Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh میرحسین موسوی خامنه
Mousavi in 2009.
Prime Minister of Iran
In office 31 October 1981 – 3 August 1989
President	Ali Khamenei
Leader	Ruhollah Khomeini Ali Khamenei
Preceded by	Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani (Acting)
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Personal details
Born	(1941-09-29) 29 September 1941 Khameneh, Iran
Political party	Independent
Spouse	Zahra Rahnavard
Alma mater	Shahid Beheshti University

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh (میرحسین موسوی خامنه) (born 29 September 1941) is an Iranian reformist politician, painter and architect who served as the fifth and last Prime Minister of the Islamic republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Mousavi is currently the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts and was candidate for the 2009 presidential election.

He was the last Prime Minister in Iran before the constitutional changes which removed the post of prime minister. Before that, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the High Council of Cultural Revolution. However, as of 2009, he has not participated in their meetings for a long time which is interpreted by political analysts and commentators as a sign of his disapproval. Mousavi holds a Masters degree in Architecture from Shahid Beheshti University. In the early years of the revolution, Mousavi was the Editor-in-Chief of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republic Party, the Jomhouri-e Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper.

Early life and career

Mir-Hossein Mousavi was born on 29 September 1941 in Khameneh, East Azarbaijan, Iran, to Mir-Esma'il Mousavi (Persian: میراسماعیل موسوی), a merchant from Tabriz.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi was a student studying architecture during the Shah's regime at Tehran University. Two years after the revolution (1981), he was nominated as the Prime Minister by Khomeini. He was responsible, as head of the Council of Cultural Revolution, for shutting down the entire university system for four years. Starting in 1988, on the orders of Khomeini, a council was formed, with Mousavi as a member, to revise the regime's constitution to drastically increase the powers of the supreme leader.

Mousavi's socialist ideology became very apparent during the 1980s when he initiated Islamic Socialist policies such as subsidized food coupons, oil coupons and converting private enterprises into government controlled entities. Mr. Mousavi was responsible for the mass executions of 80-81 and the dark summer of 1988 where over thirty thousand political prisoners were executed and buried and mass graves. Now after twenty years he has re-emerged as a candidate for the Islamic Republic's presidency.

Additionally, it was during his leadership that Karroubi became infamous for numerous sexual scandals and severe corruption. Due to his differences with other high-ranking clerics, he established a new government-funded party which enabled him to become speaker of parliament and an opponent of Rafsanjani. During the 6th term of the Islamic Republic's Parliament, many controversial events took place, starting with the selection of the so-called "reformist", Mohammad Khatami, as the regime's president. In spite of promises during his campaign for presidency that he would support a free press, Karroubi reneged on his promise and on the orders of Khamene'i prevented the parliament from voting on a bill to ease press restrictions.

Past elections

Mousavi refused to run for President in the 1997 elections, which caused the reformists to turn to his former Cabinet Minister, then a little-known cleric, Mohammad Khatami, who was elected by a landslide. One of the memorable tactics of the 1997 presidential election campaign was the posters containing Khatami's picture alongside Mousavi and his support for Khatami's bid, which is regarded by commentators as one major cause of the support that Khatami enjoyed amongst the working-class Iranians. Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard who is accused of holding a fake Phd.and being the first woman to be the president of an Iranian university(During her office she was known to enforce strict Hijab policies), explained in an interview that the reason for him not running in the 1997 elections was some discouraging messages from "higher officials", which refer to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and/or the then President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. During Khatami's administration, Mousavi served as the Senior Adviser to the President.

Mousavi was considered as the leading candidate of the reformist alliance to run in the Iranian presidential election, 2005. However, on 12 October 2004 he officially declined the proposal after a meeting with President Mohammad Khatami and the two other major members of the moderate Association of Combatant Clerics, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha.

2009 presidential election

Main article: Mir-Hossein Mousavi presidential campaign, 2009

File:Mir Hossein Mousavi in Zanjan by Mardetanha 0814.jpg

Supporters of Mousavi's 2009 presidential campaign

After 20 years of political silence, on 9 March 2009 Mousavi announced his bid to run in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, which has since been welcomed by many Iranians who still recall his time as Prime Minister. His intention to contest the election in June has been immensely welcomed by trade unions, labour associations, grass-roots activists on both sides of the political spectrum and working class Iranians who feel being neglected for far too long by different administrations. Mousavi is well remembered by many Iranians for managing the country during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and for his very effective steering of the country out of an economic recession. He has stated that his main goals are: to institutionalize social justice, equality and fairness, freedom of expression, to root out corruption and to speed up Iran's stagnant process of privatization and thus move Iran away from what he calls "an alms-based economy". Mousavi poses a serious pro-reform challenge to the country's hard-line establishment and the current conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whom he has often criticized for his alleged economic mismanagement, stating that when Iran "was making profits from the high prices of oil, did he (Ahmadinejad) envisage a situation when the prices would fall?".

Iranian reformers, who favour improving Iran's ties with the West and loosening social restrictions at home, view Mousavi as a viable challenge to the current conservative President Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; they believe that the latter has lost popularity even among conservatives because of his perceived mishandling of the economy, his limiting of civil liberties and his perilous steering of Iran's foreign policy; some Iranians believe that his uncompromising anti-US and anti-Israel rhetoric have increased Iran's isolation and damaged Iran's standing in the world.

On March 16, 2009, the former Iranian President Khatami withdrew from the election race in support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Goals for presidential term

Mousavi has on numerous occasions indicated his wish to change the constitution whereby to remove the existing ban on the private owership of television stations (currently all Iranian television stations are state-owned), as well as transfer the control of the law-enforcement forces to the President (so that they represent the people, since the people directly elect the President through popular vote) from the Supreme Leader. He has said that "the issue of non-compliance with the Iranian rules and regulations is the biggest problem that the country is currently faced with" and that he wishes to put in place ways to enforce the laws further, and that it is also important to bring an end to keeping people in the dark about government matters.

Outcome of Election

The election was held on June 12, 2009. Early results showed Ahmadinejad winning by a landslide, though Mousavi and many others refuse to believe it, suggesting that the Interior Minister, held by Sadegh Mahsouli, an ally of Ahmadinejad, interfered with the election and distorted the votes, to keep Ahmadinejad in power . Mousavi has claimed victory, and called for his supporters to celebrate it. Electoral results must be confirmed by the Guardian Council, a panel of senior Islamic clergymen led by Ali Khamenei .

Platform

Mousavi delivering a speech at in Zanjan

Domestic policies

In his first press conference since the start of Iranian New Year in March 2009, Mousavi stated his policies on how he will govern the country. Among his policies are creation of a free environment for the flow of information and corrections to the national budget. He wants to promote the creation of private, non-governmental TV networks and stop the operation of the "Moral Police". He has spoken about his opposition to massive changes in ministries compared to what he claims Ahmadinejad has done. Regarding the Iranian nuclear program, his plan includes reducing the cost by opposing radical approaches while maintaining what he sees as Iran's right.

He has also vowed to review laws that discriminate against women in Iran if he wins the upcoming election. He has stated that he would seek to disband the so called morality police force of Iran and make sure that women in Iran are treated equally, have the ability to attain financial empowerment and highest levels of decision making bodies.

He asked for Khatami's support in his campaign. He also welcomed Karoubi's presence. Mousavi has criticized distributing "free potato" to people by the government, and called it a clear violation of law.

Mousavi denied the claims that his candidacy is per request of Supreme Leader Khamenei, and asserted he had not sought Khamenei's approval beforehand. Some had claimed that his candidacy was a means to stop the other reformist hopeful, former President Mohammad Khatami, from proceeding with his candidacy.

Foreign policies

Back at the time when Mousavi was the Prime Minister -- when this office existed as the actual head of the cabinet in the 1980s - under whose direction Islamic Revolutionary Guards entered Lebanon in huge numbers and laid the framework for today's Lebanese Hezbollah and established the IRI's hold on Lebanon, for the purpose of militarily engaging and destroying Israel.

In 1981 in the magazine Payameh Enghelab Mousavi stated that “We are ready to participate within an armed force to fight Israel… We have repeatedly announced that we are ready to have an actual, real and military presence in Southern Lebanon and on the borders of the occupied Palestinian lands…we believe that with the support of the popular forces in Lebanon we shall be able to gradually find effective and powerful bases in the area for fighting Israel …we believe if the flow of oil in Muslim Lands is in the hands of Muslims and if the ideology of Islam controls the opening or closing of the oil valves we shall be able to bring the World Arrogance to its knees, to strike Israel and to destroy it.”

Now running for the elections, Mousavi has addressed activating foreign policy to boost national interest by reducing tensions with other nations. This includes negotiating with U.S. President Barack Obama if "his actions are in keeping with his words". His other notable assertions were when he called Ahmadinejad's approach to the issue of Holocaust a wrong one. Mousavi condemned the killing of Jews in the Holocaust. In response Ahmadinejad revealed Mousavi's own involvement with previous anti-Israeli movements.

External links

• Vote for Change - Vote for Mir Hossein Mousavi, a promotional video by a number of Iranian motion-picture celebrities, including Dariush Mehrjoui, Kiumars Pourahmad, Manijeh Hekmat, Masoud Kimiai and Mohsen Makhmalbaf: YouTube (9 min 54 sec). http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090613/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_election