Noureddin Kianouri

Noureddin Kianouri (1915 Nour, Teheran - November 1999) was an Iranian architect and political leader. Kianouri was an influential member of the Central Committee for the communist Tudeh Party.^[1] He acted as the party's General Secretary from 1979 to 1984.^[2]

History

Kianouri was born into the well-to-do family of a Persian Sheikh.^[3]

Kianouori was educated in Germany, receiving a Phd in Construction Engineering from Aachen University. He taught at Tehran University. In the early 1940s, he married feminist and communist activist Maryam Firouz. Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and the subsequent banning of the Tudeh Party, Kianouori and Firouz lived in exile in East Germany. In their absence, they were tried by the regime of Mohammad-Rezā Shāh Pahlavi and sentenced to life at hard labor.

The couple returned to Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the deposition of the Shah. The Tudeh party was reinstituted with Kianouri as General Secretary. In 1983, the Tudeh Party was again banned following accusations of espionage for the Soviet Union.^[4] Kianouri was imprisoned and later forced to publicly confess on a televised broadcast.^[5] After his release in 1984, Kianouri wrote an open letter detailing the torture of himself and his wife while in prison.^[2][6]

He died on 5 November 1999.^[7]

References

1. ^ Maziar Behrooz, "Tudeh Factionalism and the 1953 Coup in Iran", International Journal of Middle East Studies (2001), 33:3:363-382 Cambridge University Press
2. ^ ^{a b} Haleh Afshar, "Maryam Firouz", Obituary, The Guardian, 31 March 2008
3. ^ Manucher Farmanfarmaian, Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Blood and oil: a prince's memoir of Iran, from the Shah to the Ayatollah, Random House, 2005, pg 144
4. ^ Cameron Hume, The United Nations, Iran, and Iraq: how peacemaking changed, Indiana University Press (May 1, 1994), pg. 62
5. ^ Ali Gheissari, Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr, Democracy in Iran: history and the quest for liberty, Oxford University Press, (2006), pg. 96
6. ^ Maziar Behrooz, Rebels with a Cause, (2000), p.129
7. ^ "Death of Noureddin Kianouri", The Guardian (Communist Party of Australia), Issue No: 980, November 17, 1999

Persondata
Name	Kianouri, Noureddin
Alternative names
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Date of birth	1915
Place of birth
Date of death	1999
Place of death