This article lists political parties in Iran.

The course of faction and party relations

Constitutionalists
SDP MSP
DP RP
MP CPP SP
NP TP NF
PRN LM
NC IRP
Reformists Principlists

Current composition

Major factions

Faction Ideology Year
founded		 Political position 2024 presidential
election		 Legislators
Popular Parliament Assembly of Experts Expediency Discernment Council
Reformists Islamic democracy[1]
Republicanism[2]		 1997 Centre[5] to centre-left[8][a] 16,384,403 (54.8%)
43 / 290
1 / 88
7 / 48
Principlists Islamic fundamentalism
Conservatism (Iranian)[11]		 Right-wing[15] to far-right[21] 13,538,179 (45.2%)
198 / 290
59 / 88
38 / 48

Parties active inside Iran

Parliament members

Party Logo Founded Leader Faction Political position Parliament
CCIRF 2019 Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel Principlists Right-wing
Factions:
Far-right
106 / 290
FIRS 2011 Sadegh Mahsouli Principlists Far-right
79 / 290
VNC 2012 Ali Motahari Reformists Centre
43 / 290
CCA 1977 Mostafa Pourmohammadi Principlists Right-wing
13 / 290
Independent politicians
44 / 290
Vacant
5 / 290

Principlists

Main article: Iranian Principlists

Main active parties

Party Logo Founded Secretary-General Political position
Combatant Clergy Association 1977 Mostafa Pourmohammadi Right-wing
Front of Islamic Revolution Stability 2011 Sadegh Mahsouli Far-right
Islamic Coalition Party 1963 Asadollah Badamchian Right-wing
Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution 1997 Mohammad Javad Ameri Right-wing
Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom 1961 Hashem Hosseini Bushehri Right-wing
YEKTA Front 2015 Hamid-Reza Haji Babaee Far-right

Other parties

Party Secretary-General
Islamic Society of Engineers Mohammad-Reza Bahonar
Society of Pathseekers of the Islamic Revolution Malek Shariati [fa]
Islamic Association of Physicians Hossein Ali Shahriari
Islamic Society of Employees Kamal Sajjadi
Islamic Society of Athletes Hassan Ghafourifard
Zeynab Society Azam Haji-Abbasi
Association of Islamic Revolution Loyalists Hassan Ghafourifard
Fadayeen of Islam Society Mohammad-Mehdi Abdekhodaei
Development and Justice Party Mehdi Vakilpour
Green Party Hossein Kanani Moghaddam
Progress and Justice Population of Islamic Iran Mohammad Saeed Ahadian
Modern Thinkers Party of Islamic Iran Amir Mohebbian
Islamic Iran Freedom Party[22] Issa Kakoui

Reformists

Main article: Iranian Reformists

Main active parties

Party Secretary-General
Association of Combatant Clerics Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha
Islamic Labour Party Hossein Kamali
Executives of Construction Party Gholamhossein Karbaschi
National Trust Party Elias Hazrati
Union of Islamic Iran People Party Ali Shakouri-Rad
NEDA Party Sadegh Kharazi
Islamic Iran Freedom and Justice Organization Amir Taheri
Moderation and Development Party Mohammad Bagher Nobakht

Other parties

Party Secretary-General
Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi
Islamic Association of Teachers Abdolrazzagh Mousavi
Islamic Association of Engineers Ali-Mohammad Gharbiani
Islamic Association of Iranian Medical Society Mohammadreza Zafarghandi
Islamic Association of University Instructors Mahmoud Sadeghi
Association of Followers of the Imam's Line Hadi Khamenei
Islamic Iran Solidarity Party Ali-Asghar Ahmadi
Democracy Party Mostafa Kavakebian
Will of the Iranian Nation Party Ahmad Hakimipour
Association of the Women of the Islamic Republic Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini
Islamic Assembly of Ladies Fatemeh Karroubi
Worker House Alireza Mahjoub
Popular Party of Reforms Mohammad Zare Foumani

Banned parties

Party Secretary-General
Islamic Iran Participation Front Mohsen Mirdamadi
Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution of Iran Organization Mohammad Salamati
The Green Path of Hope None

Outlawed parties tolerated inside Iran

Party Ideology Religion Secretary-General
National Front Nationalism Secular Seyed Hossein Mousavian
Iran Party (member of the National Front) Nationalism

Social Democracy

 Secular The party is managed by its central committee[23][24]
Party of the Iranian People (member of the National Front) Left-wing nationalism Islamic Mohammadsadeh Maserrat
Pan-Iranist Party Pan-Iranism Secular Zahra Gholamipour
Nation Party Pan-Iranism Secular Khosrow Seif
Movement of Militant Muslims Socialism Islamic Habibollah Peyman
Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists Nationalism Islamic None
Freedom Movement of Iran Nationalism Islamic Mohammad Tavasoli

Opposition parties active in exile

Main article: Iranian dissidents

The main Iranian opposition parties can be broadly grouped as follows: on the liberal-democratic side, the Constitutionalist Party of Iran; on the secular-religious (or Muslim democratic) side, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran; on the leftist side, the Left Party of Iran; and on the ethnic (Kurdish) side, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

Constitutional monarchists/liberal democratic parties

All constitutional monarchist organizations are secular and support restoring the Pahlavi dynasty:

Party Leader Base
Constitutionalist Party of Iran – Liberal Democrat Foad Pashaie United States
Iran-Novin Party Dr. Hamed Sheibanyrad France
Iranian Secular Democratic Party Esmail Nooriala United States

Ethnic-based parties

Party Ethnicity Leader Base
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Kurdish Mustafa Hijri Iraq
Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan Kurdish Abdullah Mohtadi Iraq
Komalah Organization of the Communist Party of Iran Kurdish Ibrahim Alizade Iraq
Komala - Reform Faction Kurdish Omar Ilkhanizade Iraq
Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan - Reunification Faction Kurdish Abdulla Konaposhi Iraq
Kurdistan Freedom Party Kurdish Hussein Yazdanpanah Iraq
Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle Kurdish Baba Sheikh Hosseini Iraq
Kurdistan Free Life Party Kurdish Siamand Moini and Zîlan Vejîn Turkey
Qashqai freedom path party Qashqai Ruhollah moradi qashqai  Switzerland
Lorestan Party of Iran Lurs Faramarz Bakhtiar Germany
Southern Azerbaijan National Awakening Movement Azeri Mahmudali Chehregani Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan National Resistance Organization Azeri Unknown Azerbaijan
South Azerbaijan National Liberation Movement Azeri Piruz Dilanchi Azerbaijan

Muslim Democrats

Party Leader Base
People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran Maryam Rajavi France
Albania

Socialists and Communists

Party Leader Base
Tudeh Party of Iran Mohammad Omidvar Germany
United Kingdom
Communist Party of Iran Unknown Unknown
Communist Party of Iran (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist) Unknown Unknown
Laborers' Party of Iran Unknown Sweden
Labour Party of Iran (Toufan) Unknown Germany
Worker-communist Party of Iran Hamid Taqvaee Germany
Worker-communist Party of Iran – Hekmatist Rahman Hosseinzadeh Sweden
Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas Ashraf Dehghani United Kingdom
Fedaian Organisation – Minority Akbar Kamyabi Netherlands
Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas – Identity[citation needed] Mehdi Same France
Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas[citation needed] Hossein Zohari Germany
Worker's Way Unknown Germany
Socialist Workers' Party of Iran Unknown United Kingdom

Social Democrats

Party Leader Base
Left Party of Iran Behrouz Khaliq Germany
Organization of Iranian People's Fedaian – Majority Farrokh Negahdar Germany
Green Party of Iran Kazem Moussavi Germany
Social Democratic and Laïc Party of Iran Farhang Ghasemi France

List of parties by political position

Political position key

  Far left
  Left
  Centre left
  Centre
  Centre right
  Right
  Far right
  Syncretic
Party Leader Founded
CCA Mostafa Pourmohammadi 1977
SST Hashem Hosseini Bushehri 1961
ICP Asadollah Badamchian 1963
SDIR Mohammad Javad Ameri 1995
FIRS Sadegh Mahsouli 2011
FCETI Hamid-Reza Haji Babaee 2015
ISE Mohammad Reza Bahonar 1991
SPIR Malek Shariati 2008
IAP Hossein-Ali Shahriyari 1993
ISE Kamal Sajjadi 1994
ISA Hassan Ghafourifard 1998
ZS Aʿzam Hājī-Abbāsī 1986
AIRL Hassan Ghafourifard 2003
SFI Mohammad-Mehdi Abdekhodaei 1946
DJP Mehdi Vakilpour 2007
Green Party Hossein Kanani Moghaddam 1999
QAYI Ruhollah Moradi Qashqai 2017
CCA Mohammad Saeed Ahadian 2008
MTPI Amir Mohebbian 2006
ACC Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha 1988
MTPI Hossein Kamali 1998
ECP Hossein Marashi 1996
MTPI Elias Hazrati 2005
NUP Azar Mansouri 2015
NEDA Shahabeddin Tabatabaei 2014
FGO Mehdi Moghaddari 1997
MDP Hassan Rouhani 1999
IAT Abdolrazzagh Mousavi 1999
IAE Ebrahim Asgharzadeh 1977
IAUI Mahmoud Sadeghi 1991
AFIL Hadi Khamenei 1991
ISP Mohammad Salari 1998
Democracy Party Mostafa Kavakebian 1999
HAMA Ahmad Hakimipour 1990
IAL Fatemeh Karroubi 1998
Worker House Alireza Mahjoub 1958
PPR Mohammad Zare Foumani 2012
IPF Mohsen Mirdamadi 1998
MIRO Mohammad Salamati 1991
GPH Mir-Hossein Mousavi 2009
National Front Seyed Hossein Mousavian 1949
Iran Party Bagher Ghadiri-Asl 1941
Party of the Iranian People Mohammadsadeh Maserrat 1949
Pan-Iranist Party Dr. Sohrab Azam Zangane 1941
Nation Party Khosrow Seif 1951
MMM Habibollah Payman 1977
CNRA Ezzatollah Sahabi 2000
FMI Mohammad Tavasoli 1961
Tondar Jamshid Sharmahd 2004
CPI Fouad Pashaei 1994
NCI Reza Pahlavi 2013
PDKI Mustafa Hijri 1945
KDP Khalid Azizi  2006
Komala Abdullah Mohtadi 1979
KCPI Ibrahim Alizade 1984
KTK Omar Ilkhanizade 2007
KPKRF Abdulla Konaposhi 2008
PAK Hussein Yazdanpanah 1991
Khabat Babeshekh Hosseini 1980
PJAK Peyman Viyan 2004
SANAM Mahmudali Chehregani 2002
ANRO Babek Chalabiyanli 2006
PMOI Maryam Rajavi 1965
TP Navid Shomali 1941
CPI Central committee 1983
CPIMLM 2001
LPI 1979
Toufan 1965
WCP Hamid Taqvaee 1991
WCP-H Jamal Kamangar 2004
IFPG Ashraf Dehghani 1979
OIPFM Behruz Khaligh 1980
FOM Akbar Kāmyābi 1987
OIPFG-FIP Mehdi Sāme 1983
OIPFG Ḥosayn Zohari 1985
WW 1978
SWPI Jamal Kamangar 1979
GFP Roozbeh Farahanipour 1998
GPI Kazem Moussavi 1999
IR 2018

See also

  • Politics of Iran
  • List of extensive Iranian ground operations in the Iran-Iraq war

Notes

  1. ^ Factions:
    Centre-right[9] or left-wing[10]

References

  1. ^ Ahmad Ashraf and Ali Banuazizi (2001), "Iran's Tortuous Path Toward "Islamic Liberalism"", International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 15 (2): 237–256, doi:10.1023/A:1012921001777, S2CID 141387320
  2. ^ Mohseni, Payam (2016). "Factionalism, Privatization, and the Political economy of regime transformation". In Brumberg, Daniel; Farhi, Farideh (eds.). Power and Change in Iran: Politics of Contention and Conciliation. Indiana Series in Middle East Studies. Indiana University Press. pp. 201–204.
  3. ^ Marianna Charountaki, ed. (March 30, 2018). Iran and Turkey: International and Regional Engagement in the Middle East. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78673-380-1.
  4. ^ a b Ali M. Ansari, ed. (May 15, 2019). Iran, Islam and Democracy: The Politics of Managing Change. Gingko. ISBN 978-1-909942-95-0. Many of the reformist groups which occupied the centre and centre-left of the political spectrum were no less surprised than their opponents by the scale of their victory.
  5. ^ [3][4]
  6. ^ Barry Eidlin; Michael A. McCarthy, eds. (September 30, 2020). Rethinking Class and Social Difference. Emerald Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-83982-022-9. The center-left, self-identified "reformist" faction of the Iranian political elite that claimed leadership of the protestors failed to mobilize popular groups outside of this middle class into a more sustained movement (Maljoo, 2010).
  7. ^ "Battle of the factions: How populists triumphed in Iran's IRGC". The New Arab. 22 July 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2026. With the help of the armed forces and the judiciary, both constitutionally appointed and overseen by the Supreme Leader, Khamenei began undermining the centre-left, who had rebranded as the 'reform movement' and were quickly liberalising both internal and external policies as well as the economy.
  8. ^ [4][6][7]
  9. ^ Ann Lane; David Martin Jones; Paul Schulte, eds. (2010). Terrorism, Security and the Power of Informal Networks. Edward Elgar. p. 116.
  10. ^ "Profile: Hassan Rouhani, President of Iran". BBC News. 20 May 2017. Archived from the original on 20 January 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2024. For a president who began his first term in the centre of the Islamic political spectrum, Hassan Fereydoun Rouhani, 68, has now moved firmly to the left, placing himself with the reformists.
  11. ^ a b "Iran's political shake-up and Ebrahim Raisi as president". Responsible Statecraft. 23 August 2021. Retrieved 10 January 2026.
  12. ^ Randjbar-Daemi, Siavush (2012). "Glossary of the most commonly-used Persian terms and abbreviations". Intra-State Relations in the Islamic Republic of Iran: The Presidency and the Struggle for Political Authority, 1989–2009 (Ph.D. thesis). Martin, Vanessa (Supervisor). Royal Holloway, University of London. p. 11. Open access material licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
  13. ^ Haddad Adel, Gholamali; Elmi, Mohammad Jafar; Taromi-Rad, Hassan (2012-08-31). "Jāme'e-ye Rowhāniyyat-e Mobārez". Political Parties: Selected Entries from Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam. EWI Press. p. 108. ISBN 9781908433022.
  14. ^ Robin B. Wright, ed. (2010), The Iran Primer: Power, Politics, and U.S. Policy, US Institute of Peace Press, p. 37, ISBN 978-1601270849
  15. ^ [12][13][14]
  16. ^ "Threading the Needle: How President Pezeshkian Could Reshape Iranian Politics". Harvard International Review. 30 December 2024. Retrieved 10 January 2026. His election to the presidency solidified the rule of the Principlist faction of the Iranian parliament, a far-right, conservative coalition that aligns with the hardline positions of Khamenei and supports the original ideological tenets of the 1979 revolution.
  17. ^ Barbara Ann Rieffer-Flanagan, ed. (March 22, 2013). Evolving Iran: An Introduction to Politics and Problems in the Islamic Republic. Georgetown University Press. p. 69. On the political spectrum neoconservatives, also sometimes referred to as hard-line conservatives or principlists, are on the far right. Reformists, sometimes called the Islamic left, are the furthest away from the neoconservatives, with pragmatic conservatives falling somewhere in between the two.
  18. ^ Matthias Maass, ed. (November 7, 2017). The World Views of the Obama Era: From Hope to Disillusionment. Springer International Publishing. p. 199. ISBN 978-3-319-61076-4. Hardline conservatives or principlists occupy the far right of the Iranian political spectrum. When it comes to foreign policy, hardline conservatives often articulate an anti-Western and anti-American perspective.
  19. ^ "U.S. Must Be Wary as Iran's Parliament Veers Hard Right". Critical Threats Project. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 10 January 2026. Principlists' victory in the parliamentary elections last Friday is part of a larger shift in Iran's political environment toward the far-right conservative camp.
  20. ^ "Iran's Moderate Conservatives Might Make A Comeback In 2024". Iran International. 3 April 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2026. Meanwhile, even among the conservatives, there are many voters who would welcome the Larijani-led right-of-center faction to replace the far right "principlists" who currently control the Majles.
  21. ^ [16][11][17][18][19][20]
  22. ^ Rohollah Faghihi (9 September 2015), "Tehran's ever-ambitious mayor", Al-Monitor, retrieved 1 June 2017
  23. ^ "درگذشت دکتر باقر قدیری اصل دبیرکل فقید حزب ایران و عضو شورای مرکزی جبهه ملی ایران – تارنماي رسمي جبهه ملي ايران- تهران" (in Persian). Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  24. ^ "اطلاعیه درباره مدیریت شورایی حزب ایران سال ۱۳۹۷". حزب ایران (in Persian). 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2023-11-22.

Further reading

Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-10134-7