Assembly of Experts for the Constitution

The Assembly of Experts for the Constitution (Majles-e Khobregan-e Qanun-e Asasi) was a 73-member body convened in 1979 to draft the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Elected on 3 August 1979, the assembly was dominated by clerics aligned with the Islamic Republican Party, who won approximately 55 of 73 seats. Chaired by Hossein-Ali Montazeri with Mohammad Beheshti as deputy speaker, the assembly met from 18 August to 15 November 1979 at the former Senate building in Tehran. Its most consequential act was embedding the doctrine of velayat-e faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) into the constitution, granting sweeping powers to a Supreme Leader — a provision that went far beyond the original draft prepared by the provisional government. Opposition members, including figures from the Freedom Movement of Iran and secular nationalists, were outnumbered and unable to block the clerical majority. The resulting constitution was approved in a national referendum on 2–3 December 1979 with 99.5% approval on 75% turnout, though the referendum was boycotted by leftists, Kurdish groups, and followers of Ayatollah Shariatmadari. This body is distinct from the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e Khobregan-e Rahbari), the permanent body established in 1982 to select and supervise the Supreme Leader.