Part 9: Reformists
This article is a part of an eleven part series:
- What is this article about
- Early days of the democratic movement
- The kingdom of Pahlavi
Pre-revolution
Revolution
- Reza Pahlavi
- Rajavi and MEK
- Recent political activities
Reformists 👈
- Iran and superpowers
Conclusion
A bit about the reformists
Reformists are the only group among the opposition who care about democracy, Iran, and the people. Interestingly, they have been targeted not only by the far-right radicals inside Iran but also by Reza Pahlavi (far right), Maryam Rajavi (far left), the US, and Western allies.
For example, Javad Zarif, who was the chief negotiator of the JCPOA agreement, was sanctioned by the US. While Barack Obama, who did almost nothing in that agreement and caused millions of people to die in the Middle East, got a Nobel Peace Prize! I suppose we should rename it to the Nobel War Prize!
Many of the reformists have been imprisoned for decades, including but not limited to Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, Mostafa Tajzadeh, and many others. If you follow social media, you will see that all these pro-democracy activists are being targeted by the evil alliance of Pahlavi, Rajavi, Ahmadi Nejad, Rajavi, and Israel.
A few of my friends, family, and high-school classmates were also among the reformists who were imprisoned for many years. One of them was arrested when he was visiting Iran during the 2009 election (we call it the 88's coup), and was imprisoned for 5 years. At that time, he was studying at Oxford University. They arrested him just because his father was a governor of one of the states during the Khatami presidency. The leader, Rajavi, and Pahlavi, and the far-right extremists close to Ahmadi Nejad and Jalili are all against President Khatami, and they all see him as a threat, because the majority of Iranians love him and he cares about Iran more than himself.
The Parliament after the revolution
Since the 1979 Revolution, Iran's parliamentary landscape has oscillated between pro-modernist reformist and extreme far-right conservative parties. After the war with Iraq, Iranians began to see a bit of hope for a change. It started with Hashemi and later with President Mohammad Khatami (the 2nd of Khordad's movement). So, most people voted for reformists in the 6th Post-Revolutionary Parliament (the 30th from the beginning, 2000–2004). However, their dominance was short-lived due to the systematic disqualification of reformist candidates by the "filter of" the Guardian Council (half chosen directly by the leader). This council has played a decisive role in shaping parliamentary composition (and also the presidency) by disqualifying thousands of reformist and moderate candidates in elections. Unfortunately, those who love Iran and care about the country have been systematically disqualified, while those who help the anti-Iranian propaganda of Israel pass this filter. That's why right before Israel illegally attacked Iran, they eliminated people like Javad Zarif and passed a law to enforce the Hejab to destabilize the country. Fortunately, President Pezeshkian was wise enough to stand against such an anti-Iranian law.
This "obvious interference with people's choices" began mainly after Ahmadinejad's second term, when a part of the system couped against reformists and people's votes. Later, the military and the judiciary system arrested a lot of the reformists. Ever since the Guardian Council (Shoraye Negahban) has used those arrests together with "national security" as made-up excuses to disqualify reformists.
For example:
1) In the 2000 parliamentary elections, Ahmadinejad attempted to secure a seat in Tehran but ranked 61st (almost the last!), failing to win one of the 30 available seats for Tehran. Despite this setback, the Guardian Council facilitated his political ascent, culminating in his presidency in 2005. Later, he founded the far-right Paydari political party and pushed his influence further, even on the Guardian Council itself.
2) In the 2016 Parliamentary elections, thousands of reformist candidates were barred, forcing them to run "under the cover of alliances with independents".
3) In 2024, these disqualifications further tightened control, leading to a near-total far-right apple polisher conservative hold. This happened because the majority of Iranians self-sanctioned that election.
The Supreme Leader's direct/indirect endorsements, the Guardian Council's strategic candidate approvals, Ahmadinejad/Pahlavi/Rajavi, and the Western-backed propaganda machine have been instrumental in bolstering the far-right pro-war pro-one-man-dictatorship conservative power and weakening reformists.
We, pro-peace, pro-democracy Iranian activists, have been fighting against all these Western-backed pro-dictatorship radicals. It has been quite challenging for us not only to do so but also to push back all these Western/Israeli/Arabic propaganda machines (VoA Persian, ManotoTV, BBC Persian, etc.) who help their far-right allies in Iran and their pro-dictatorship puppets like Pahlavi, Rajavi, Masih Alinejad (close to Ahmadinejad's circle), and many others who run their "pretending to be the opposition business".
Side notes:
In almost all English sources, they refer to Iran's parliament as a Majlis. (which is not a Farsi word) to pretend that Iranians do not have a parliament! Lovely Western propaganda!
Similarly,
In almost all the English sources, they call schools in Iran a Madrasa (a word pronounced in an Afghan/Arabic way, not even Farsi) to pretend that Iranians don't have schools! Lovely Western propaganda!
Although most of this article is based on our sources in Farsi, while I, the author, was researching in English resources, I found this interesting fact that caught my attention repeatedly.
Akbar Hashemi Rafasanjani
Hashemi Rafsanjani was not a reformist but a moderate who wanted to unite all sides and promote the rich Iranian culture over "just one of the religions" in the country. He became the president before President Mohammad Khatami and invested a lot in technological advancement, building universities, and promoting women's participation in society. That's why, in Iran, there are more women in IT compared to Denmark and most other European countries.
Not all Akhoonds are the same!
Remember, unlike what Pahlavi, Rajavi, and Izrael say, not all the Akhoonds/Mollas/Rohaniun (Shia clerics) are the same. Unlike what these extremists say, we have people like Mohammad Khatami or Ayatollah Montazeri, who brought peace and supported equality for all. And yes, like every other group, either in Iran or any other part of the world, there are also extremist Akhoonds like Ahmad Khatami and Mesbah Yazdi.
Pahlavi's and Rajavi's followers say that all the Akhoonds should be hanged from either trees or the light poles on the streets! Plus, everyone who has ever said anything good about any Akhoonds or even spoken with one! Plus, everyone else who is not an apple polisher of Pahlavi (their Godfather & favorite dictator). These is the kind of extremists we are dealing with, and interestingly, they are backed by the US and Israel!
Regarding Israel, they HATE Islam (similar to how Naz1 German fa$cists hated another religion). That's why they proudly say that all Muslims should be wiped out of the planet!!! That's why these butchers have done this recent racial, inhumane genocide in Palestine.
Similarly, they also hate Iran, Persians, and all Iranians. That's why they celebrate Purim, and that's why they openly speak about occupying Iran and the whole region together with the US. To achieve their bigger plan:
Phase 1) Palestine, Iraq, Syria (with their fundamentalist puppets), Afghanistan (with their fundamentalist puppets), and Lebanon
Phase 2) Iran
Phase 3) The whole continent of Asia, China, Japan, etc.
If you want to learn more about ZiØn1sts, Ashk-e Nazi tribes, why they are allied with Reza Pahlavi (grandson of an allie of H1tler), Aryans, and why Israeli ZiØn1sts have a similar mindset as German Nazi fa$cists, you should read part 3, of this series, if you haven't already.
President Mohammad Khatami (a reformist who weakened radicals)
In 1997, Khatami was elected President of Iran. He was a reformist who was very popular among the people, especially the youth, and was trying to bring democracy to Iran. People voted for Khatami mainly because the leader was promoting Nategh Nouri (from the right wing) as his ideal option for the presidency, and people mainly voted for the change that Khatami had promised.
I clearly remember that President Khatami promoted freedom of speech and supported journalists, filmmakers, and anyone else to express their thoughts without fear of being arrested or killed. He also supported women's equal rights and built numerous universities where more than 50 percent of their students were women.
President Khatami promoted the idea of "Dialogue Among Civilizations" in the UN, which was welcomed by many countries worldwide. If you are interested, you can listen to one of his talks:
Only if the US and Israel were not against this "Dialogue Among Civilizations," then we could have peace in the whole region, but unfortunately, supporting extremists and wars is in favor of the US and Israel. During this time, the economy became stable, freedom of speech was back, and a new generation was educated at universities who could not be easily fooled into blindly following orders from above. That made the radicals quite angry, so they planned to take over the next election.
Interestingly, out of nowhere, the top leadership found someone with the same family name as President Khatami. Ahmad Khatami, who was a far-right radical extremist, was selected by the leader to speak regularly at the Friday prayers in Tehran. Ever since, Ahmad Khatami has mainly spoken against Mohammad Khatami and other reformists. Similarly, Rajavi (the leader of MEK) and Reza Pahlavi (the leader of monarchists) have also done the same against those who really care about Iran and peace.
88: The coup of radicals against people and the right to vote
When Ahmadinejad was first elected, people knew very little about him. Mainly, those who lived in small villages fell into his populist trap. In 2009, after the first round of his presidency, people were pretty unhappy about what he did to the economy and society. During that time, Ahmadinejad gave away almost all the critical infrastructure and big companies either to his close friends or organizations close to the Beyt (King's court).
That was the main reason why people decided to vote for Mir Hossein Mousavi; A reformist promising to bring back democracy, freedom of speech, economic stability, and the good times of Khatami.
However, extremists planned to rig the election with the help of some top military commanders and intelligence services. Iranians call that coup the "88's election engineering".
Wondering why we call it 88 (1388), even though it was 2009?
In Iran, we have a different calendar (Jalali calendar—since 1079 AD), known to be the most accurate solar-based calendar in the world. In our calendar, the first day of the year is the first day of spring, calculated precisely based on the position of the Sun and Earth. Our calendar year is 365.25 days long, and we have a leap year every 4 years. Back in the day, the "year 1" was calculated based on the year traditionally associated with the ascension of Cyrus the Great to power. Simply speaking, year 1 in our calendar used to be 559 BCE in the Gregorian calendar. After the revolution, Emam Khomeini ordered to change this "year 1" to when the Prophet Mohammad migrated from Mecca to Medina. Many Iranians say that it made it less Iranian and more Arabic. Read more about it here.
The death of Hashemi
Many believe that Hashemi was drowned and killed in Ashraf's pool by a group of extremists close to Ahmadinejad who had found their way to the military. Is this true? I don't know.
This action was supported by a known-to-be Israeli-backed group, Paydari, founded based on the ideologies of Mesbah-Yazdi (Also known as Temsah Yazdi = the "Ayatollah Crocodile", who was not happy about failing to become a leader). This group supported Ahmadinejad, whose job was to create chaos in society to eliminate all the independent political reformists and social activists who promoted democracy and help Israel create the "hate-based fear" that they needed.
President Rouhani
President Rouhani served as Iran's President from 2013 to 2021. He was not a reformist but a moderate who wanted less power for the leader and more for the people. During his presidency, Javad Zarif, the former foreign minister, negotiated with the US and signed the JCPOA agreement to bring peace to the world. Even though Javad Zarif ran these negotiations, Barack Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for it. Instead, he got multiple sanctions from the US!!, and then later, Trump completely withdrew from the agreement.
President Pezeshkian
Masoud Pezeskian, the current president of Iran, is a reformist who has been in the parliament for many years. He is a medical doctor, manager, and politician who has been very popular among people. Even though the US and Israel are working hard to eliminate him and return the power to the far-right extremists, he is trying hard to bring peace to the region. If you want to see what President Pezeshkian of Iran thinks, listen to his recent speech at the UN:
Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian is an Iranian politician and physician who has been serving as the ninth president of Iran since 28 July 2024. Pezeshkian served as governor of Piranshahr and Naghadeh counties, the Azeri-speaking parts of Iran's multicultural, diverse country. He was also elected to the Iranian parliament five times. He also served as Minister of Health and Medical Education from 2001 to 2005 in the Government of President Khatami.
Dr. Pezeshkian is a proponent of peace and promotes gender equality and ethnic rights in Iran. He supports the idea of a strong, defensive military and a peaceful foreign policy.
Interestingly, even though initially, Dr. Pezeshkian said Iran is open to negotiations if the US proves that it has positive intentions, again, the US showed its dishonesty, Trump put a new round of sanctions to target Iran’s oil network, right after he took office! That led the leader to show up in front of the army's commanders on the 7th of February 2025 and say that Iran should not negotiate with people like Trump when the US failed again to show any positive intentions.
In the past 20 years, all the US and Israel have done is weakening the reformists and empower the anti-Iranian, pro-war, far-right, anti-democracy radicals..
Javad Zarif
Mohammad Javad Zarif, or Javad Zarif, is an Iranian diplomat and academic who used to be Iran's foreign minister from 2013 to 2021. He was the chief negotiator leading the JCPOA agreement and was the one who ran the negotiations with the US and other countries. In August 2024, after President Pezeshkian was elected, he became the Vice President for Strategic Affairs. Zarif has held various significant diplomatic and cabinet posts. He is a visiting professor at the School of International Relations and the University of Tehran, teaching diplomacy and international organizations. He was the Permanent Representative of Iran to the United Nations from 2002 to 2007. He served as an advisor and senior advisor to the Foreign Minister, Deputy Foreign Minister in Legal and International Affairs, member of the UN Eminent Persons Group on Dialogue Among Civilizations, Head of the UN Disarmament Commission in New York, and Vice President for International Affairs of the Islamic Azad University. Later, a group of extremists in the Parliament, close to Saeed Jalili and Ahmadinejad, passed a law to eliminate Javad Zarif, right in the middle of negotiations and right before Israel's illegal attack on Iran! Many think those should be Israeli assets who have found their way into Iran's political system.
Even though Javad Zarif did everything he could possibly do to bring peace to the world and definitely deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, in July 2019, Trump and the United States imposed sanctions on him and called him an "illegitimate spokesperson for Iran"!
Remember, Barack Obama, who did almost nothing, got a Nobel Peace Prize for the JCPOA agreement, but Javad Zarif got sanctions! That's the kind of double standard we are talking about.
If you want to learn about how he thinks about the world, listen to his recent conversation with Fareed Zakaria:
Thank you for reading this far. Next part?
Part 10: Iran and superpowers
