Big Fat Story
Once in line to be supreme leader, Montazeri has clashed with the government over rights.
Mir Hossein Mousavi is the voice of the opposition in the streets and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is the opposition's representative within the political elite, but Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (Eye-uh-toll-uh Ho-sayn Ali Mohn-ta-zeh-ree), 87, is the spiritual leader of the pro-democracy movement. The once-powerful Islamic cleric was considered a top candidate to become supreme leader when Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, but thanks to his dissident views lost out to the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Montazeri has been a thorn in the ruling regime's side, constantly criticizing government policy and agitating for democracy and human rights in Iran. The government considered him dangerous enough to place him under house arrest from 1997 to 2003, but the elderly Montazeri would not stay quiet and spoke out against President Ahmadinejad's economic and foreign policy. Recently, Montazeri caused a stir by immediately denouncing the recent election results as a fraud, saying that "No one in their right mind can believe" that Ahmadinejad won a legitimate contest. In addition to his own advocacy, Montazeri has influenced younger Islamic scholars in Iran, like Mohsen Kadivar, who was also jailed for his human-rights advocacy and is currently backing Mousavi's protests from abroad.
Photo: Behrouz Mehri, AFP / Getty Images
The former president's credentials are a major boost to the opposition.
While Mir Hossein Mousavi's election battle plays out in the streets of Tehran, his most powerful ally, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Ack-bar Hah-sheh-me Raf-san-johnny), 75, is leading the charge behind the scenes to annul the disputed election—and perhaps even overthrow the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani heads the Assembly of Experts, which has the power to remove Khamenei, and reports suggest he has been leading a reformist bloc of insiders in hopes of securing the protesters' demands from within the current government. He enjoys tremendous credibility with the public, making him a difficult foe to suppress. In addition to participating in the 1979 revolution, Rafsanjani served as president from 1989 to 1997, and helped select Khamenei as supreme leader in 1989. He ran for president again unsuccessfully in 2005 against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was a vocal critic of the current president during the most recent election. In a possible attempt to stifle Rafsanjani's pro-Mousavi campaign, Iranian police briefly jailed members of his family this week, including his daughter, before they were freed on Sunday. While Rafsanjani may be a democratic icon for the moment, he is by no means a friend of the West. In addition to being regarded as the father of Iran's nuclear program, Argentine officials hold him responsible for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. A federal judge there issued a warrant for his arrest in 2006.
Photo: Getty Images
Mir Hossein Mousavi isn't the only presidential hopeful upset over the vote.
Presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi (Meh-dee Ka-roo-bee) received a shockingly small 0.9% of the vote in the recent elections despite coming in third in the 2005 election, performing poorly even in areas where he commanded strong support in the previous vote. In response, Karroubi, the former speaker of the Iranian parliament, joined Mousavi in denouncing the election as a fraud, saying they had "no legitimacy or social standing." His activism helped make Mousavi's opposition movement bigger than just one candidate and put the focus on the conduct of the disputed election. For the reformist Karroubi, it wasn't his first time battling the regime over questionable votes—after the 2005 election he accused the ruling regime of engineering Ahmadinejad's victory, prompting threats from the government. Karroubi is calling for a day of mourning on Thursday for protesters who have been killed since the election, an event that could be a touchstone for further clashes with police and militia members.
Photo: Hasan Sarbakhshian / AP Photo
Guide to Iran's Power Players
The battle between pro-democracy activists and the hardline regime over President Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory is the culmination of years of tension between a variety of powerful leaders. Who are the major players in the standoff?
Going into the election, Mir Hossein Mousavi (Meer Ho-sayn Moos-av-ee) was, by all accounts, a rather dubious “reform” candidate: He was a social conservative as prime minister in the 1980s, endorsed the clerical system, and was a strong and early supporter of Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But since the June 12 election, he has been transformed. His opponent no longer seems to be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the supreme leader himself—the Ayatollah Khamenei. Mousavi directly challenged Khamenei by calling for protests last week. In the Jerusalem Post, Sabina Amidi looks at Mousavi’s alliance with Rafsanjani and notes, “The legitimacy of the Revolution is now called into question by two of the men who helped create it. Mousavi and Rafsanjani have joined forces against their ruling system. The dynamic duo is again ready for revolutionary action; the boys are up to their old tricks.”
Photo: Ben Curtis / AP Photo
Is the firebrand leader's career finished?
In the wake of his “victory,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Mah-mood Ah-mad-ee-neh-zhad) originally tried to put down the opposition by mocking it, comparing them to boorish fans of the losing team in a soccer match. He then disappeared to Russia, and hasn’t really been heard from since. Indeed, though Ahmadinejad “won” the election, he seems to be only a marginal figure in its aftermath, as his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has set his sights on the Ayatollah Khamenei instead. Ahmadinejad’s future now seems as though it will be determined by forces outside of his control: The Guardian Council is debating whether to have a revote or a recount, and it seems reasonable that, should Khamenei feel that his own skin is threatened, he could try to save it by throwing Ahmadinejad under the bus.
Photo: Vahid Salemi / AP Photo
Previously above the fray, Iran's top authority is now a target.
The presidential campaign in Iran featured a raucous debate between the reformer Mir Hossein Mousavi and the firebrand incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The post-election battle, however, has largely featured Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Eye-uh-toll-uh Ali Kha-meh-neh-ee) in the foreground. While Khamenei had largely stayed out of day-to-day politics previously, widespread accusations of vote fraud have turned attention away from Ahmadinejad and instead to the supreme leader himself, who protesters are demanding take responsibility for the disputed election and hold a new contest. Khamenei took power in 1989 and is less well-regarded in Iran than his predecessor, the revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini. By publicly embracing Ahmadinejad and denouncing opposition protesters, he's lost much of his credibility as an apolitical religious authority and is now viewed by many observers as the clear face of the antidemocratic regime. Despite his considerable power, which includes control of Iran's Army and Revolutionary Guard, he is not entirely immune to outside pressure if the demonstrations continue as the government has the power to remove him from office. His newfound prominence also presents a challenge to President Obama, whose plans to reach out to Iran and attempt to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program may be complicated by Khamenei's close association with the country's human-rights abuses.
Photo: Morteza Farajabadi, ISNA / AP Photo
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
Well the world needs Jason Bourne to come out of hiding & take care of the ruling dictators in Iran....
The only way anything is "REALLY" going to change is if the Army steps in & makes it change... The Army is the only body big & strong enough to affect the change that is needed...
Rafsanjani lost to Ahmadinejad, correct me if I'm wrong, because him and his family got very, very rich from Iran's oil wealth, while not so much helping the poor people.
Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, has brought electricity to places which never had it, and lots of other nice things for poor people.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.