National Democratic Front (Iran)

National Democratic Front
جبهه دموکراتیک ملی
LeaderHedayatollah Matin-Daftari
FoundedMarch 1979
Dissolved1981
Split fromNational Front
Merged intoNCRI
HeadquartersTehran
IdeologyProgressive liberalism[1]
Political positionCentre-left[2]

The National Democratic Front (Persian: جبهه دموکراتیک ملی, romanizedJebhe-ye demokrātīk-e mellī) was a liberal political party founded during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and was banned shortly after by the Islamic government. It was founded by Hedayatollah Matin-Daftari [Wikidata], a grandson of celebrated Iranian nationalist Mohammad Mosaddegh and a "lawyer who had been active in human rights causes" before the downfall of the shah and the son of the fourth prime minister and the jurist Ahmad Matin-Daftari. Though it was short-lived, the party has been described as one of "the three major movements of the political center" in Iran during this period,[3] and its ouster was one of the first indications that the Islamist revolutionaries in control of the Iranian Revolution would not tolerate liberal political forces.

  1. ^ L. P. Elwell-Sutton; P. Mohajer (August 18, 2011) [December 15, 1987]. "ĀYANDAGĀN". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Fasc. 2. Vol. III. New York City: Bibliotheca Persica Press. pp. 132–133. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  2. ^ Robert A. Kilmarx, Yonah Alexander (2013). Business and the Middle East: Threats and Prospects. Elsevier. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-4831-8975-8.
  3. ^ (The National Front of Iran and the Iran Freedom Movement being the other two.)
    Bakhash, Shaul, The Reign of the Ayatollahs New York, Basic Books, 1984, p.68