Anwar Khamei: A Mujtahid Who Became a Marxist

Dr. Anwar Khamei, an Iranian economist, researcher, journalist, and writer, passed away at the age of 102 due to respiratory failure, embarking on a life eternal. He was a living witness and firsthand observer of contemporary history, experiencing the political ups and downs of Iran from the coronation of Reza Shah to the 29 years of Ali Khamenei's leadership, remaining active throughout his dynamic century-long life amidst Iran's intellectual, political, and social transformations. Anwar Khamei was the last survivor of the 53 leftist prisoners during Reza Shah's reign and can also be considered the oldest political activist, intellectual, and writer in Iran. His good physical and mental health, along with a sense of responsibility, great perseverance, intellectual capabilities, and high knowledge, enabled him to remain active even in old age, continuously writing articles published in Iranian publications. Born into a religious family, he was influenced by his father, Sheikh Yahya Kashani, a prominent jurist and intellectual of the Constitutional Revolution era. Sheikh Yahya was a prolific journalist during the Constitutional Revolution, having edited and managed several publications in Tehran. Although he had received permission to practice ijtihad from Akhund Khurasani, he wisely recognized the need to learn contemporary knowledge. Thus, he traveled to Beirut, where he learned French and studied journalism. The interactions and connections his father had with political and cultural figures, which Anwar Khamei participated in as a teenager, helped him grow in this environment and enter the tumultuous political arena of Iran early on. Early Death of His Father and Political Activities Khamei faced poverty in his youth due to his father's early death, but by excelling in his studies, he was exempted from tuition fees at the Iran and Germany school. He was among the first generation of Iranian students who began studying chemical engineering at the Technical Faculty, which held classes at Dar ul-Funun. During his student years, he became acquainted with Dr. Taghi Arani, his physics teacher, and gradually became involved in his discussion and study sessions outside of university. Arani concluded that, given the harsh security conditions of that time in Iran, publishing a magazine could serve as a focal point for attracting and organizing leftist forces that lacked a base after the closure of the Communist Party. After becoming interested in the contents of the magazine 'Donya', Anwar Khamei joined its editorial team, which was established by a trio of Taghi Arani, Iraj Eskandari, and Bozorg Alavi, and became a Marxist in that environment. He was not the only one from a religious family who became a Marxist; Fazlollah Gorgani and Morteza Yazdi, who were members of the imprisoned 53, also had a clerical father. Additionally, Nour al-Din Kianouri was the grandson of Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri. Bozorg Alavi was the grandson of Haj Seyyed Mohammad Sarraf, a religious representative in the first parliament of the Constitutional Revolution, and the granddaughter of Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Tabatabai, a prominent constitutionalist cleric in the capital. Khalil Maleki was also the son of a religious merchant from Tabriz. Even Taghi Arani was initially a seminarian before his studies at Dar ul-Funun and the University of Berlin led to his ideological transformations. E arrest in the 53 Prisoners Case The lifespan of the magazine 'Donya' did not exceed two years. However, the continuation of activities aimed at forming the Communist Party of Iran, which operated secretly, led to the arrest of that group on charges of promoting dangerous communist ideas. This case, known as the arrest of the 53 prisoners, was the largest political-security case during Reza Shah's era. Anwar Khamei was sentenced to six years in prison and spent his incarceration with notable political prisoners of that time, including Farrokhi Yazdi, Jafar Pishevari, Ardashir Avanesian, Reza Rousta, Youssef Eftekhar, Sardar Rashid Kurdistani, and Amir Jang Bakhtiari. During his imprisonment, he continued to fight and, while increasing his knowledge and awareness, became more determined about the necessity of changing the government and establishing a socialist republic. In fact, Anwar Khamei became much more political in prison and leaned more towards revolutionary transformations. However, from the very beginning, a kind of rationality prevailed in him that prevented him from veering towards the right or left, and there was coherence between his claims and actions. Among the communist prisoners, he spent most of his imprisonment in the weakly oppressed section known as the proletarians. Even during his time in Qasr prison, when clashing with prison guards, he did not hesitate to call Reza Shah a servant of England. Release from Prison and Journalism Khamei was released from prison in the fall of 1941 after a quarter of his sentence was pardoned due to a decree from Mohammad Reza Shah. Due to financial difficulties, he could not return to university and, after searching for work, began working at the newspaper 'Mardom-e Zanti Fashism', which was established by intellectuals to weaken the wave of support for fascism in Iran, with pro-Soviet and British elements present in its editorial board. One of his series of articles titled 'We Tear Off the Masks' received significant attention, exposing a figure from the government of Reza Shah in each article, who had changed their mask and opposed him after his escape. Khamei later played an active role in the transition of this publication to a period when the left dominated the space, leading to it becoming the temporary organ of the Tudeh Party in its final days. Joining the Tudeh Party Anwar Khamei was in prison when the Tudeh Party was formed, and after his release, he initially did not have a positive view of its reformist and parliamentary framework, waiting for a revolutionary left party. However, he was convinced by Avanesian's discussions to cooperate with this party. He was in favor of forming a workers' union as the secret nucleus of the Tudeh Party, which apparently was not implemented due to opposition from the Soviet Communist Party. After the closure of the newspaper 'Mardom-e Zanti Fashism' by Qavam al-Saltaneh, the Tudeh Party published the newspaper 'Rahbar' as its organizational organ, and Khamei was entrusted with the editorial affairs. Due to his critical view of the Tudeh Party and especially the performance of its early leaders Reza Rousta and Iraj Eskandari, he joined the reformist faction of this party, whose coordination meetings for changes were held at the home of Sadegh Hedayat. Hedayat was not a member of the Tudeh Party but considered the success of this party crucial for saving Iran. The reformist faction of the Tudeh Party at that time included Khamei, Avanesian, Ehsan Tabari, Nour al-Din Kianouri, Abdolhossein Nooshin, Ghasemi, Gharishi, and Motaghi. Their goal was to cleanse the leadership of the Tudeh Party from 'corrupt and opportunistic' elements, stabilize the revolutionary approach, genuinely fight against Western imperialism, and establish a socialist government. The efforts of the reformist faction, especially attracting Khalil Maleki and Abdolsamad Kambakhsh and garnering cooperation from young cadres from academia and workers, somewhat succeeded, allowing them to gain a majority in the first congress of the Tudeh Party's board, but they were unable to win in the elections for the central committee, and a minority of the central committee was left in their hands. Khamei later also worked in the secret book association, which translated ideological and theoretical leftist books. The leadership of the Tudeh Party was aware of its activities. He gradually became more radical and called for revolutionary actions from the Tudeh Party, increasing his criticisms. The party's support for the armed uprising of some officers in Khorasan and writing editorials in the 'Rahbar' newspaper by Khamei led to the closure of this newspaper and the issuance of an arrest warrant against him. Khamei, to escape arrest, hid for a while at the party's instruction. First Political Trip to Europe and Attendance at the Paris Peace Conference In 1946, he traveled to Europe and participated in the Paris Peace Conference as one of the representatives of the Iranian press. He later attended the International Students Congress in Prague as a representative of Iranian students, despite not being a student. In Czechoslovakia, he met with high-ranking officials of the Communist Party of that country. He then visited Yugoslavia at the invitation of the delegation and met with Marshal Tito, conducting an interview with him, then went to Prague and returned to Paris after a few weeks. During his trip to Yugoslavia, he developed such a positive opinion about the country that decades later, after its disintegration, he defended Milosevic in an article titled 'I Defend Milosevic', despite acknowledging Milosevic's mistakes, exonerating him from the charge of 'crimes against humanity'. Return to Iran and Stop in the Soviet Union After a few months in Paris, he decided to return to Iran and made a three-week stop in Moscow. During this trip, he met with Jamshid Keshavarz and Abolqasem Lahouti and had discussions. Upon returning to Iran, at Kambakhsh's request, he went to Baku to carry out the Tudeh Party's mission to negotiate with Pishevari, who had taken refuge in that city after the fall of the Azerbaijan Democratic Party. The aim of this meeting was to transfer the leadership of the remnants of the Democratic Party in Iran to a committee in the Tudeh Party outside the official process. As a result of these trips, his critical view of the Soviet Union and the bureaucratic party structure formed there intensified, and he objectively realized the significant gap between the realities of the Soviet Union and his prior mental expectations. Split from the Tudeh Party After the failure of the reformist faction of the Tudeh Party in 1947 and Kianouri's shift towards the conservative faction, he became disillusioned with the Tudeh Party and considered splitting, managing to attract Khalil Maleki's opinion to become the standard-bearer of the split. Anwar Khamei viewed the main issue of the Tudeh Party as its dependency and absolute obedience to the Soviet government. Ultimately, through his initiative, one hundred young and reformist cadres of the Tudeh Party split. From this point, a new chapter in Anwar Khamei's political life began, continuing until the night of the August 19 coup. The splitters aimed to establish the 'Socialist Tudeh Society', but withdrew from it due to threats from the Soviet Union, announcing their withdrawal from political activities in a statement. Khamei's name was also among the signatories of this statement. The Era of Activities in the Secret Organization of the Splitters However, some of them decided to have a secret organization. Anwar Khamei was among this group, which published the weekly 'Sharq-e Miane'. This group, with the cooperation of some of the splitters who were not in the secret organization, also launched the monthly 'Andisheh No', in which Khamei published articles. He claimed that during that period, the leaders of the Tudeh Party decided to physically assassinate him but refrained and opted for character assassination instead. After the assassination of the Shah by Nasser Fakhar-Arai, which led to the Tudeh Party being declared illegal and the arrest of some of its leaders, and the issuance of arrest warrants against the splitters, Khamei hid for a short time. He considered this period to be the most challenging of his political activities, as pressure on the secret organization of the splitters increased, and some young members returned due to the Tudeh Party's propaganda. During this period, the secret organization published two public publications, 'Hajjar' and 'Jahan-e Ma', and Anwar Khamei played an active role in managing these two publications and writing their content. During this time, the aforementioned organization, while supporting alignment with the Soviet Union, expanded its criticisms of the Tudeh Party and simultaneously took a stance against Khalil Maleki's critical views of the Soviet Union. Anwar Khamei at this time rejected Khalil Maleki's 'Third Force' theory and continued to defend the division of the world into two opposing camps of East and West. The Nationalization of Oil Movement and Formation of the Labor and Thought Liberation Society During the formation of the nationalization of oil movement, Khamei became a founding member of the Labor and Thought Liberation Society in 1951, which claimed to represent a third way beyond the National Front and the Tudeh Party, with most of its members being former Tudeh Party members. The society's approach was to oppose the Tudeh Party and critically view the National Front and Mosaddegh's government while supporting the success of the nationalization of oil movement. The main goal of this political group, which could not grow quantitatively due to lack of resources, was to raise awareness among the underprivileged classes and organize to create a large party of workers and laborers. Khamei was active in supporting the continuation of Dr. Mosaddegh's premiership and the nationalization of the oil industry during the July 30 uprising and the days following it, but he believed that only through revolutionary transformation could challenges be overcome. In the tense atmosphere of 1953, the publications of the Labor and Thought Liberation Society were confiscated, and they, aware of the actions of the court and the governments of the United States and Britain in overthrowing Dr. Mosaddegh's government, believed in using people's power to neutralize the situation. On the night of August 19, they published the 'Sobhe Enqelab' newspaper with sharp content against the Pahlavi kings, managed by Mohammad Hossein Ardashiri, who was not a member of the society but had given them this opportunity due to his friendship with Khamei, and had informed them through close acquaintances with the court that this time it seemed that the pressure was strong and the Mosaddegh government would fall, but Khamei believed that, like August 25, Mosaddegh would succeed. Withdrawal from Political Activism and Rejection of Russian Marxism After August 19, Anwar Khamei, continuing his intellectual evolution, reached Khalil Maleki's critical views against the Soviet Union and deemed the rejection of Russian Marxism and the Soviet political system essential for the health of socialist and communist movements worldwide. He presented his views at a meeting of the society held in a highly police-controlled environment at one of the members' homes, facing overwhelming opposition from the majority. Khamei resigned, thus ending his political activism. In the fall of 1953, due to the sharp articles in the 'Sobhe Enqelab' newspaper, he was temporarily arrested but was released from prison after a few weeks, and the case was closed. Advanced Studies in Germany and Switzerland Khamei had long been employed by the Ministry of Culture and worked as a teacher. In 1961, he went to Europe to continue his studies, initially at Heidelberg University.