Who is Masoud Pezeshkian?
Masoud Pezeshkian has entered a surprising competition by passing the Guardian Council’s barrier. Views on him are diverse; some consider him a pawn of the Islamic Republic government to increase participation, while others see him as a beacon of hope for the reformists, especially now that he has garnered 42% of the votes alongside Saeed Jalili with 38%, making them the two candidates advancing to the second round of the elections.
In any case, the two-week early presidential election campaign has introduced Masoud Pezeshkian to a new phase of his political life. The two weeks, as recommended by his close associates, were supposed to be the same old Masoud Pezeshkian from decades past.
The political philosophy of this 69-year-old statesman is summarized in his own words as adherence to the principle of resource allocation fairness and promoting development based on justice for reform.
Pezeshkian is the only reformist candidate in the presidential elections.
He is one of those Iranian politicians who never wear a suit and are known for their simple lifestyle. This highly specialized heart surgeon has three children. After the death of his wife and another child in the seventies, he took on the responsibility of raising them. He has always been present in the Iran-Iraq war and later in the political scene of the Islamic Republic, even if he was not that well-known.
This is not the first time Masoud Pizeshkian has entered the presidential election competition.
In 1392, he withdrew from the competition, and in 1400, the Guardian Council did not allow him to enter the competition.
He has served four terms as a representative of Tabriz, Azarshahr, and Osku in the Islamic Consultative Assembly. It can be said that the distinct characteristic of him is his outspoken dialect and passionate speeches in this position. In 1388, after expressing his loyalty to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, he boldly stated, ‘Do not tell me what to do, I am the commander,’ using historical references. And 14 years later, in 1402, in a parliament where his fellow supporters were dwindling every day and he was almost alone, he said, ‘The people’s voice is loud, and we must listen to it in the parliament, instead of treating it as a danger signal and accusing them of acting against national security and imprisoning them.’
If we look back at the history of Masoud Pezeshki, the responsibility of the Ministry of Health in Mohammad Khatami’s second government is considered another important chapter in his performance.
It was during this period that one of the most complicated cases of Khatami’s second term was revealed – the death of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photographer after her arrest. This incident, which is still under scrutiny these days, introduced the term ‘encounter with a hard object’ into Iranian political literature for the first time.
At that time, Masoud Pezeshkian, a member of the investigating committee, had stated that the bruises on Mrs. Kazemi’s body were not related to torture, but at the same time, he emphasized that Zahra Kazemi’s skull could not have been broken as a result of a fall or accidental impact.
Forensic medicine at that time declared the skull fracture as the cause of Zahra Kazemi’s death, but dozens of unanswered questions from her family’s lawyers remained about this case.
On September 19, 2022, Abdullah Ramazanzadeh, the spokesperson for Khatami’s government, had told Shargh newspaper in an interview that in one of the government meetings, Masoud Pezeshkian had spoken about ensuring the intentional nature of the incident and the blow to Zahra Kazemi’s head resulting in a skull fracture.
In the following decades, Masoud Pezeshkian, who was a legislator and could utilize medical knowledge in his statements, addressed various suspicious deaths with medical opinions.
In 2009, Masoud Pezeshkian had told Etemad-e Melli newspaper about the deaths of detainees, ‘How is it possible for someone with no history of meningitis to suddenly contract this deadly disease in prison? The main point is that detainees are subjected to such severe beatings that officials are forced to announce the deceased had meningitis. The approach that medical professionals took until the death of Mahsa Amini in the detention center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps continued.’
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in which Iran was heavily affected, Masoud Pezeshkian, as a member of the Health and Treatment Commission of the Parliament, criticized the adopted policies multiple times and believed that the government was taking the situation lightly.
He also considered the daily statistics of deaths and COVID-19 infections announced as inaccurate and once said that a war room should be formed so that each organ does not make decisions for itself. Mr. Pezeshkian, however, believed that the President’s order to ban vaccines from Western countries was a result of misinformation to the Supreme Leader.
Masoud Pezeshkian, born in Mahabad, whose native language and his family’s language is Azerbaijani Turkish, also has a command of Kurdish. He was the head of the faction of Turkic regions in the tenth term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Although his opponents and rivals use this issue to criticize him, his supporters say Masoud Pezeshkian is pursuing a justice-oriented approach to uphold the rights of all groups in Iran. In describing his election campaign slogan for Iran, he elaborated on this approach.
Pezeshkian has always tried in TV commercials and gatherings behind the microphone to show that he is not a man of empty promises, even if this approach does not involve inciting or persuading people to vote.
In one of the political debates on TV, he called the political arena in Iran afflicted with an epidemic of lies. Mr. Pezeshkian has repeatedly emphasized in this regard that if elected, he does not intend to make any fundamental changes because there are programs and plans in the Islamic Republic such as the Seventh Development Plan that, according to himself, he must adhere to.
The continuation of his path on one side and his repeated commitment to the Supreme Leader on the other have drawn the attention of his opponents in these two weeks, to the extent that they label this candidate of the reformist spectrum as mere pawns for advancing the goals of the Islamic Republic government.
In any case, he relies on himself and nothing beyond that, or the same Masoud Pezeshkian who has entered this new stage of his political life in the past decades.
Regardless of the role he plays in this unexpected political process, if he wins against Saeed Jalili in the second round and reaches the Pasteur Building, he will have a challenging path ahead, especially since Khamenei recently emphasized to the candidates that whoever becomes president should not appoint their agents from those who have angles with the revolution.
