Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President of Iran from 2005 to 2013
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (né Sabbaghian; born 28 October 1956) is an Iranian politician who served as the president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. Ideologically a principlist and nationalist, he was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Oct 28, 1956.1
About
He was also the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country, and served as the mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.
An engineer and teacher from a poor family, he was ideologically shaped by thinkers such as Navvab Safavi, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and Ahmad Fardid. After the Iranian Revolution, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity. Appointed a provincial governor in 1993, he was replaced along with all other provincial governors in 1997 after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became president on 3 August 2005.
During his presidency, Ahmadinejad was a controversial figure both in Iran and worldwide. He was criticized domestically for his economic policies, and was accused of disregard for human rights by organizations in North America and Europe. Outside of Iran, he was criticized for his hostility towards Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western and Arab states. In 2007, Ahmadinejad introduced a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed, and led to widespread protests domestically and criticism from Western countries. He repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. He also declared the Holocaust to be a myth, later claiming that promoting Holocaust denial was one of the major achievements of his presidency. He was a strong proponent of Iran's nuclear program.
During his second term, Ahmadinejad experienced a power struggle with reformers and other traditionalists in Parliament and the Revolutionary Guard, as well as with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, over his dismissal of intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i and his support for his controversial close adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei. On 14 March 2012, Ahmadinejad became the first president of the Islamic Republic of Iran to be summoned by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (parliament) to answer questions regarding his presidency. Limited to two terms under the current Iranian constitution, Ahmadinejad supported Mashaei's campaign for president. In 2013, Hassan Rouhani was elected as Ahmadinejad's successor.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
- Since 1975Iran University of Science and Technology Bachelor of Science, Doctor of Philosophy; civil engineering3
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on 28 October 1956 in the village of Aradan, near Garmsar, Semnan province, Pahlavi Iran. His mother, Khanom, was a Sayyida, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His father, Ahmad, was a Persian grocer and barber, and was a religious Shia Muslim who taught the Quran.
When Mahmoud was one year old, his family moved to Tehran. Mahmoud's father changed their family name from "Saborjhian" or "Sabbaghian" (Persian: صباغیان) to Ahmadinejad after the Iranian Revolution, because he disliked it. Sabor is Persian for thread-painter, a once common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejad is a composite of Ahmadi and Nejad. Ahmad was his father's name. The suffix Nejad in Persian means race, therefore the term Ahmadi Nejad means "the lineage of Ahmad". According to the interviews with the relatives of Ahmadi Nejad, his father, at that point working as a shopkeeper, sold his house in Tehran and bought a smaller house, giving the excess funds to charity and poor people.
In 1976, Ahmadinejad took Iran's national university entrance examination. According to his autobiography, he was ranked 132nd out of 400,000 participants that year, and soon enrolled in the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), located at Tehran, as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. He would later earn his doctorate in 1997 in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology as well, when he was the mayor of Ardabil Province, located at the north-west of the country.
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Administrative and academic careers
Some details of Ahmadinejad's life during the 1980s are not publicly known, but it is known that he held a number of administrative posts in the province of West Azerbaijan, Iran.
Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi invasion of Iran, Ahmadinejad joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and served in their intelligence and security apparatus, but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi has said: "He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards", having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.
Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986. He joined the faculty there as a lecturer in 1989, and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: head of state, politician, engineer, university teacher.9
- 2012 to 2013Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement7
- 2011Minister of Petroleum of Iran7
- 2009Minister of Intelligence (Iran)7
- 2005 to 2013President of Iran7
- 2003 to 2005Mayor of Tehran7
- 1993 to 1997Governor of Ardabil Province7
- Date not recordedWorked at Iran University of Science and Technology4
- Date not recordedFounded Qarz Al-Hasanah - Mehr Iran Bank5
- Date not recordedFounded University of Iranians6
- Date not recordedChair, Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran8
Personal life
- BornOct 28, 1956, Aradan10
- CitizenshipIran11
- ResidenceTehran12
- SpouseAzam Farahi married 198013
- Children314
Family planning and population policy
In October 2006, Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing birth-control policies which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children. He told MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million. In November 2010, he urged Iranians to marry and reproduce earlier: "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17." His remarks drew criticism and called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at 11%. Ahmadinejad's call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The policy had increased Iran's population by 16 million in seven years but had eventually been reversed in response to the resultant economic strain.
In 2008, the government sent the "Family Protection Bill" to the Iranian parliament. Women's rights activists criticized the bill for removing protections from women, such as the requirement that a husband obtain his wife's consent before marrying a second wife. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.
Ahmadinejad is married, and has one daughter and two sons. His elder son married a daughter of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2008.
Supporters of Ahmadinejad consider him a simple man who leads a modest life. As president, he wanted to continue living in the same house in Tehran his family had been living in until his security advisers insisted that he should move. Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets. He was said to have refused the VIP seat on the presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead. Upon gaining Iran's presidency, Ahmadinejad held his first cabinet meeting in the Imam Reza shrine at Mashhad, an act perceived as "pious". He also used to lay an extra place for the 12th Imam at his weekly cabinet briefings.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Politics
After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the emerging militant Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation.
Ahmadinejad first assumed political office as unelected governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s. He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years. During his doctoral studies at Tehran, he was appointed governor general of newly formed Ardabil Province from 1993 until Mohammad Khatami removed him in 1997, whereupon he returned to teaching.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Legal issues and controversies
Domestic criticism and controversies
Accusations of corruption
According to Brussels-based NGO International Crisis Group, Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials", while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism". Many of his close associates were appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" were awarded to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated.
The scale of corruption under Mr. Ahmadinejad was of a different order, according to both reform-minded and conservative politicians.
Other statements
In June 2007, Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that [can] save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war.
Conservative MP Rafat Bayat has accused Ahmadinejad for a decline in observance of the required hijab for women, calling him "not that strict on this issue". Ahmadinejad was also accused of indecency by people close to Rafsanjani, after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.
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The UN and football stadiums
There are two statements that led to criticism from some religious authorities. One concerns his speech at the United Nations, and the other concerns the attendance of women at football matches. During a visit to group of ayatollahs in Qom after returning from his 2005 speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. Ahmadinejad closed his speech with a call for the "mighty Lord" to "hasten the emergence" of Imam Mahdi. According to Iranian-American journalist Hooman Majd, the response given to Ahmadinejad at the assembly was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi.
In another statement in 2006, Ahmadinejad proclaimed (without consulting the clerics beforehand), that women be allowed into football stadiums to watch male football clubs compete. This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007.
Constitutional conflict
In 2008, a serious conflict emerged between the Iranian President and the head of parliament over three laws approved by the Iranian parliament: "the agreement for civil and criminal legal cooperation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan", "the agreement to support mutual investment between Iran and Kuwait", and "the law for registration of industrial designs and trademarks". The conflict was so serious that the Iranian leader stepped in to resolve it. Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for the "inexplicable act" of bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper. Ahmadinejad accused the head of parliament of violating Iranian constitutional law. He called for legal action against the parliament speaker. Haddad-Adel responded to Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.
Ali Kordan
In August 2008, Ahmadinejad appointed Ali Kordan as interior minister. Kordan's appointment was heavily criticized by Iranian parliamentarians, media and analysts after it came to light that a doctoral degree purportedly awarded to Kordan was fabricated, and that the putative issuer of the degree, Oxford University, had no record of Kordan receiving any degree from the university. It was also revealed that he had been jailed in 1978 for moral charges.
In November 2008, Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Kordan by Iranian parliament. He refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day. Kordan was expelled from office by Iranian parliament on 4 November 2008. 188 MPs voted against him. An impeachment of Kordan would push Ahmadinejad close to having to submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament, which was led by one of his chief political opponents. Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Ahmadinejad replaced nine of 21 until that date.
Conflict with Parliament
In February 2009, after Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hadn't been returned by the government to the national treasury, Tensions between Larijani and Ahmadinejad continued into 2013.
Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government.
In May 2011, several members of parliament threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ahmadinejad after his merger of eight government ministries and the firing of three ministers without parliament's consent. According to the Majles news website, MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar stated, "legal purging starts with questions, which lead to warnings and end with impeachment". On 25 May, parliament voted to investigate another allegation, that Ahmadinejad had committed election irregularities by giving cash to up to nine million Iranians before the 2009 presidential elections. The vote came within hours after the allegations appeared in several popular conservative news sites associated with supreme leader Ali Khamenei, suggesting the supreme leader supported the investigation. The disputes were seen as part of the clash between Ahmadinejad and other conservatives and former supporters, including supreme leader Khamenei, over what the conservatives see as Ahmadinejad's confrontational policies and abuse of power.
Relations with Supreme Leader of Iran
Early in his presidency, Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and even as being his "protege". In Ahmadinejad's 2005 inauguration the supreme leader allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and cheeks in what was called "a sign of closeness and loyalty", and after the 2009 election fully endorsed Ahmadinejad against protesters.
However, as early as January 2008, signs of disagreement between the two men developed over domestic policies, and by the period of 2010–11 several sources detected a "growing rift" between them. The disagreement was described as centered on Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics", who was first vice president of Iran until being ordered to resign from the cabinet by the supreme leader.
In 2009, Ahmadinejad dismissed Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, an opponent of Mashaei. In April 2011, another Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, resigned after being asked to by Ahmadinejad, but was reinstated by the supreme leader within hours. Ahmadinejad declined to officially back Moslehi's reinstatement for two weeks and in protest engaged in an "11-day walkout" of cabinet meetings, religious ceremonies, and other official functions. Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader.
Conservative opponents in parliament launched an "impeachment drive" against him, four websites with ties to Ahmadinejad reportedly were "filtered and blocked", and several people "said to be close" to the president and Mashaei (such as Abbas Amirifar and Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh) were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking djinns. On 6 May 2011, it was reported that Ahmadinejad had been given an ultimatum to accept the leader's intervention or resign, and on 8 May, he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting. The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president denied that there had been any rift between the two, and according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency, he stated that his relationship with the supreme leader "is that of a father and a son".
In 2012, Khamenei ordered a halt to a parliamentary inquiry into Ahmadinejad's mishandling of the Iranian economy. In 2016, Khamenei advised Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, his former ally with whom his relationship was strained after Ahmadinejad accused his son Mojtaba Khamenei of embezzling from the state treasury, to not run for president again.
Hugo Chávez's funeral
Ahmadinejad was criticised by the religious and political groups in Iran for photographs taken of him embracing Elena Frias de Chávez, the mother of recently deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, at his funeral. In the image, Ahmadinejad was thought to be holding her hands and in a cheek-to-cheek embrace; such an act, touching an unrelated woman, is considered haraam (forbidden) in some interpretations of Islam. Iranian government officials responded by stating that the image was a fake, then released a second photo showing Ahmadinejad in the same pose, but in this case hugging a man. This later photograph was debunked when it was discovered that the other man was Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who had not been at the funeral.
Nepotism
One of the most frequent criticisms about Ahmadinejad was the nepotism in his governments. Nepotism was one of his habits in appointing senior government officials. His elder brother, Davoud, was appointed chief inspector at the presidency in 2005 and was in office until 2008. His sister, Parvin, served at the presidential's women's center. His nephew, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, served as the mining and industry minister in his cabinet. His daughter's father-in-law, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, served at several senior positions. His brother-in-law, Masoud Zaribafan, served as cabinet secretary.
Holocaust denial controversy
He was strongly criticized after claiming that the Jews invented the Holocaust and making other statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas", which has led to accusations of antisemitism. Ahmadinejad denied that he was an antisemite, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust. Later, Ahmadinejad claimed that promoting Holocaust denial was a major achievement of his presidency; he stated that "put[ting] it forward at the global level... broke the spine of the Western capitalist regime". The comments appeared on the Arabic but not on the English version of Fars News Agency's website.
From Wikipedia’s article on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
- 2013Grand Cross of the National Order of Benin15 21
- 2012honorary doctor of the University of Havana15 20
- 2010The honorary doctor of Lebanese University15 19
- 2007Orden de la Independencia Cultural Rubén Darío15 18
- 2007Order of Augusto César Sandino15 17
- 2006Order of the Liberator15 16
- 2005Order of Islamic Revolution15
Links
Sources
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- 1WikidataMahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaMahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wikipedia
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- 16Wikidataaward, as reported
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- 21Wikidataaward, as reported
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- 26Wikimedia CommonsMahmoud Ahmadinejad photo by Majid Haghdoust, CC BY 4.0