Afshin Matin-Asgari

Distinguished historian Afshin Matin-Asgari specializes in 20th-century Middle East, modern Iran, and modern Islamic political and intellectual movements.

Abstract

In Search of
Modern
Iran’s Liberal
Statesmen

Within
the
broad conference topic of “Iranian Intellectuals between Statesmanship and Dissent,”
he
propose
s
to probe the question of why modern Iran’s liberal tradition has been so weak that practically, i.e. in terms of significant presence in the political arena, it is almost non-existent. More specifically,
he
develop
s

his
argument in response to a recent scholarly trend that finds real or closet liberals in high-ranking Pahlavi era statesmen, going back to
Taqizadeh
and
Forughi
and continuing with
Shadman
and
Hoveyda
.
His
argument is twofold: First,
he
suggest
s
that this revisionist trend erroneously conflates liberal ideals with liberal political practice. Second,
he
tr
ies
to show that even in terms of their intellectual makeup, men like
Taqizadeh
,
Forughi
,
Shadman
and
Hoveyda
hardly fit the liberal mold.
He
would also note that, with serious qualifications, Mosaddeq’s political career makes him the closest thing to Iran’s archetypical liberal statesman. Ironically, recent revisionist interest in Iranian liberalism tends to bypass Mosaddeq, finding instead its liberal icons in men like
Forughi
,
Taqizadeh
and
Shadman
.