Full Description
A coalition of Iranian nationalist political organisations formed in 1949 to support Mohammad Mossadegh’s campaign to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. After the 1953 coup, the National Front continued as the primary vehicle for secular nationalist opposition to the Shah. It participated in the early stages of the 1979 Revolution but was marginalised by the Islamic Republic, which viewed secular nationalism as incompatible with velayat-e faqih. Its most prominent figure, Mehdi Bazargan, briefly served as the Revolution’s first prime minister.
Critical Perspective
The failure of the National Front to prevent clerical dominance after 1979 exposed the weakness of secular nationalism as a political force in Iran. Unlike the clerical network, which had institutions (mosques, seminaries, religious endowments) and a mass following with deep cultural roots, the National Front was primarily an elite political organisation. Its members mistakenly believed they could use Khomeini’s mass support to achieve a democratic outcome — a calculation that proved catastrophically wrong.
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