Ahmad Moftizadeh ( Kurdish : ئەحمەد موفتیزادە , romanized : Ehmed Muftîzade , Persian : احمد مفتی‌زاده ; February 1933 – 9 February 1993) was an influential political and religious thinker among the Sunni Kurdish minority in Iranian Kurdistan . He is best known for his leading role in negotiating democratic freedoms for the Kurdish people in Iran during the country's Islamic Revolution . Moftizadeh led one of three major Kurdish factions during the Islamic Revolution that were demanding increased rights for Kurds in the new government. His negotiations ultimately failed and the new revolutionary authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran ordered the arrest of Moftizadeh and several of his followers. Moftizadeh died shortly after his release from prison on 9 February 1993 due to severe torture and mistreatment by Iranian prison authorities.