Hassan Shariatmadari

Who is Hassan Shariatmadari?

Hassan Shariatmadari is an Iranian opposition politician and a leading proponent of the Free Elections Movement in Iran. He is the son of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Kazem Shariatmadari. During the Pahlavi regime, he supported his father’s position that the Shah’s authority should be limited to what had been specified in the Constitutional revolution of 1906, and that a democratic parliament should be in charge of running the country instead of the monarchy taking an active role in ruling Iran. Between 1973-1980 he served as the Chief Editor of Payame Shadi and Nalse Now monthly magazines for children and youth.

At the time of the Iranian revolution of 1979, Shariatmadari co-founded the Iranian People’s Republican Party. A firm believer in the separation of religion and politics, his movement resisted the establishment of the Velayat-e faqih system in Iran and was violently crushed by the Iranian revolutionary guard and the Basij in 1980 after which he went into exile. At its height, IPRP was able to mobilize more than a million people in the Azarbayjan province of Iran to protest against Khomeini’s rule.