Mesdaghi was born in 1960 in Tehran, Iran. As a teenager, he traveled to the United States to work with the Confederation of Iranian Students to revive the student movement unit. He returned to Iran after the Iranian revolution. He was imprisoned in the Ghazelhasar, Evin and Gohardasht prisons for over 10 years, from 1981 to 1991, on charges of supporting the PMOI Organization.