Nationality Iranian | Died 1998, Iran | |
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Occupation Writer, translator and activist Similar Mohammad Mokhtari, Dariush Forouhar, Saeed Emami, Ali‑Akbar Sa'idi Sirjani | ||
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 that had been long banned in Iran due to their objection to censorship and encouraged freedom of expression. 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. 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.