Ebrahim Asgharzadeh | |
|---|---|
ابراهیم اصغرزاده | |
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| Vice Chairman of City Council of Tehran | |
| In office 13 February 2002 – 15 January 2003 | |
| Chairman | Mohammad Atrianfar |
| Preceded by | Saeed Hajjarian |
| Succeeded by | Hassan Bayadi |
| Member of City Council of Tehran | |
| In office 29 April 1999 – 15 January 2003 | |
| Majority | 347,173 (24.73%) |
| Member of the Parliament | |
| In office 28 May 1988 – 28 May 1992 | |
| Constituency | Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr |
| Personal details | |
| Party | Islamic Iran Solidarity Party |
| Other political affiliations | Islamic Association of Engineers of Iran |
| Alma mater | Tehran Polytechnic |
Ebrahim Asgharzadeh (Persian:ابراهیم اصغرزاده) is an Iranian political activist and politician. He served as a member of the 3rdMajlis (Iran's legislature) from 1988–1992 and as a member of the firstCity Council of Tehran from 1999–2003. His career in politics started as one of the leaders of the groupMuslim student followers of the Imam's line thattook over the American embassy and held American embassy staff hostage for 444 days.
Asgharzadeh was a 24-year-old Industrial engineering student at aSharif University of Technology inTehran at the time of the Islamic revolution.[1] He was the leader of the newly formedOffice for Strengthening Unity, a group founded byAyatollah Mohammad Beheshti to counter the influence among university students of the anti-theocraticMojahedin-e Khalq.[2]
Asgharzadeh became well known as a leader of the embassy takeover. From 1982 to 1988, Asgharzadeh worked closely with future presidentMuhammad Khatami, who was then head of the officialKayhan newspaper and later became the minister of culture and Islamic guidance. Asgharzadeh also served as a military commander in the war with Iraq for six months.[3]
After 1988 Asgharzadeh began calling for more openness and "voicing his opposition to the clerics' policies."[3] In 1988 Asgharzadeh was elected toParliament representing a district in Tehran.[4] By 1992 his "outspokenness" provoked the conservative Guardian Council into disqualifying him for running for most elected posts and sentencing him to a month in solitary confinement. After being released from prison he abandoned his career as an engineer and returned to school, studying political science at Tehran University, where, as of 2002, he was working on a doctorate.[3] In 1996 he helped set up theIranian reform movement that led to the election of Khatami a year later, and ran for municipal council (the only post where elections are not screened by the Guardian Council).[3]
In 1998 Asgharzadeh was preaching the importance of city and village council elections that would build democracy in Iran from the ground up. He was beaten up in the city ofHamadan bymen with iron bars, his glasses broken and suit torn, when he tried to give a lecture there.[5]
In early 2001 he was a city council member in Tehran, speaking out against the news blackout of his candidacy imposed by reformist papers, and the polarization of presidential elections. He attempted to run as areformist presidential candidate in the 2001 election against then-incumbent PresidentMohammad Khatami, though aware of the "high possibility" he would be disqualified by the electoral supervisory body of theGuardian Council.[6]
He was later arrested for publishing the reformistSalam newspaper which was critical of the government.[4]
In his politics and journalism Asgharzadeh has strongly urged theSupreme Leader and other powerful clerics to adopt democratic reforms, such asfreedom of the press and the elimination of veto powers they wield over political candidates and legislation.[citation needed] He is said to represent an Islamist faction "more rooted in the left-wing and egalitarian ethos of the revolution" than theocracy.
In foreign policy, Asgharzadeh has been described as an advocate of "improved relations with the United States", who questioned President Khatami's handling of "an opportunity to mend relations with the United States" when he (Khatami) failed to follow up on a March 2000 acknowledgement by American Secretary of StateMadeleine K. Albright of "American errors in its dealings with Iran, including Washington's support for acoup in 1953."[3] On the other hand, according to Mahan Abedin, he is "probably the most determined and effective anti-American ideologue in the contemporary world", and an even "more determined opponent of American hegemony" than he was as a hostage-taker of Americans in 1979.[7]
In 2019, Asgharzadeh was interviewed by theAssociated Press. He said that he regretted the embassy takeover and that Iranian student leaders bore sole responsibility: "Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders".[8]
On 8 February 2026, Asgharzadeh, along withAzar Mansouri andMohsen Aminzadeh were arrested by Iranian authorities on charges of "targeting national unity, taking a stance against theconstitution, coordination with enemy propaganda, promoting surrender, diverting political groups and creating secret subversive mechanisms", in light of the2025–2026 Iranian protests.[9] He was released on 13 February.[10]
In 2022, Asgharzadeh was interviewed in the HBO documentaryHostages. He claimed that he was the mastermind of the hostage taking; however, he said that he was only planning to keep the hostages for 48 hours as opposed to 444 days.
| Civic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Vice Chairman of City Council of Tehran 2002–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary-General ofIslamic Iran Solidarity Party 2002–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary-General ofIslamic Association of Engineers of Iran 2018– | Incumbent |