Ali Shayegan
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Dr. Ali Shayegan (March 1, 1903 in Iran - May 15, 1981 in Westwood, New Jersey), was an opponent of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and lived in political exile in New York and New Jersey from 1958. Dr. Shayegan was a Member of Parliament, the Minister of Education and a close aide to Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, who was overthrown by army officers loyal to the Shah in 1953, orchestrated by the CIA. Although many other members of the cabinet were killed when Mohammed Mossadegh was overthrown by the CIA, Dr. Shayegan managed to escape to America. He organized the Iranian National Front in Exile in New York in the late 1950's and helped in the formation of the Confederation of Iranian Students, which later split into several groups.
While in exile, he taught at the New School of Social Research in New York City. After the fall of the Shah in 1979, Dr. Shayegan returned to Iran and was nominated to become President of Iran. However, he soon realized that the Iranian Revolution was not turning out the way he had hoped and returned to the United States, where he died shortly thereafter. He died at the Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, N.J., after suffering a stroke.
His son, Dr. Ahmad Shayegan, a physicist, is now a prominent Iranian dissident. He was a roommate of Sam Sloan when both were students at the University of California at Berkeley. His daughter, Leyli Shayegan, is an opponent of the proposed Ameican intervention in Iran and is marketing director of Teachers College Press in New York.
