Abdol Majid Majidi Explained

Birth Date:11 January 1929
Birth Place:Tehran, Imperial State of Persia
Death Place:San Francisco, USA
Resting Place:Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
Office:Minister of State
Term Start:1973
Term End:1977
Primeminister:Amir Abbas Hoveyda
Office1:Minister of Labor and Social Affairs
Term Start1:1968
Term End1:1973
Monarch1:Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Primeminister1:Amir Abbas Hoveyda
Office2:Minister of Agricultural Products and Consumer Affairs
Term Start2:1967
Term End2:1968
Monarch2:Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Primeminister2:Amir Abbas Hoveyda
Party:Rastakhiz Party
Children:2

Abdol Majid Majidi (Persian: عبدالمجید مجیدی,‎ 1929–2014) was an Iranian politician who held several cabinet and public posts during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He went into exile following the regime change in Iran in 1979 and settled in Paris.

Early life and education

Majidi was born in Tehran on 11 January 1929.[1] His father was a lawyer, and Majidi was the second of his family's seven children.[2]

Majidi was a graduate of the University of Tehran where he received a law degree in 1950.[2] He obtained his PhD in law from the University of Paris[3] and also, attended economy program of the Harvard University's graduate school.[1] [4]

Career

Majidi was a member of the Rastakhiz Party.[4] He held the following posts: deputy prime minister,[4] minister of agricultural products and consumer affairs in the period between 1967 and 1968 and minister of labor and social affairs from 1968 to 1973. He was appointed minister of state and director of the Plan and Budget Organization on 12 January 1973.[5] He replaced Khodadad Mirza Farman Farmaian as director of the Plan and Budget Organization.[6] Majidi remained in both posts until 1977.[7] [8] His successor as director of the Plan and Budget Organization was Mohammad Yeganeh.[6] Majidi served in these posts during the premiership of Amir Abbas Hoveyda.[4]

Majidi was also the secretary general of the Iranian Red Cross and director of Queen Farah Foundation between 1977 and 1979.[3] [9]

Later years, personal life and death

Majidi was arrested by the martial authorities in January 1979.[2] On 11 February 1979 when the Iranian army announced its neutrality towards the Islamic forces, many prisoners, including Majidi, escaped from the jail.[2] On 26 May 1979 he left Iran after hiding in his relatives' houses and settled in Paris, France, where his wife, Monir Vakili, had been living.[2] They married in 1951, and Monir Vakili was an opera singer and TV personality in Pahlavi Iran.[2] Vakili died in a traffic collision in Belgium on 28 February 1983.[2] They had two daughters, Scheherzade and Djamileh.[1]

Majidi died in San Francisco, USA, on 23 February 2014.[10] He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris next to his wife on 28 March 2014.[1] [10]

Work

Majidi published various books, including his memoirs dated 1998.[11]

Notes and References

  1. News: Deaths Majidi. 16 August 2023. The New York Times. 25. 25 March 2014. .
  2. Book: Abbas Milani. 213–214, 219. Abbas Milani. 2008. Syracuse University Press. Eminent Persians: The Men and Women Who Made Modern Iran, 1941-1979. 1–2. 978-0-8156-0907-0. Syracuse, NY.
  3. Book: Mehrzad Boroujerdi. Ramin Jahanbegloo. Mapping the Role of Intellectuals in Iranian Modern and Contemporary History. 2020. Lexington Books. London. 978-1-7936-0007-3. 120. Ramin Jahanbegloo. https://books.google.com/books?id=8KgJEAAAQBAJ. Rethinking the Legacy of Intellectual-Statesmen in Iran.
  4. Web site: Abdol Majid Majidi. Foundation for Iranian Studies. 9 June 2022. Paris. October 1982. https://web.archive.org/web/20220609093729/https://fis-iran.org/sites/fis/files/Abdol-Majid-Majidi-English.pdf. 9 June 2022. dead.
  5. 2. Chronology November 16, 1971-February 15, 1972. The Middle East Journal. Spring 1972. 26. 162–179. 4324910.
  6. 239–240. Ehsanee Ian Sadr. To whisper in the king's ear: Economists in Pahlavi and Islamic Iran. 978-1-303-30703-4. PhD. 2013. . University of Maryland, College Park.
  7. Cyrus Schayegh. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's Autocracy: Governmental Constraints, 1960s–1970s. 897. 2018. 51. 165753208. 10.1080/00210862.2018.1522949. Iranian Studies. 6.
  8. Marouf Cabi. The impact of the modernisation of Iran on Kurdish society: Modernity, modernisation and social change (1920-1979). University of St Andrews. 135. PhD. 10.17630/10023-17817. 2019.
  9. Web site: Oral History Interview. Majidi, Abdol Majidi. 9 June 2022. Foundation for Iranian Studies.
  10. Web site: Dr. Abdol Majid Majidi Obituary. 9 June 2022. Legacy. Citing a news report published in The New York Times on 25 March 2014.
  11. Web site: Majīdī, ʻAbd al-Majīd 1929-2014. WorldCat. 27 October 2022.