Anjoman-e Eslami is an Islamic student association in Iran that has backed Iranian reformers such as former President Mohammad Khatami

Mohammad Khatami

Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

 and sponsored lectures by Abdol Karim Soroush and other prominent reformists.

The association was founded in 1941 in the medical college of Tehran university by Ataolah Shahabpur. It is said to have "formed part of the radical Islamic left that constituted Khomeini

Ruhollah Khomeini

Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...

's inner circle" after the Iranian Revolution

Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

 in 1979. Following the death of Khomeini they were elbowed aside by Islamic conservatives for positions of power. Anjoman-e-Eslami is said to have shifted its position in favor of democracy around 1994.

Today the group is Islamic in religion and leftist in its economic views, but "avowedly democratic in its political outlook."

Sources

• The Soul of Iran, Molavi, Afshin, Norton, (2005)