Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian politician who was the sixth President of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He was also the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country.
Background
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born Mahmoud Saborjhian on October 28, 1956, in the village of Aradan, near Garmsar, in north-central Iran, 82 miles southeast of Tehran. Mahmoud was the fourth of seven children whose father was a blacksmith. In 1957, the family moved from Aradan to the Narmak district of Tehran in search of better economic conditions. During this time, his father, Ahmad, changed the family name from Saborjhian (which translates to "thread painter," the lowliest job in Iran's traditional carpet-weaving industry), to the more religious Ahmadinejad ("race of Muhammad" or "virtuous race").
Education
He joined the Iran University of Science and Technology as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. In 1977, he graduated from the same university with a PhD in 'transportation engineering and planning'.
During his period of study at the Iran University, he became politically inclined. He covertly circulated the propaganda magazine 'Jiq va Dad', which was an anti-Shah publication.
He became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, an Iranian student group that aimed at helping students cope against other leftist student groups.
In May 1993, he took office as the Governor of Ardabil, a province in Iran. However, when Mohammad Khatami came to power, he was taken off from his post, after which he started teaching for a living.
In 2003, he officially took office as the Mayor of Tehran. During his tenure, he made many reforms, laying emphasis on religious matters. He also stressed on traffic matters and encouraged charity.
In 2005, he contested for the office of the President of Iran and defeated the former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. That year, he took office as the sixth President of Iran.
After his win, he became an international political figure and his stand on Iran’s right to develop nuclear power created controversy. He insisted that Iran’s nuclear program was for peaceful purposes and Iran was fully with in her rights to do so. He denied developing nuclear bomb. .
During his presidential term, he was accused of favouritism while choosing and appointing government officials, as many of the senior officials in his government were chosen from his family.
In 2006, his team lost in the Iranian council elections. That year, in order to encourage younger talent he retired many Iranian scientists and professors. It led to the first major student protest against him since his election.
He was criticised for his alleged disregard for human rights and his economic mismanagement. In 2007, he came out with a special ‘gas rotating plan’ to cut down fuel consumption.
In 2009, he was re-elected as the President of Iran for the second term. He defeated Mir-Hossein Mousavi but Mousavi and his supporters accused Ahmadinejad of electoral fraud. The people also suspected an election fraud.
In February 2009, the Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported a total of $1.058 billion oil surplus revenue as unaccounted for and not returned to the government. Later parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani asked for further investigations on the matter.
In July 2009, his government faced crisis after he fired four of his ministers. This was because according to the constitution, if more than half of the cabinet members were replaced, the decision would remain invalid until re-approval.
In 2010, his remark on the 9/11 attacks at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly created controversy. The next year, during the 66th session he made comments of similar nature.
In 2011, many members of the Iranian parliament threatened to impeach his office, after he merged eight government ministries and removed three ministers without prior notice to the parliament.
He was defeated in the 2012 parliamentary elections. In March 2012, he became the first Iranian President to be questioned by the Islamic Consultative Assembly for issues relating to his presidency. He was summoned to answer questions about domestic and foreign policies.
In 2013, after the end of his Presidential term he left the Sa'dabad Palace, official residence of the President of Iran. Hassan Rouhani was elected as his successor. The same year, he was appointed as a member of the Expediency Council.
Achievements
Politics
Since 2005, Ahmadinejad has introduced himself as non-partisan, even anti-party and did not try to gain the support of political parties despite being supported by the conservative camp. A National Democratic Institute report published in 2009 states that Ahmadinejad is self-described "Principlist".
Views
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 have drawn criticism and been called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at around 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 obtains his wife's consent before marrying a second wife. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.
According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Since President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin Prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." Human Rights Watch also has stated, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." Human Rights Watch described the source of human rights violations in contemporary Iran as coming from the Judiciary, accountable to Ali Khamenei, and from members directly appointed by Ahmadinejad.
Responses to dissent have varied. Human Rights Watch writes that "the Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings." In December 2006, Ahmadinejad advised officials not to disturb students who engaged in a protest during a speech of his at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran, although speakers at other protests have included among their complaints that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.
In April 2007, the Tehran police, which is under Khamenei's supervision, began a crackdown on women with "improper hijab." This led to criticism from associates of Ahmadinejad.
In 2012, Ahmadinejad claimed that AIDS was created by the West in order to weaken poorer countries, and repeated a previous claim that homosexual Iranians did not exist. He has also described homosexuality as "ugly".
Membership
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.
He was/is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key political support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (Abadgaran or Developers). He was also helped by support from supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who some described Ahmadinejad as a "protege" of.
On 5 August 2013, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a decree appointing Ahmedinejad as a member of the Expediency Council.
Ahmadinejad has been an active and prominent member of the right-wing Islamic Society of Engineers since its establishment until 2005. As of 2014, he is still a member of the party but is not active since 2005. He was also a founding member of the Society of Devotees of the Islamic Revolution but left in 2011.
Personality
Ahmadinejad is known for his vulgarism, undiplomatic language and usage of slang terms. He is active on Twitter, where he engages his followers primarily in English and tweets about sports, the United States, and current events.
According to a poll conducted by Information and Public Opinion Solutions LLC (iPOS) in March 2016, Ahmadinejad is the least popular political figure in Iran, while he has 57% approval and 39% disapproval ratings, thus a +18% net popularity.
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 is 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.
Connections
Ahmadinejad is married and has one daughter and two sons. His oldest son married a daughter of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2008. One of his sons studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic).