| Birth Name: | Habib Sabet |
| Birth Date: | 1903 |
| Birth Place: | Tehran, Iran |
| Death Place: | Los Angeles, United States |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Known For: | Founder of the first television station in Iran |
Habib Sabet (Persian: حبیب ثابت; 1903 – 1990) was a businessman and follower of the Baháʼí Faith.[1] [2] He is considered one of Iran's major industrialists.
Sabet was born in Tehran in 1903.[1] Both his maternal and paternal grandparents were Iranian Jews who had converted to the Bahá’i Faith.[3] He began to involve in business selling tobacco and renting bicycles.[4] In 1925 he went to Beirut where he started his transport services between Tehran and Baghdad.[5] In the 1950s his business activities expanded and mostly included car dealerships, manufacturing, and agricultural machinery.[4]
One of his companies was Firooz Trading Company. He was granted the franchises of many American and European brands, including General Electric, Kelvinator, Westinghouse and Volkswagen.[6] In 1955 he managed to acquire the rights to bottle Pepsi Cola in Iran.[4] However, the same year due to the anti-Baháʼí movements and the fatwa of Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi against Pepsi Sabet became the target of the attacks.[4]
Sabet was also the founder of Iran's first television station.[7] [8] His television station was called "Iran Television" which was launched in Tehran on 23 October 1958.[9]
Sabet left Iran before the regime change in 1979, and he spent his remaining years in Paris, France. He died at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of congestive heart failure in 1990 at the age of 86.[10] He had the Sabet Pasal built in Tehran, a palace modeled after the Petit Trianon in Versailles.[11] His companies and other assets were confiscated by the Islamic government of Iran shortly after its establishment.