Who is Massoud Pezeshkiyan, the surprising winner of the election for the president of Iran: Political naïve or harbinger of change?

Pezeshkian will face the difficult task of unifying the country, as his conservative opponents deeply resent him for being described by reformists as the Taliban and seen as an agent of the West.

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Masud Pezeškijan, Photo: REUTERS
Masud Pezeškijan, Photo: REUTERS
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The shocking election of Masoud Pezeshkian as the new president of Iran testifies as much to his personality as to his politics.

The former heart surgeon and health minister has shown himself in numerous presidential TV debates as a man of great personal integrity and modesty, desperate to unite the nation after it was divided at home and abroad.

In the end, only his opponents' fear of his continued popularity will help Pezeshkian wield influence in Iran's complex political system known for its multi-layered and factionalism, the Guardian writes. That's a tall order, because while turnout in the second round was higher than in the first, it's still the second-lowest turnout in Iran's presidential election, showing that many Iranians remain skeptical of politicians. Pezeškian's life was marked by a personal tragedy that shaped him.

His wife, whom he met as a medical classmate, and youngest son died in an accident 30 years ago when his car crashed into a rock while returning from a family trip to Tabriz. She was a gynecologist and her loss affected him deeply, bringing him to tears even today.

He never remarried, raising the remaining three children mostly by himself, learning to cook and teaching them. His daughter Zahra followed him, wearing a hijab and holding his hand, when he submitted his candidacy for the presidency this time. She has a master's degree in chemistry and is considered his political adviser. He reportedly speaks many languages, including, in addition to Farsi, Azerbaijani, as well as some Kurdish and Arabic. His father was Azeri, and his mother was Kurdish. During a TV discussion, he switched to proper English to quote Einstein's famous saying: "The definition of 'insanity' is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Pezeshkiyan's campaign this year was his second full attempt at running for president.

He entered politics for the first time in 2006 as a representative of Tabriz in parliament, building his popular base through successive elections.

Although he is sharp-tongued when attacking corruption and "sanctions merchants", he is generally cooperative, often saying he will rely on experts to solve the country's economic problems. He often left some of the harshest attacks on his "Taliban opponents" to his supporters.

Supporter of Pezeškiyan at one of the rallies
Supporter of Pezeškiyan at one of the ralliesphoto: REUTERS

But he faces an uphill task in uniting the country, as his conservative opponents deeply resented him for being described by reformists as the Taliban and seen as an agent of the West, while his supporters saw him as people who had succumbed to Western internet filters.

He will also have to decide whether and how to reconcile with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Pezeshkiyan was born in September 1954 in Mahabad, a city in the West Azerbaijan province known for its large population of Azerbaijani and Kurdish ethnic minorities.

He often refers to his Azerbaijani heritage, even though Mahabad is a predominantly Kurdish city, stressing that he sees Iran as a single country. He is an advocate of ethnic rights as a way of maintaining the unity of the country.

At the age of 19, during the era of the Shah, he served military service in Zabul – one of the poorest cities in the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, an experience considered to be his political awakening.

He returned to his hometown to begin medical training and served as a medic and combatant during the Iran-Iraq War.

After the war, he specialized in cardiology and cardiac surgery at the Medical University of Tabriz. In 1994, he became the chief administrator of the university, and then the MP from Tabriz. There, he admits in a video circulated by his opponents, he enforced the hijab and threatened those who did not comply with being sent home.

He says his views have evolved since then and is known for opposing the crackdown on the 2019 oil price protests and the 2022 protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

He said: "Girls and women are ours and they are not strangers. We have no right to force girls and women in terms of civil rights. We will not be able to cover women's heads by force".

The "morality police" are trying again to enforce the hijab, with varying degrees of success judging by the streets of Tehran, and, after the inauguration, Pezeshkian will face her first challenge to see if she can change the atmosphere when it comes to enforcement.

It advocates that women freely choose whether to wear the hijab
It advocates that women freely choose whether to wear the hijabphoto: REUTERS

Despite efforts by his opponents to portray him as a successor to President Hassan Rouhani's unpopular rule, he never held office in his eight years in office, serving only as health minister between 2001 and 2005 in Mohamad Katami's government.

He ran for president in 2013 and 2021, but was blocked in the second attempt by the 12-member advisory council that evaluates the candidates. He asked for an explanation for that exclusion.

The appointment of Javad Zarif as an adviser gave him an analytical framework in which he could argue the connection between the state of the economy and the need for better relations with the West, portraying his opponent, Saed Jalili, as a proponent of a war economy. To achieve the 6 percent growth target, he said: "We would need £200 billion a year in investment, which is impossible in the current conditions, so solving our international issues is crucial."

The voice of those whose voice is not heard

The victory of the reformist Pezeshkian in the presidential elections in Iran reflects deep dissatisfaction with the direction in which Iran has moved in recent years and opens a potential space for cooperation with the West, the Guardian said.

Pezeshkiyan defeated the ultra-conservative candidate Saed Jalili by almost three million votes.

Iran's new president has been a proponent of giving women the freedom to wear the hijab and ending internet restrictions that force Iranians to use VPN connections to avoid government censorship.

"The challenging road ahead will not be easy without your friendship, empathy and trust," he said after winning the elections.

Under the slogan "For Iran", Pezeshkiyan promised to be the voice of those whose voices are not heard, stressing that protests should not be responded to with a police baton. His supporters immediately called for the release of political prisoners.

And while some consider him naive in high politics, a large part of Pezeshkiyan's campaign was deliberately tied to his personal integrity and the fact that he has not held ministerial positions in the last decade.

He will have to go through a "minefield" in trying to bring about change, and although he has said that he is loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he has also said that he will resign if his job is sabotaged and that he will call on the people to withdraw from political processes.

On TV debates before the elections, he said that he cannot bring about change if he does not ensure the removal of some of the sanctions, which will require a less conflictual approach to international relations. His close associate and former foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has experience in this field - he negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal that allowed sanctions to be lifted before Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018.

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