Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدینژاد, romanized: Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād, pronounced [mæhmuːd(e) æhmædiːneʒɒːd] ;[b][10][11] born Mahmoud Sabbaghian[5] [محمود صباغیان, Mahmūd Sabbāghiyān] on 28 October 1956)[12][13] is an Iranian principlist and nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. He was known for his hardline views and nuclearisation of Iran. 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 mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Ali Khamenei
Himself
Himself
Mohammad Aliabadi (acting)
Himself
Mohammad-Hossein Moghimi (acting)
Ali Saeedlou (acting)
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Province created
Seyyed Hamid Tahayi
Hassan Rouhani
- Society of Devotees (1999–2011)
- Islamic Society of Engineers (1988–present; inactive since 2005)
- Alliance of Builders (2003–2005)
- Office for Strengthening Unity (1979–1980)
3
- Davoud Ahmadinejad (brother)
- Parvin Ahmadinejad (sister)
University professor
Engineer
None[a]
Hamzeh Headquarters[7]
Combat engineering Unit, 6th Special Division[8]
Ali Mansour Khaki
Gholamreza Shirazian
Jalil Shahi
An engineer and teacher from a poor background,[14] he was ideologically shaped by thinkers such as Navvab Safavi, Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, and Ahmad Fardid.[15] After the Iranian Revolution, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity.[16] 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.[17][18] Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003.[19] He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors.[20] 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.[21][22]
During his presidency, Ahmadinejad was a controversial figure both in Iran and worldwide. He was criticized domestically for his economic policies,[23] and was accused of disregard for human rights by organizations in North America and Europe.[24] Outside of Iran, he was criticized for his hostility towards countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and 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.[25][26][27] He supports Iran's nuclear program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed,[28][29] and led to widespread protests domestically and criticism from Western countries.[30]
During his second term, Ahmadinejad experienced a power struggle with reformers and other traditionalists in Parliament and the Revolutionary Guard,[31] as well as with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,[32] over his dismissal of intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i and his support for his controversial close adviser, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei.[33] 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.[34][35] Limited to two terms under the current Iranian constitution, Ahmadinejad supported Mashaei's campaign for president.[31] In 2013, Hassan Rouhani was elected as Ahmadinejad's successor.
On 12 April 2017, Ahmadinejad announced that he intended to run for a third term in the 2017 presidential election, against the objections of Supreme Leader Khamenei.[36] His nomination was rejected by the Guardian Council.[37][38] During the 2017–18 Iranian protests, Ahmadinejad criticized the current government of Iran. He made a second attempt at registering to run for the 2021 presidential election, and was rejected again by the Guardian Council.[39] He registered as a candidate in the 2024 Iranian presidential election,[40] but was subsequently rejected.[41]
Early life and education[edit]
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born on 28 October 1956 near Garmsar, in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province. His mother, Khanom, was a Sayyida, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[42] His father, Ahmad, was a Persian grocer and barber, and was a religious Shia Muslim who taught the Quran.[42]
When Mahmoud was one year old, his family moved to Tehran. Mahmoud's father changed their family name from "Saborjhian"[43] or "Sabaghian"[c] to Ahmadinejad in 1960 to avoid discrimination when the family moved to the city. Sabor is Persian for thread painter,[d] a once common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejad's uncle and his brother Davoud Ahmadinejad have confirmed that the previous surname was "Sabbaghian" (Persian: صباغیان).[5] Ahmadinejad is a composite name: Ahmadi 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 who works in a small shop, sold his house in Tehran and bought a smaller house, giving the excess funds to charity and poor people.[47]
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,[48] 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.
Administrative and academic careers[edit]
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.[49]
Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein ordered the 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.[50]
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,[14][51] and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.[14]
Early political career[edit]
After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity,[16] an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the emerging militant Mojahedin-e Khalq organisation.[16]
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.[14][51] 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.[51]
Mayor of Tehran (2003–2005)[edit]
The 2003 mayoral race in Tehran elected conservative candidates from the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran to the City Council of Tehran. The Council appointed Ahmadinejad mayor.
As mayor, he reversed changes made by previous moderate and reformist mayors. He put religious emphasis on the activities of cultural centres they had founded, publicised the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices,[20] and suggested that people killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. He also worked to improve the traffic system and put an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.
After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad's resignation as the Mayor of Tehran was accepted on 28 June 2005. After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was one of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005, selected from 550 nominees, only nine of them from Asia.[52] He was among three strong candidates for the top-ten list, but his resignation made him ineligible.[52]
Personal life[edit]
Ahmadinejad is married, and has one daughter and two sons.[251] His elder son married a daughter of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2008.[252][253]
Supporters of Ahmadinejad consider him a simple man who leads a modest life.[254] 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 is said to have refused the VIP seat on the presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead.[49][255] Upon gaining Iran's presidency, Ahmadinejad held his first cabinet meeting in the Imam Reza shrine at Mashhad, an act perceived as "pious".[256] He also used to lay an extra place for the 12th Imam at his weekly cabinet briefings.[257]