Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh

Mohammad-Ja'far Pouyandeh محمد جعفر پوینده

Born	7 June 1954 Ashkezar, Yazd Province, Iran
Died	8 or 9 December 1998(1998-12-09) (aged 44) Shahriar County, Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Occupation(s)	Writer, translator and activist
Spouse	Sima Sahebi
Children	1

Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh (also spelled Mohammad-Jafar Pooyandeh or Mohammad Jafar Poyandeh, Persian: محمد جعفر پوینده) (7 June 1954 – 8 or 9 December 1998) was an Iranian writer, translator and activist. He was a member of the Iranian Writers Association, a group who had been long banned in Iran due to their objection to censorship and encouraged freedom of expression.^[1] He was most likely murdered during the Chain murders of Iran in 1998.

Biography

Pouyandeh worked at the Cultural Research Institute and was working on translating a book called Questions & Answer about Human Rights at the time of his death.^[2] Pouyandeh was not a well known writer, translator, or activist in Iran and he is essentially known for his unusual circumstance of death.

Pouyandeh was last seen alive leaving his office at four o'clock in the afternoon of December 8, 1998 and still hadn't returned home three days later when his wife wrote and delivered a letter to Iran's President expressing her anguish over his disappearance. His body was discovered December 11. in the Shahriar district of Karaj, south of Tehran, and he appeared to have been strangled.^[3]

References

^ Dickey, Christopher (February 22, 1999). "Iran Giving Voice to Freedom". The Iranian. Newsweek International. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
^ Sahebi, Sima (December 12, 2002). "You will answer, one day". The Iranian. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
^ "Iranian killers spared death penalty". BBC News. January 29, 2003. Retrieved December 28, 2014.

External links

NY Times article, As Slain Secular Writer Is Buried, Iran Blames a Foreign 'Network' from December 16th, 1998
The Iranian article,You Will Answer, One Day from December 12, 2002