SOCIAL ACTIVISTS from Iran

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Iranian Social Activists of all time. This list of famous Iranian Social Activists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Iranian Social Activists.

1. Shirin Ebadi (b. 1947)

With an HPI of 76.17, Shirin Ebadi is the most famous Iranian Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 92 different languages on wikipedia.

Shirin Ebadi (Persian: شيرين عبادى, romanized: Širin Ebādi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian Nobel laureate, lawyer, writer, teacher and a former judge and founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. In 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts for democracy and women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to receive the award. She has lived in exile in London since 2009.

2. Babak Khorramdin (798 - 838)

With an HPI of 71.36, Babak Khorramdin is the 2nd most famous Iranian Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Bābak Khorramdin (Persian: بابک خرمدین, Bābak-i Khurramdīn, from Middle Persian: 𐭯𐭠𐭯𐭪𐭩, Pāpak/Pābag; 795 or 798 – January 838) was one of the main Iranian revolutionary leaders of the Iranian Khorram-Dinān ("Those of the joyous religion"), which was a local freedom movement fighting the Abbasid Caliphate. Khorramdin appears to be a compound analogous to durustdin "orthodoxy" and Behdin "Good Religion" (Zoroastrianism), and are considered an offshoot of neo-Mazdakism. Babak's Iranianizing rebellion, from its base in Azerbaijan in northwestern Iran, called for a return of the political glories of the Iranian past. The Khorramdin rebellion of Babak spread to the western and central parts of Iran and lasted more than twenty years before it was defeated when Babak was betrayed. Babak's uprising showed the continuing strength in Azerbaijan of ancestral Iranian local feelings.

3. Musa al-Sadr (1928 - 1978)

With an HPI of 67.11, Musa al-Sadr is the 3rd most famous Iranian Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr (Arabic: موسى صدر الدین الصدر; Persian: موسی صدرالدین صدر‎‎; 4 June 1928 – disappeared 31 August 1978) was a Lebanese-Iranian Shia Muslim cleric, politician and revolutionary In Lebanon. He founded and revived many Lebanese Shia organisations, including schools, charities, and the Amal Movement. Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood in Qom, Iran, to a Iranian-Lebanese father and a Lebanese mother, he underwent both seminary and secular studies in Iran. He belongs to the Al-Sadr family from Jabal Amel in Lebanon, a branch of the Musawi family which traces its roots to Musa Ibn Jaafar, the seventh Shia Imam. Therefore, Musa al-Sadr is often styled with the honorific title Sayyid. He left Qom for Najaf to study theology and returned to Iran after the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état. Some years later, al-Sadr went to Tyre, Lebanon as the emissary of Ayatollahs Borujerdi and Hakim. From Tyre, he published the periodical Maktabi Islam. Fouad Ajami called him a "towering figure in modern Shi'i political thought and praxis". He was noted to have given the Shia population of Lebanon "a sense of community". In 1974, al-Sadr co-founded the Amal Movement. On 25 August 1978, Sadr and two companions, Sheikh Mohamad Yaacoub and Abbas Bader el-Dine, departed for Libya to meet with government officials at the invitation of Muammar Gaddafi. The three were last seen on 31 August. They were never heard from again. Many theories exist around the circumstances of al-Sadr's disappearance, none of which has been proven. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day. In September 2025 a BBC News investigative team reported that a body found in 2011 in a secret mortuary in Libya bore a strong resemblance to al-Sadr based on facial recognition analysis performed by Hassan Ugail at the University of Bradford. The BBC report presented testimonies claiming that al-Sadr was assassinated by the Gaddafi regime shortly after his arrival in Libya but this theory remains contested by al-Sadr's family and the Amal leadership.

4. Narges Mohammadi (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 63.13, Narges Mohammadi is the 4th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 75 different languages.

Narges Mohammadi (Persian: نرگس محمدی; born 21 April 1972) is an Iranian human rights activist. She is the vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), headed by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shirin Ebadi. Mohammadi has been a vocal proponent of mass feminist civil disobedience against the mandatory hijab in Iran and a vocal critic of hijab and chastity program of 2023. In May 2016, she was sentenced in Tehran to 16 years' imprisonment for "establishing and running the illegal splinter group Legam." She was released in 2020 but sent back to prison in 2021, where she has since given reports of the abuse and solitary confinement of detained women. Narges Mohammadi wrote for the magazine Message of Syndicate, edited by Robert Bruchim in Tehran. In October 2023, while in prison, she was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize "for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran condemned the decision. It was reported on 19 November 2024 that Mohammadi underwent a complex surgery in Iran that saw part of a bone in her right leg removed over cancer fears but was immediately returned to prison, raising the risks to her life.

5. Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei (1899 - 1992)

With an HPI of 61.98, Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei is the 5th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Musawi al-Khoei (Arabic: أبو القاسم الموسوي الخوئي; AH-boo al KAH-sim al KHOO-ee) November 19, 1899 – August 8, 1992) was an Iranian-Iraqi Shia marja'. Khoei is considered one of the most influential twelver scholars. After the death of Muhsin al-Hakim in 1970, he became the spiritual leader of much of the Shia world until his death in 1992. He was succeeded briefly by Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari, until his death in 1993. Then his former student, Ali al-Sistani, took leadership of the seminary, whereby many of his followers became followers of Sistani.

6. Mahmoud Taleghani (1911 - 1979)

With an HPI of 58.16, Mahmoud Taleghani is the 6th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Mahmoud Alaei Taleghani (Persian: محمود علایی طالقانی, , also romanized as Mahmūd Tāleqānī; 5 March 1911 – 9 September 1979) was an Iranian theologian, Muslim reformer, democracy advocate, a senior Shia Islamic scholar and thinker of Iran, and a leader in his own right of the movement against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A founding member of the Freedom Movement of Iran, he has been described as a representative of the tendency of many "Shia clerics to blend Shia with Marxist ideals in order to compete with leftist movements for youthful supporters" during the 1960s and 1970s. His "greatest influence" has been said to have been in "his teaching of Quranic exegesis," as many later revolutionaries were his students. He was Tehran's first Friday Prayer Imam after the Iranian Revolution.

7. Nasrin Sotoudeh (b. 1963)

With an HPI of 57.90, Nasrin Sotoudeh is the 7th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 45 different languages.

Nasrin Sotoudeh (Persian: نسرین ستوده) is an Iranian human rights lawyer known for her defense of activists, opposition politicians, and individuals facing human rights violations. She has represented Iranian opposition activists and politicians detained after the disputed June 2009 presidential elections and prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. Her clients have included journalist Isa Saharkhiz, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and Heshmat Tabarzadi. She has also represented women arrested for appearing in public without a hijab, which is a punishable offense in Iran. Sotoudeh was the subject of Nasrin, a 2020 documentary filmed in secret in Iran about Sotoudeh's "ongoing battles for the rights of women, children and minorities." In 2021, she was named as of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

8. Massoud Rajavi (b. 1948)

With an HPI of 57.77, Massoud Rajavi is the 8th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Massoud Rajavi (Persian: مسعود رجوی, born 18 August 1948 – disappeared 13 March 2003) is an Iranian politician and revolutionary who became the leader of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) in 1979. After leaving Iran in 1981, he resided in France and Iraq. He disappeared shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, leaving his wife and co-leader Maryam Rajavi as the public face of the MEK.

9. Mina Ahadi (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 54.18, Mina Ahadi is the 9th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Mina Ahadi (Persian: مینا احدی, romanized: Minâ Ahadi, born 1956) is an Iranian-Austrian political activist. She is a member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the Worker-communist Party of Iran.

10. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (b. 1967)

With an HPI of 50.98, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is the 10th most famous Iranian Social Activist.  Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani (Persian: سکینه محمدی آشتیانی; born 1967) is an Iranian woman convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and adultery. She gained international notoriety for originally being sentenced to death by stoning for her crimes. Her sentence was commuted and she was released in 2014 after serving nine years on death row.