohammad Mosaddegh]]
| predecessor       =
| successor         =
| term_start        = July 1952
| term_end          = August 1953
| party             = [[National Front (Iran)|National Front]]
| birth_date        = 1901
| birth_place       =
| death_date        = {{Death year and age|1994|1901}}
| death_place       = Norfolk, Virginia, USA
| death_cause       =
| parents           = Haj Mirza Ali Tabrizi (father)
| nationality       = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| citizenship       = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] -->
| alma_mater        = Tehran Medical School <br> University of Lyon
}}
}}
'''Mehdi Azar''' (1901–1994) was an Iranian physician, professor of medicine and politician who served as the minister of culture in the period 1952–1953. In addition to his political activities he was one of the leading Iranian physicians in [[kidney disease]].
==Early life and education==
Azar was born in 1901.<ref name=iichs>{{cite web|title=مهدی آذر|language=fa|url=http://www.iichs.ir/News-948/%D9%85%D9%87%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D8%B0%D8%B1-/?id=948|publisher=Institute for Iranian Contemporary Studies|access-date=26 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226151827/http://www.iichs.ir/News-948/%D9%85%D9%87%D8%AF%DB%8C-%D8%A2%D8%B0%D8%B1-/?id=948|archive-date=26 December 2021}}</ref> His father was Haj Mirza Ali Tabrizi who was a cleric and a deputy in the Majlis.<ref name=harv>{{cite web|title=Interview with Azar, Mehdi: Tape 06|url=https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/iranian-oral-history-project/catalog/32-azar__mehdi06|publisher=Harvard Library
|access-date=26 December 2021|archive-date=26 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226144854/https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/iranian-oral-history-project/catalog/32-azar__mehdi06}}</ref>
Azar graduated from Tehran Medical School in 1928 and also, from the University of Lyon.<ref name=harv/>
==Career==
Azar was a faculty member at the [[University of Tehran]].<ref name=harv/><ref>{{cite book|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|title=The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations|publisher=The New Press|year=2013|isbn=978-1-59558-826-5|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l05NAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA145|page=145}}</ref> He joined the [[National Front (Iran)|National Front]] established by [[Mohammad Mosaddegh]].<ref name=harv/> Azar was its secretary for foreign relations.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peyman Vahabzadeh|title=A Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and Fadai Period of National Liberation in Iran, 1971-1979|year=2010
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cCs4FFWMqgC&pg=PA6|publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]]|page=6|isbn=978-0-8156-5147-5
|location=Syracuse, NY}}</ref> In 1949 he was imprisoned due to his political activities.<ref name=harv/> He was appointed minister of culture in the [[Governments of Mohammad Mosaddegh|second cabinet of Mosaddegh]] in July 1952.<ref>{{cite news|title=کابینه دکتر مصدق تشکیل شد - روزنامه دنیای اقتصاد|work=[[Donya-e-Eqtesad]]|url=https://donya-e-eqtesad.com/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%AE-%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF-31/395154-%DA%A9%D8%A7%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%AF%DA%A9%D8%AA%D8%B1-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%AF%D9%82-%D8%AA%D8%B4%DA%A9%DB%8C%D9%84-%D8%B4%D8%AF|access-date=26 December 2021|date=26 July 2012|language=fa}}</ref> Azar was one of the cabinet members who were claimed by the Western publications, including ''[[Newsweek]]'', to be [[Red Scare|communist threats]] for Iran.<ref name=erv>{{cite journal|author=Ervand Abrahamian|author-link=Ervand Abrahamian|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40403895|jstor=40403895|date=Summer 2001
|page=204|volume=65|title=The 1953 Coup in Iran|journal=[[Science & Society]]|issue=2}}</ref> The others were [[Hossein Fatemi]] and [[Abdolali Lotfi|Abdol Ali Lofti]].<ref name=erv/> Azar was in office until August 1953 when the cabinet was overthrown through a [[1953 Iranian coup d'état|coup]].<ref name=harv/> Azar and Abdol Ali Lotfi were arrested by the military governorate on 2 September 1953.<ref>{{cite journal
|volume=8|date=Winter 1954|page=76|title=Developments of the Quarter: Comment and Chronology|journal=[[The Middle East Journal]]|issue=1
|jstor=4322566}}</ref>
Following his retirement from politics Azar continued his profession as a physician specialized in kidney disease among adults.<ref name=bou>{{cite book|editor1=José A. Moura-Neto|editor2=José Carolino Divino-Filho|editor3=Claudio Ronco|title=Nephrology Worldwide|publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland AG|year=2021|isbn=978-3-030-56890-0|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0m4hEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA314|location=Cham
|pages=314–315|chapter=Nephrology in Iran|author=Behrouz Boroumand|author-link=Behrouz Boroumand}}</ref> He was the founder of the first dialysis ward in Iran which was established at Pahlavi Hospital.<ref name=bou/>
==Personal life and death==
Azar went into exile in the United States in 1982 and settled in [[Norfolk, Virginia]].<ref name=harv/> He died there in 1994 and was buried in Iran.<ref name=iichs/>
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azar, Mehdi}}
[[Category:20th-century Iranian politicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Iranian physicians]]
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Government ministers of Iran]]
[[Category:Iranian expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Iranian prisoners and detainees]]
[[Category:National Front (Iran) politicians]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Tehran University of Medical Sciences]]
[[Category:Iranian nephrologists]]
[[Category:University of Lyon alumni]]
[[Category:People of Pahlavi Iran]]