Ashraf Dehghani

Who is Ashraf Dehghani?

Ashraf Dehghani is amongst the best known Iranian female communist revolutionaries, and is a member of the Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas.

In 1971, Ashraf Dehghani was arrested, imprisoned, and tortured for her political beliefs under the dictatorial rule of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Her memoirs, entitled Torture and Resistance in Iran, document the events prior to and during her imprisonment. The memoirs provide not only a detailed personal account of Ashraf Dehghani's inner struggles while in prison, but also a description of the broader political struggles and objective conditions required for any revolutionary party to survive outside and inside of prison.

In 1973, she, together with Nahid Jalali, a member of MKO, organized a successful escape from prison. Ashraf Dehghani wrote her memoirs after escaping the Shah's prison in Iran, near the end of 1971. During her years of underground activity, at some point she worked directly with the OIPFG leader Hamid Ashraf. Later she fled abroad where she directed the international relations of the organization.