Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Biography Quotes 25 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was born on August 25, 1934, in the village of Bahreman near the city of Rafsanjan in Kerman Province, Iran, to a family of pistachio farmers. The agricultural economy of his family shaped both his practical outlook and his later reputation for managerial discipline. As a young man he moved to the seminary in Qom, where he studied Islamic jurisprudence and philosophy. Among his teachers were prominent clerics, including Grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi and, most decisively, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Qom years connected him to a network of students and activists who would later form the core of the revolutionary movement, and he began writing, translating, and organizing in opposition to the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

Revolutionary Activism and the 1979 Revolution
During the 1960s and 1970s Rafsanjani emerged as a committed opponent of the Shah. He was repeatedly detained by the security service, SAVAK, for distributing literature, fundraising for families of political prisoners, and maintaining ties to exiled leaders. He paid close attention to the emerging currents of Islamist thought and studied political strategies for mobilization. Like many of Khomeini's students, he combined clerical training with a pragmatic understanding of organization and finance. In 1979, as revolutionary unrest accelerated, he became a pivotal coordinator linking clerics, lay activists, and networks aligned with Khomeini. Shortly after the revolution, he survived an armed attack attributed to the Forqan group, an episode that reinforced his image as a resilient operator in a turbulent environment.

Building the Islamic Republic
Following the revolution's victory, Rafsanjani joined the Revolutionary Council and helped shape institutional arrangements for the new state. He worked closely with figures such as Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad Javad Bahonar, and Ali Khamenei to found the Islamic Republic Party, which sought to consolidate the revolutionary coalition. After devastating bombings in 1981 killed Beheshti and later President Mohammad Ali Rajai and Prime Minister Bahonar, Rafsanjani's political weight increased. He became a linchpin in the effort to stabilize the government, reinforce the role of the clergy, and construct a constitutional order balancing elected institutions and the office of the Supreme Leader under Khomeini. His reputation as a mediator grew as he navigated rivalries among revolutionary groups and the newly formed Revolutionary Guards.

Speaker of the Majles and War Leadership
Elected to parliament, Rafsanjani served as Speaker of the Majles from 1980 to 1989. Those years coincided with the Iran-Iraq War, a period that tested the state's coherence and capacity. As Speaker, he managed legislative priorities, oversaw wartime budgets, and built alliances with technocrats and military commanders. He worked with Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi on wartime governance, despite policy differences over state control of the economy. Toward the end of the conflict, Khomeini entrusted him with significant authority in coordinating the war effort, working with commanders including Mohsen Rezaee of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rafsanjani played a central role in the decision to accept United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 in 1988, arguing for a ceasefire on strategic and economic grounds. His advocacy contributed to Khomeini's painful but decisive shift toward ending the war, a step that reshaped postwar priorities.

Transition After Khomeini and Constitutional Change
Khomeini's death in 1989 triggered a carefully managed transition. Rafsanjani was instrumental in deliberations that led the Assembly of Experts to select Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader. He also supported constitutional amendments that year which abolished the prime ministership and enhanced presidential executive authority, reconfiguring the balance among institutions. With broad elite backing he won the presidency in 1989, positioning himself as the architect of postwar reconstruction.

Presidency (1989–1997)
Rafsanjani's two-term presidency emphasized economic rebuilding, infrastructure, and administrative rationalization. He promoted pragmatic economic policies aimed at privatization, integration with global markets, and attraction of capital for energy and transport projects. He encouraged the rise of technocratic managers and economists, while centralizing decision-making to expedite reconstruction after the war's devastation. Diplomatically, he pursued cautious openings to Europe, Asian partners, and Iran's Arab neighbors to reduce isolation and obtain investment. Nonetheless, the 1990s featured persistent tensions with the United States, and sanctions expanded under the Clinton administration. Events such as the Mykonos case in Germany strained relations with Europe and complicated his outreach.

Domestically, his policies produced visible gains in roads, communications, and urban services, but also inflation, unequal outcomes, and criticism from both left-leaning Islamists and conservative factions. He balanced cultural policies between permissiveness and restriction, while maintaining the state's security posture. He cultivated working relations with senior officials such as Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and relied on the Expediency Discernment Council to resolve legislative disputes between the Majles and the Guardian Council. At the end of his presidency in 1997, he was succeeded by Mohammad Khatami, whose landslide victory signaled rising popular demand for political and social reform.

Later Career, Reform Era, and Conservative Pushback
After leaving the presidency, Rafsanjani remained a central figure, chairing the Expediency Discernment Council from 1989 onward and serving on the Assembly of Experts, where he was elected chairman in 2007 following the death of Ali Meshkini. He lost that chairmanship in 2011 to Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani amid intensifying factional struggles. He ran for the presidency again in 2005, advancing to a runoff but losing to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a populist conservative whose ascent reflected a shift in the political mood. The rivalry exposed deep divides over economic policy, foreign relations, and the legacy of the revolution.

The contested 2009 election and subsequent protests marked a turning point. Rafsanjani attempted to position himself as a guardian of institutional stability and a conduit for dialogue, and his Friday prayer sermon called for addressing public grievances and releasing detainees. His stance generated friction with hardline elements. In 2013 he registered to run for president but was disqualified by the Guardian Council; he then endorsed Hassan Rouhani, an associate from security and nuclear policy circles, who won the election and pursued negotiations that culminated in the 2015 nuclear agreement. Rafsanjani's endorsement signaled his enduring leverage and his preference for pragmatic engagement.

Ideas, Writings, and Political Style
Rafsanjani combined clerical training with a managerial, development-oriented approach. He favored institutional mechanisms such as the Expediency Council to navigate gridlock, and he sought a synthesis between revolutionary ideals and modernization. His extensive diaries and memoirs provide a daily record of deliberations among leaders, including Khomeini, Khamenei, and Ahmad Khomeini, as well as viewpoints from cabinet ministers, commanders, and lawmakers. Critics accused him of patronage and excessive concentration of power, while supporters credited him with steering the state through existential crises and laying the groundwork for reconstruction. His style was distinctly transactional, focused on deal-making and incremental gains rather than sweeping ideological ruptures.

Personal Life
Rafsanjani married Effat Marashi in 1958. They raised a family that remained active in public life: daughters Fatemeh and Faezeh Hashemi, and sons Mohsen, Mehdi, and Yasser. Faezeh served in parliament and advocated for women's participation; Mohsen worked on metropolitan infrastructure in Tehran; Mehdi faced legal controversies in later years. The family's roots in pistachio agriculture and business contributed to his public image as a figure comfortable with commerce and investment. He maintained close personal and political ties with many of the revolution's leading clerics and lay officials, including long relationships with Ali Khamenei, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ali Akbar Velayati, Akbar Nategh-Nouri, and others who shaped the Islamic Republic's trajectory.

Death and Legacy
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on January 8, 2017, in Tehran after a cardiac episode. His funeral drew vast crowds of mourners, and senior officials from across the political spectrum attended; the prayers were led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, underscoring both their long partnership and their complex rivalry. He was buried at the mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, a symbolic resting place near the leader under whom he had risen to prominence.

Rafsanjani's legacy is multi-layered. He was a revolutionary organizer, a wartime political manager, a president focused on rebuilding, and a veteran arbiter whose influence extended across decades. To supporters, he embodied pragmatism and statecraft, prioritizing cohesion and development. To detractors, he symbolized an entrenched elite that slowed political opening and tolerated inequality. Yet few dispute that he was among the most consequential figures in modern Iran, shaped by and shaping the generations around Khomeini and Khamenei, mediating between reformist aspirations associated with figures like Khatami and the conservatism consolidated under Ahmadinejad and others. His imprint endures in the institutions he helped build, the policies he championed, and the debates he sparked about the balance between revolutionary ideals and national progress.

Our collection contains 25 quotes who is written by Akbar, under the main topics: Justice - Leadership - Freedom - Peace - Sarcastic.