Who is Masoud Pezeshkian? Meet reformist who pledged easing headscarf law, set to be Iran’s next President



Reformist candidate and coronary heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian emerged victorious in Iran’s presidential runoff elections. His marketing campaign guarantees included participating with Western nations and easing the enforcement of Iran’s necessary headband regulation. Pezeshkian’s rival, the hard-liner Saeed Jalili, was unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency.
The election noticed a turnout of round 30 million voters, with Pezeshkian securing over 17 million votes and Jalili receiving greater than 13 million votes, in keeping with Iran’s election authority.
Who’s Masoud Pezeshkian?
Born in Iran’s Mahabad on September 29, 1954, Pezeshkian’s various ethnic background formed his appreciation for Iran’s cultural tapestry. After his navy service within the Iran-Iraq Struggle, he pursued a profession as a famend coronary heart surgeon and later assumed management at Tabriz College of Medical Sciences.
Pezeshkian’s life took a tragic flip in 1994 when a automotive accident took the lives of his spouse, Fatemeh Majidi, and one in all his daughters. This occasion marked his entry into politics, the place he served as deputy well being minister and later as well being minister underneath President Mohammad Khatami.All through his political profession, Pezeshkian has sought to stability his reformist beliefs with the constraints of Iran’s theocratic system.
Stand on Iran’s controversial Hijab regulation
Following the loss of life of Mahsa Amini in 2022, Pezeshkian overtly criticized the incident, saying, “It’s unacceptable within the Islamic Republic to arrest a woman for her hijab after which hand over her useless physique to her household.”
Throughout a tv debate, he addressed the federal government’s shortcomings, saying, “We’re shedding our backing within the society due to our behaviour, excessive costs, our remedy of ladies and since we censor the web. Individuals are discontent with us due to our behaviour.”
Low voter turnouts
The June 28, 2024, presidential election, which noticed Pezeshkian going through hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in a runoff, was marked by the bottom turnout in Iran’s historical past. Pezeshkian’s marketing campaign, supported by reasonable and reformist figures, advocated for improved relations with the West, a return to the nuclear accord, and a extra lenient strategy to the hijab regulation. Regardless of his efforts, voter turnout remained low, with many Iranians expressing disillusionment with the governing system.
Pezeshkian acknowledged this sentiment throughout his ultimate debate with Jalili, saying, “With all of the noisy arguments between me and him, solely 40 p.c (of eligible voters) voted. Sixty p.c do not settle for us. So individuals have points with us.”
All through his marketing campaign, he shunned promising radical modifications to Iran’s Shiite theocracy and persistently acknowledged Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the last word authority in state issues.
The elections befell within the wake of President Ebrahim Raisi’s loss of life in a helicopter accident in Could. Raisi, broadly considered a detailed confidant and mentee of Khamenei, was believed to be a possible successor to the supreme chief place. Nevertheless, his legacy was tarnished by his involvement within the 1988 mass executions in Iran and his position within the violent suppression of protests following Mahsa Amini’s loss of life in 2022.





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