Asgharzadeh was a 24-year-old Industrial engineering student at a
Sharif University of Technology in
Tehran at the time of the Islamic revolution. He was the leader of the newly formed
Office for Strengthening Unity, a group founded by
Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti to counter the influence among university students of the anti-theocratic
Mojahedin-e Khalq. Asgharzadeh became well known as a leader of the embassy takeover. From 1982 to 1988, Asgharzadeh worked closely with future president
Muhammad Khatami, who was then head of the official
Kayhan newspaper and later became the minister of culture and Islamic guidance. Asgharzadeh also served as a military commander in the war with Iraq for six months. After 1988 Asgharzadeh began calling for more openness and "voicing his opposition to the clerics' policies." By 1992 his "outspokenness" provoked the conservative Guardian Council into disqualifying him for running for most elected posts and sentencing him to a month in solitary confinement. After being released from prison he abandoned his career as an engineer and returned to school, studying political science at Tehran University, where, as of 2002, he was working on a doctorate. In early 2001 he was a city council member in Tehran, speaking out against the news blackout of his candidacy imposed by reformist papers, and the polarization of presidential elections. He attempted to run as a
reformist presidential candidate in the 2001 election against then-incumbent President
Mohammad Khatami, though aware of the "high possibility" he would be disqualified by the electoral supervisory body of the
Guardian Council. He was later arrested for publishing the reformist
Salam newspaper which was critical of the government. In 2019, Asgharzadeh was interviewed by the
Associated Press. He said that he regretted the embassy takeover and that Iranian student leaders bore sole responsibility: "Like Jesus Christ, I bear all the sins on my shoulders". On 8 February 2026, Asgharzadeh, along with
Azar Mansouri and
Mohsen Aminzadeh were arrested by Iranian authorities on charges of "targeting national unity, taking a stance against the
constitution, coordination with enemy propaganda, promoting surrender, diverting political groups and creating secret subversive mechanisms", in light of the
2025–2026 Iranian protests. He was released on 13 February. ==In popular culture==