National Democratic Front (Iran)
Encyclopedia
The National Democratic Front of Iran was a liberal-left political party founded during the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

 of 1979 that overthrew shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...

, and banned within a short time by the Islamic government. It was founded by Hedayatollah Matin-Daftari, a grandson of celebrated Iranian nationalist Mohammad Mosaddeq and a "lawyer who had been active in human rights causes" before the downfall of the shah. Though it was short-lived, the party has been described as one of "the three major movements of the political center" in Iran at that time, and its ouster was one of the first indications that the Islamist revolutionaries in control of the Iranian Revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

 would not tolerate liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 political forces.

Overview

Matin-Daftari's party was launched in early March 1979 at a meeting attended by around one million people. This was "at a time when all shades of secular opinion outside the guerrilla movements were beginning to sense the direction of Khomeini's political strategy" and opposed the domination of the revolution by Islamist theocratics such as ran the Islamic Republic Party. It was a "broad coalition" aimed at groups and individuals who disapproved both of the National Front's closeness to Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...

's Provisional Revolutionary Government, and of leftist groups - such as the Tudeh Party - who refused to criticize Khomeini out of anti-imperialist solidarity. It hoped to "draw on the Mosaddeq heritage to reestablish a coalition of the middle classes and the intelligentsia". Matin-Daftari had been a member of the National Front
National Front (Iran)
The National Front of Iran or Jebhe Melli is a Democratic, political opposition group founded by Mohammad Mossadegh and other secular Iranian leaders of Nationalist, Liberal, and Social-Democratic political orientation who had been educated in France in the late 1940s...

 - the other major Iranian liberal, secular party of the time - and his new party was somewhat more leftist than the NF.

The NDF "emphasized political freedoms, guarantees for individual rights, access for all political groups to the broadcast media, the curbing of the Revolutionary Guards, revolutionary courts
Islamic Revolutionary Court
Islamic Revolutionary Court is a special court in the Islamic Republic of Iran designed to try those suspected of smuggling, blaspheming, inticing violence or trying to overthrow the Iranian government...

, and revolutionary committees. Its economic programs favored "the mass of the people", and it supported a "decentralized system of administration based on popularly elected local councils."

Along with the Fadayan and some Kurdish groups the NDP boycotted the March 30, 31, 1979 referendum on making Iran an Islamic Republic (the Referendum of 12 Farvardin). In the debate over Iran's new revolutionary constitution it supported a parliamentary democracy with equal rights for women, adoption of the universal declaration of human rights and limited presidential powers. "Expressing concern over the freedom of elections and government control over the broadcast media," along with the National Front they announced they would boycott the election for the 1st Assembly of Experts
1st Assembly of Experts
The First Assembly of Experts in Iran was elected in the summer of 1979 to write a new constitution for the Islamic Republic...

, which wrote the new constitution.

It drew large crowds at its demonstrations but these were "ferociously attacked by gangs of Hezbollahi
Hezbollah of Iran
The Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power...

 thugs." On 12 August 1979 it scheduled a mass demonstration to protest the closure of newspapers such as Ayandegan
Ayandegan
Ayandegan was one of the most influential and popular daily newspapers in Iran during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's rule. It was founded by Daryoush Homayoun. After the 1979 revolution, on August 8, 1979, the revolutionary prosecutor banned the newspaper....

. The demonstration was attacked and hundreds are injured by rocks, clubs, chains and iron bars wielded by Hezbollah "toughs". Before the end of the month the newspapers the party had tried to protect were banned, Ayandegan was seized and converted into a pro-Islamist newspaper, Sobh-e Azadegan. A warrant was issued for the arrest of Hedayat Matin-Daftari, "ostensibly for disrupting public order." After this the party went underground. In 1981 it joined the National Council of Resistance of Iran
National Council of Resistance of Iran
The National Council of Resistance of Iran , founded in 1981 in France, is the parliament in exile of the "Iranian Resistance", and is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition political organizations, the largest organization being the People's Mujahedin of Iran.The President-elect...

, a group founded by Bani Sadr and the People's Mujahedin of Iran
People's Mujahedin of Iran
The People's Mujahedin of Iran is a terrorist militant organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran....

 (MEK) to fight the Islamist regime in Iran, but withdrew sometime later in protest against the MEK's "violent pro-Iraq activities in the Iran-Iraq War
Iran-Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran, lasting from September 1980 to August 1988, making it the longest conventional war of the twentieth century...

".

See also

  • Iranian Revolution
    Iranian Revolution
    The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

  • National Front (Iran)
    National Front (Iran)
    The National Front of Iran or Jebhe Melli is a Democratic, political opposition group founded by Mohammad Mossadegh and other secular Iranian leaders of Nationalist, Liberal, and Social-Democratic political orientation who had been educated in France in the late 1940s...

  • Organizations of the Iranian Revolution
    Organizations of the Iranian Revolution
    Many organizations, parties and guerilla movements were involved in the 1978-9 revolution in Iran. Some were part of Ayatollah Khomeini's network and supported the theocracy of Islamic Republic, others did not support theocracy and were suppressed. Some were created after the fall of the Pahlavi...

  • Muslim People's Republican Party
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