Anjoman-e Eslami (Islamic Association, also Anjoman-e Eslami-ye Daneshjouyan Islamic Association of Students) is an Islamic student association in Iran that has backed Iranian reformers such as former President

Mohammad Khatami Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...

and sponsored lectures by

Abdol Karim Soroush Abdolkarim Soroush ( ; born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh (born 1945; fa, حسين حاج فرج دباغ), is an Iranian Islamic thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar, public intellectual, and a former professor of phil ...

and other prominent reformists. The association was founded in 1941 in the medical college of

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

by Ataolah Shahabpur. It is said to have "formed part of the radical Islamic statists that constituted

Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

's inner circle" after the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

in 1979. Following the death of

they were elbowed aside by Islamic conservatives for positions of power. Anjoman-e-Eslami is said to have shifted its position in favor of democracy around 1994. Today the group is Islamic in religion and leftist in its economic views, but "avowedly democratic in its political outlook."Molavi, Afshin ''The Soul of Iran,'' Norton, (2005), p.97-99

Sources

''The Soul of Iran''
Molavi, Afshin, Norton, (2005)

References

Student organizations established in 1941 Student political organisations of Iran Freedom Movement of Iran {{iran-stub