Masoud Pezeshkian wants to reopen dialogue with the west and improve rights for women. The regime may even allow him to do some of that.
Good news for democracy in Iran – words which in recent times, particularly in western news reports, are rarely seen in the same sentence. But the election of Masoud Pezeshkian as president of Iran must be seen as a positive development.
Pezeshkian, 69, was born in the city of Mahabad in Iran’s West Azerbaijan Province and speaks fluent Kurdish and Azeri. He trained as a cardiac surgeon and enlisted as a medic in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. A vocal proponent of civil rights for Iranian women, Pezeshkian ran for president unsuccessfully in 2013 and 2021 .
The relative lack of enthusiasm for the elections, at least in the first round, suggests a high level of disillusionment in the electorate. But the ten-point increase in the number of voters, when it appeared that they just might end up with a reformer in the presidency, is revealing. Iranians have rallied one more time.
Previous efforts to reform the political system – most notably under Khatami in the early 2000s – were squashed by the conservative faction support by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who functions as the ultimate head of state. Having been part of this government, Pezeshkian knows how tough it will be to bring real reform. He also knows that he only has a short window to bring about changes.
So there is an opportunity for Pezeshkian to reopen a new chapter in Iran’s international affairs and domestic politics. And, interestingly, this – and the signal it gives to the fractured and unhappy Iranian electorate that they do have a degree of democratic choice – is why he was allowed to run in the election. This is how he is meant to function for the system – as a source of legitimacy domestically and in international relations, especially with the US and Europe.
Mass demonstrations after the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was killed in September 2022 by the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly had caused lingering discontent and resentment, a major cause of concern for the conservative core of the state.
Educate Me Hassan Rouhani Iran Iranian Politics Iranian Revolution Islamic Republic Of Iran
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