Coronavirus Claims Life of Fariborz Raisdana; Economist Who Was Fearless Critic of Islamic Republic

Dr. Fariborz Raisdana, an economist and critic of the Islamic Republic, passed away on the morning of Monday, March 16 at Tehran Pars Hospital.

According to Naser Zarafshan, former lawyer of Mr. Raisdana, he had been hospitalized for the past six days due to coronavirus infection. In one of his last media interviews with Voice of America, he had explicitly stated that elections in the Islamic Republic were meaningless.

Fariborz Raisdana was born in 1948 in Tehran. A former professor of economics at university and member of the Iranian Writers Association, he was a human rights activist and one of the supporters of workers’ rights who had been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned by the security agencies of the Islamic Republic.

He also authored more than 15 books on economic and political issues and was among the fearless critics of the Islamic Republic in his media interviews.

Mr. Raisdana appeared in an interview with Voice of America on the last day of Bahman this year, stating that at least 50 percent of Iran’s urban population lives below the absolute poverty line and Iran is experiencing economic hardship. He also said that given the existence of political prisoners in Iran, the Islamic Republic’s elections are meaningless, and the elected officials are merely representatives of the ruling authority to their constituencies, not true representatives of the people.

Source: Voice of America