Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

In 1962, Rafsanjani got married to Effat Marashi. The couple have five children, three sons named Mohsin, Mehdi, and Yasser, and daughters Fatemeh and Faezeh.

His daughter Fatemeh followed her father’s footsteps, and entered politics. She went on to become a representative of the ‘Majlis’, the name for the Iranian parliament.

Rafsanjani was been accused of being linked to terrorists & extremists organisations several times. It’s said that he had an important role to play in the 1994 bomb blast incident which occurred at Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was born on 25 August 1934 in a village named Bahraman, located near Rafsanjani city. His family was into farming and was quite wealthy.

In 1948, Rafsanjani shifted to Qom, a Shiite dominated city of Iran to pursue his studies in Islam. During this period, he met Ayatollah Khomeini, a religious leader and an important figure in the history of Iran. Rafsanjani was greatly influenced by Khomeini.

Rafsanjani’s first victory in politics came in 1980, when he was elected as the speaker of the parliament. Rafsanjani served in this distinguished post for around 9 years.

1989 was a remarkable year in Rafsanjani’s life. He contested the presidential election and became the fourth president of Iran. Rafsanjani had a big responsibility in hand, since he had succeeded the famous leader Ali Khomeini after the latter’s death.

Though Rafsanjani wanted to improve Iran’s relationship with the West, and improve the state of the nation’s economy, his administration was criticised. This led to him being thrown out of power for a brief period.

Rafsanjani came back to power after his victory in the 1993 elections. However, this time he didn’t win with a thumping majority like the way he won in 1989.

In 2000, Rafsanjani was elected to the parliament, even though his name was not present in the list of 30 candidates announced by the ‘Iranian Ministry of the Interior’. This led to strong allegations that manipulations were made in the selection procedure to accommodate Rafsanjani.

One of Rafsanjani’s great contributions to Iran during his tenure as the President, was the introduction of various domestic policies. These policies paved way for free trading, and more interaction with Western countries. Rafsanjani also stressed that universities needed to collaborate with industries to create better job opportunities.

Rafsanjani always wanted to maintain great relations with other nations. He also helped a war-torn Iraq out of its crisis by sending loads of medicine and food for the refugees. However, he failed to impress nations like the United States.