Saeed Hajjarian

Saeed Hajjarian
Deputy of City Council of Tehran
In office 29 April 1999 – 13 February 2002
Chairman	Abdullah Nouri Mohammad Atrianfar
Succeeded by	Ebrahim Asgharzadeh
Member of City Council of Tehran
In office 29 April 1999 – 15 January 2003
Advisor to President of Iran
In office 1997–1999
President	Mohammad Khatami
Personal details
Born	1954 (age 69–70) Javadiyeh, Tehran, Iran
Political party	Islamic Iran Participation Front
Spouse(s)	Vajihe Marsosi
Alma mater	University of Tehran
Religion	Shia Islam
Military service
Allegiance	Iran
Service/branch	Gendarmerie (1977–1979) Committee (1979–1980) Navy (1980) Prime Ministry Intelligence Office (1980–1984) Ministry of Intelligence (1984–1989)
Years of service	1977–1989
Unit	Engineering (Gendarmerie) Nazi Abad (Committee) Intelligence (Navy)

Saeed Hajjarian (Persian: سعید حجاریان‎‎, born 1954) is an Iranian reformist political strategist, journalist, pro-democracy activist and former intelligence officer. He was a member of Tehran's city council, and advisor to president Mohammad Khatami. On 12 March 2000, he was shot in the face by an assailant and severely disabled, an act many believe was in retaliation for his help in uncovering the chain murders of Iran and his significant help to the Iranian reform movement in general.

Early life and education

Hajjarian was born in Javadiyeh neighborhood of Tehran, Iran in 1954 to parents from Kashan. He studied mechanical engineering at Tehran University. In 1977 Hajjarian was enrolled for military service in Gendarmerie. A young Iranian revolutionary during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he entered the Islamic Revolution Committees before becoming an Intelligence officer in Navy. Hajjarian contneud his education and obtained a Ph.D. in political science from Tehran University. His thesis advisor was Hossein Bashiriyeh. He was one of the students who took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Career

After the revolution, Hajjarian was involved in the formation of the intelligence apparatus of the newly founded Islamic Republic. Through the 1980s, he worked in the ministry of intelligence, where his positions included vice minister for political affairs. In the late 1980s, he left the ministry, and established Center for Strategic Research under the presidency. That was where he played an important role in creating a new discourse based on democracy and rule of law for his generation of revolutionaries.

When Mohammad Khatami was elected President in 1997, he appointed Hajjarian his political advisor. In 1999, he was elected to the city council of Tehran in the first city elections after the 1979 revolution. Hajjarian was also the editor of Sobh-e Emrooz newspaper, which was a strong advocate of Khatami's reforms. He was believed to be the source of information for many articles written by the investigative journalists, Akbar Ganji and Emadeddin Baghi. These included stories about the "Chain murders" of dissident intellectuals by members of Iran's intelligence ministry.

Assassination attempt

In March, 2000 he was shot in the face by a gunman on the doorstep of Tehran's city council. The would-be assassin fled on a motorcycle with an accomplice. The bullet entered through his left cheek and lodged in his neck, and put Hajjarian into a coma. During this time, groups of young Iranians kept vigil outside Sina hospital, where he was being treated. Hajjarian was badly paralyzed for life.

His assailant, Saeed Asgar, a young man who was reported to be a member of the Basij militia, was later arrested and sentenced to spend 15 years in jail. But he was released after spending only a short term in prison. Asgar was accompanied by Mohsen Morteza Majidi on a motorbike. Others, who were involved, include Mohammad Ali Moghaddami, Mehdi Rowghani, Mousa Jan Nesari, Ali Pourchaluei (possibly the one who shot Hajjarian), Saeed Golounani and Safar Maghsoudi.

Possible cause

His attempted assassination is thought to be associated with the exposure of the "Chain murders" in his Sobh Emrouz daily newspaper, and the "key role" he is believed to have played "in bringing about ... damaging disclosures," both as the editor of the exposing newspaper and one of the few reformists likely to be a source of information about activity in the intelligence ministry. Consequently, "some believe that remnants" of the chain murder "intelligence killer group may have been" behind his attempted assassination.

Recovery

Hajjarian slowly recovered somewhat from the shooting. By 2005, Hajjarian was still unable to speak with a clear voice and still using the wheelchair, although could walk with help. As of 2009 he still spoke with difficulty and was "dependent on the constant care of doctors and family."

Research works and viewpoints

According to author Abbas Milani, Hajjarian argued that domination of politics by clerics was wrong, but could be gradually eroded by "mobilizing the masses and using them as bargaining chips with Iran's rulers." His strategy for the reform movement was described by another journalist as extending the reformists "reach by triangulating between the mass movement they represented and the autocratic state with which they shared power. He coined the phrase that would define the reformists’ strategy: Pressure from below, negotiation at the top.”

Hajjarian argued that there is a way of combating the predominance of Valiyat al-faqih (rule of the Islamic jurist) by underlining the de facto secularization of religion by the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini. He allegedly showed the supremacy of politics as such over any religious norm when he said that the interests of the Islamic Republic are paramount in Islam and that zakat, salat, hajj, and everything else in Islam, are subordinant. This kind of decision, he states, means that politics are more important than religion and that this acknowledges the secularization of religion. In this context, he argues, it is possible to reassess velayat faqih and to reject its supremacy within the political field in Iran.

2009 elections

On 16 June 2009, four days after the disputed presidential election, it was reported that Hajjarian had been arrested. It was reported that he died in Evin prison under torture on 7 July. However, it was later added that he was still alive but had suffered a nervous breakdown on 8 July and was in critical condition in a military hospital in Tehran. Later, there were reports that he was still in Evin Prison, possibly in a clinic there, and that according to his wife, physician Vajiheh Marsoussi, his medical condition was "deteriorating severely" while in prison. Hajjarian was accused of having links with the British intelligence service on 25 August 2009.

See also

• Abbas Amir-Entezam
• Akbar Ganji
• Gholamhossein Karbaschi
• History of political Islam in Iran
• Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran
• Iranian reform movement

External links

• (Persian) A Recent (2005) interview with Hajjarian by Vaghaye Ettefaghieh
• BBC News story on Hajjarian assassination attempt
• Al-Ahram Weekly story: Price of a reformist victory?
• Show Trials against Dissidents in Iran: Destruction of a Hero
• From Etelāʿāti to Eslāhtalabi: Saʿid Hajjarian, Political Theology and the Politics of Reform in Post-Revolutionary Iran, Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Iranian Studies, Volume 47, Issue 6, 2014