7 Aban Front

The 7 Aban Front (Persian: جبهه هفت آبان Jebhe-ye Haft-e Ābān) is a political organization established in 2022 in opposition to the government of Islamic Republic of Iran.

The organization's official logo

Founding

The group was established in Brussels following the death of Mahsa Amini and during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement. It brought together dozens of dissidents, including constitutional monarchists as well as republicans with patriotic and liberal-democratic leanings.^[1] The 7 Aban Front is one of the main opposition groups to the Islamic Republic.^[1][2][3]

Name and symbolism

The organization takes its name from 7 Aban in the Persian calendar (around 29 October of the Gregorian calendar) or Cyrus the Great Day. The date is associated with the entry of Cyrus the Great into Babylon, the liberation of Jewish captives, and the proclamation often described as the world's first charter of human rights known as the Cyrus Cylinder.^[4][5] The organization was deliberately established on 7 Aban 2022 to highlight the symbolic weight of that date.^[1]

Leadership and political activities

The chairman of the 7 Aban Front, Saeed Bashirtash, has consistently argued against the involvement of religion in government.^[6][7]

On 14 June 2025, the 7 Aban Front organized a conference in Brussels. Uri Rosenthal, former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (VVD) in the First Rutte cabinet, expressed support for the coalition of liberals and social democrats within the organization.^[8] Belgian politician Theo Francken of the N-VA, serving as Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade in the De Wever government, also called for the removal of the ayatollahs' regime.^[9] The Iranian state broadcaster and news agency Fars, which is closely aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), described the conference as a plot to overthrow the Islamic Republic and install a new government.^[1]