Majid Sharif-Vaghefi

Not to be confused with Majid Sharif.

Majid Sharif-Vaghefi (Persian: مجید شریف واقفی, 1949–1975) was an Iranian dissident political figure and leading member of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) who was assassinated in an internal purge staged by the MEK Marxist faction.^[1] One of the three members of the MEK's central committee from 1972 to 1975,^[3] he was considered the leader of the group's Islamist faction that refused to accept Marxism.^[2]

Majid Sharif-Vaghefi
A photo of Sharif-Vaghefi in the Ettela'at Newspaper, 1976
Born	1949[1]
Died	May 1975(1975-05-00) (aged 25–26)
Cause of death	Murder
Body discovered	31 July 1975 Mesgarabad, Iran
Alma mater	Aryamehr University of Technology
Organization	People's Mujahedin of Iran
Spouse	Leila Zomorrodian[2]

Early life and background

He came from a "highly devout middle-class family" and was raised in Isfahan and Tehran. He studied electrical engineering at Aryamehr University of Technology, and became a member of the MEK while he was studying on a scholarship in Abadan's technical college.^[4]

Murder

Remnants of Sharif-Vaghefi's corpse

By the spring of 1975, when the majority of the MEK turned to Marxism, he was given an ultimatum by the other two members of the central committee who became Marxists, Taghi Shahram and Bahram Aram, to accept the new ideology.^[2] In order to "raise his political consciousness", he was given the chance to choose between a move to the MEK cell in Mashhad, leaving the country or to work in factories for a while.^[2]

Sharif-Vaghefi pretended that he wanted to go to Mashhad, but instead moved some of the MEK arms and equipment to a new hiding place and tried to organize the part of the MEK that resisted the ideology change. His wife, part of the Marxist faction, provided Shahram and Aram with information on his activities.^[2] Mainly on Shahram's initiative, Sharif-Vaghefi was killed and his body was immolated and dumped outside the city. SAVAK managed to find the remnants of the body.^[1]

Legacy

Following the Iranian Revolution, the place he studied was renamed to "Sharif University of Technology" in his honour.^[5] He is still celebrated as a martyr by the Iranian government.^[6]

References

1. Maziar, Behrooz (2000). Rebels With A Cause: The Failure of the Left in Iran. I.B.Tauris. p. 71. ISBN 1860646301.
2. Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 162, ISBN 9781850430773
3. Vahabzadeh, Peyman (2010). Guerrilla Odyssey: Modernization, Secularism, Democracy, and the Fadai Period of National Liberation In Iran, 1971–1979. Syracuse University Press. p. 168. The loss of several leaders in a matter of two years allowed the promotion of (covert) Marxist members to the CC. After August 1971, the CC of OIPM included Reza Rezai, Kazem Zolanvar, and Bahram Aram. Zolanvar's arrest in 1972 brought Majid Sharif Vaqefi to the CC, and Rezai's death in 1973 brought in Taqi Shahram
4. Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, pp. 136–137, ISBN 9781850430773
5. Ervand Abrahamian (1989), Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin, Society and culture in the modern Middle East, vol. 3, I.B.Tauris, p. 188, ISBN 9781850430773
6. Mohsen Kazemi, ed. (30 October 2013). "Ahmad Ahmad Memoirs (54)". Oral History Weekly (137). Translated by Mohammad Karimi. Soureh Mehr Publishing Company (Original Text in Persian, 2000)

Party political offices
Preceded by Kazem Zolanvar	Member of the Central Committee of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran 1972–1975 Served alongside: Reza Rezaei (1972–73), Taghi Shahram (1973–75) and Bahram Aram (1972–75)	Vacant