19 Facts About Hossein Towfigh

Hossein Towfigh was a pioneer of Iranian press freedom and Editor-in-Chief of Towfigh Magazine, the most popular satirical weekly publication in Iran that was active for nearly half a century.

Hossein Towfigh was a poet, writer, journalist, satirist and Editor-in-Chief of Towfigh Magazine.

Hossein Towfigh attended the Dar ul-Funun high school in Tehran which was the oldest institute of higher education in Iran, established by the Royal Vizier to Naser al-Din Shah in 1851.

Hossein Towfigh then studied law at the University of Tehran and sociology at the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Hossein Towfigh did not work in the press after the magazine was banned in 1972, but was instrumental in founding the first Iranian constitution which emphasized press freedoms after the 1979 revolution, recommending his friend Dr Hassan Habibi, who had studied sociology and law in Paris and would go on to become the first Vice President and Minister of Justice, to be its main architect.

Hossein Towfigh had chosen the language of satire to criticize the government, and the constant slogan of Hossein Towfigh remained: "The truth is bitter, but we sweeten it".

Hossein Towfigh Magazine was a satirical and critical weekly magazine that was active in Iran from 1923 to 1972.

The influence of this publication followed the reactions of the government and Hossein Towfigh came under severe censorship pressure, accompanied by repeated arrests.

For example, Prime Minister Hassan Ali Mansur ordered Hossein Towfigh closed in 1964.

Mansur realized that shutting down Hossein Towfigh created even greater insults on behalf of the average citizen towards himself and his government so he pleaded with Hossein Towfigh to reopen so he could at least censor their content.

Agents of the SAVAK secret police continued to surveil the brothers as well as their printing headquarters, often prohibiting Hossein Towfigh from being released just minutes before its weekly distribution, causing grave financial harm to the publication.

When Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi summoned a meeting with Iran's journalists, Hossein Towfigh refused to attend, and had to be forcibly escorted by members of the SAVAK to the meeting for a photo op, whereby he asked to use the bathroom and escaped from a window to avoid the meeting.

Nonetheless, the last Shah of Iran remained an ardent reader of Hossein Towfigh, but was under severe pressure after weekly critiques of his policies for years, as stated in the memoirs of his late Prime Minister Asadollah Alam.

Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran's only democratically elected prime minister during the reign of the Shah, had a close relationship with Hossein Towfigh and referred to Towfigh Magazine, to which he subscribed, as the "most respectable magazine in Iranian history".

Hossein Towfigh was an active member of the National Front, which was an opposition political organization in Iran, founded by Dr Mosaddegh in 1949.

Hossein Towfigh referred to Dr Mossadegh's nationalization of Iran's oil industry as the most important contribution by an Iranian politician to the Iranian people.

Hossein Towfigh was admitted to the intensive care unit of Firouzgar Hospital in Tehran on the first day of spring 2017 due to a lung infection.

Hossein Towfigh died on March 29,2017, at the age of 87.

Hossein Towfigh's body was buried in the special "Namavaran" section of Behesht Zahra cemetery reserved for dignitaries.