Mousa Nasiroghli (Khiabani) (Persian: موسی نصیر اوغلی (خیابانی); 1947 – 8 February 1982) was an Iranian dissident political leader and senior member of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (MEK) and the commander of its armed wing from 1979 to 1982, when he was killed in action.[1]
Mousa Khiabani | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1947 |
| Died | 8 February 1982 (aged 34–35) |
| Alma mater | University of Tehran |
| Political party | People's Mojahedin of Iran |
| Spouse |
Azar Rezaei (m. 1980–1982) |
Khiabani has been described as "Massoud Rajavi's right-hand man"[2] and "second-in-command".[3]
According to Ervand Abrahamian, along with Rajavi, Khiabani acted as the organization's post-1979 spokesman and was viewed as equal to Rajavi by the outsiders, despite the fact that MEK insiders knew Rajavi to be pre-eminent.[2]
Life and career
editKhiabani was born into a merchant family in Tabriz in 1947,[4] he frequently participated in the Moharram rituals.[2] He studied physics at the University of Tehran.[4] Trained in guerilla warfare in Lebanon,[2] he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1972 for his activities with MEK, however he was released in 1979 following the Iranian Revolution.[4]
He ran for a seat in the 1979 constitutional and 1980 parliamentary elections from his hometown, however he was defeated.[5]
On 8 February 1982, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) raided Khiabani's safe house in northern Tehran and after a three-hour shootout, Khiabani, his wife Azar Rezaei, and fellow MEK member Ashraf Rabiei were killed, among others.[6]
References
edit- ^ Tom Lansford (2015). "Iran". Political Handbook of the World 2015. CQ Press. ISBN 978-1483371559.
- ^ a b c d Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 172, ISBN 9781850430773
- ^ Paydar, Parvin (1995). Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran. Cambridge University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-521-59572-8.
- ^ a b c Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, pp. 132, 174, ISBN 9781850430773
- ^ Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 193, ISBN 9781850430773
- ^ Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 222, ISBN 9781850430773
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