Bazargan, Mehdi
(1905–1995), prime minister of Iran. Mehdi Bazargan is probably best known as the first prime minister of revolutionary Iran, since Ayatollah Khomeini (1900–1989) gave him the job of premier of the provisional government soon after the victory of the revolutionary regime in 1979. Nevertheless, Bazargan's work in the Iranian political sphere was considerably more varied.
Born in 1905 to an affluent trading family in Tabriz, Bazargan started a career in education by teaching engineering at Tehran University after earning a degree in engineering from Paris University. He became politically active by joining the Iran Party, which changed to the National Front when it banded together with two other groups in 1949. When the oil nationalization movement emerged during Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq's tenure as prime minister, Bazargan was given the position of managing director of the newly nationalized oil industry, which was overseen by the National Iranian Oil Company. However, he returned to teaching when Mosaddeq was overthrown by the 1953 coup.
In May of 1955, he was charged with treason and confined until 1960 after he voiced opposition to some of the shah's policies. Upon release, he joined forces with Ayatollah Mahmud Talequani to establish the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) political party, which is also known as the Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI). Soon, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for his criticism of the shah's economic and political plan, known as the White Revolution. This time after his release, he stayed out of the political realm until 1977, when he helped found the Human Rights Association.
Then, in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini designated him prime minister of the provisional government. He resigned just nine months later, disillusioned with his powerlessness against the Islamic Revolutionary Council and the Revolutionary Guards Corps, culminating in his ineffectiveness regarding the student hostage takeover of the American embassy. He did not disappear from the political scene but, instead, publicly opposed the new regime's suppression of basic freedoms and the continuation of the war with Iraq. His party, IFM, was the only legal opposition party in the new government, a move that some considered as largely symbolic. Bazargan was elected to the parliament in 1980, but he was blocked from running for the presidency in the 1984 elections. Often he found his party offices ransacked and was denied facilities for distributing his views. This situation continued beyond Ayatollah Khomeini's death and until his own death in 1995. Nevertheless, many consider Mehdi Bazargan a religiously moderate, progressive, and respected nationalistic leader who advocated the interest of Iran above the interest of Islam.
Further Reading
Boroujerdi, Mehrzad. (1996) Iranian Intellectuals and the West: The Tormented Triumph of Nativism. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Cleveland, William L. (1994) A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Mawsilili, Ahmad. (1999) Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalist Movements in the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
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