Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Biography Quotes 28 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born in 1956 in Aradan, Semnan Province, Iran, and moved with his family to Tehran during childhood. Raised in a lower-middle-class household, he excelled academically and entered the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), where he studied civil engineering. He earned a bachelor's degree before the 1979 revolution, followed by a master's degree in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in transportation engineering and planning. After graduate study he joined the IUST faculty and developed a reputation as a technically minded administrator and lecturer, an identity he would carry into his public career.

Revolution and Early Administrative Career
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad gravitated toward conservative Islamist networks that grew within universities and local administrations. During the Iran-Iraq War he served in engineering and logistical capacities linked to the Revolutionary Guards and regional administrations, experience that took him to Iran's western border provinces. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he held posts in West Azerbaijan and other provinces, culminating in his appointment in 1993 as the first governor of the newly established Ardabil Province under the administration of President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. His tenure emphasized road building, basic services, and a strict managerial style. Following the 1997 election of reformist President Mohammad Khatami, Ahmadinejad left the governorship and returned to academia.

Mayor of Tehran
Ahmadinejad reentered politics in 2003 when he won a seat in Tehran's city council on a conservative ticket and was selected by the council as mayor. As mayor he presented himself as a humble, hard-working technocrat who would prioritize services for low-income districts. He promoted conservative cultural policies, reversed some previous liberalizations, and emphasized small infrastructure projects. His tenure put him in close contact with conservative political networks, municipal managers, and Revolutionary Guard veterans who later supported his national rise.

Rise to the Presidency (2005)
In 2005 Ahmadinejad ran for president as an anti-corruption outsider, contrasting his modest background with that of establishment figures. He advanced to a runoff and defeated Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, campaigning on social justice, equitable distribution of oil revenues, and a combative stance against perceived elite privilege. Upon taking office he populated his cabinet and security posts with conservatives and war-era veterans. Parviz Davoudi served as first vice president in the first term; Ali Larijani initially served as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and Manouchehr Mottaki became foreign minister. Ahmadinejad's public persona fused populist rhetoric with piety, and he frequently invoked the ideals of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini while aligning closely with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the early years.

Foreign Policy and the Nuclear File
Ahmadinejad presided over a decisive turn in the nuclear dispute. Iran ended earlier voluntary suspensions and expanded uranium enrichment, prompting UN Security Council sanctions from 2006 onward. Ali Larijani resigned as nuclear negotiator in 2007 amid policy differences, and Saeed Jalili, a close ally of the president's camp, took over. Ahmadinejad's UN speeches, letters to world leaders such as George W. Bush, and remarks questioning the Holocaust created intense controversy and diplomatic isolation, while his outreach to leaders like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, and Daniel Ortega signaled a south-south axis. In 2010, working with Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he backed the Tehran Declaration on a fuel-swap proposal, but the United Nations soon passed Resolution 1929, deepening sanctions. Under Barack Obama, multilateral pressure intensified, especially on banking and oil.

2009 Election and Domestic Upheaval
Ahmadinejad won reelection in 2009 in a contest against reformist figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi and cleric-politician Mehdi Karroubi. The official results sparked the largest protests since the early revolution, known as the Green Movement. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei endorsed the outcome, and security forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under Mohammad Ali Jafari and the Basij, whose operations were associated with figures like Hossein Taeb, led a crackdown. Arrests and media restrictions followed; in 2011 Mousavi and Karroubi were placed under house arrest, which shaped the political climate throughout Ahmadinejad's second term.

Second-Term Power Struggles and Economic Strain
The second term was marked by growing friction with institutions around the Supreme Leader. Ahmadinejad attempted to appoint his close confidant Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as first vice president in 2009, but after objections from Khamenei he reassigned the role to Mohammad-Reza Rahimi. Tensions flared again in 2011 when Ahmadinejad tried to dismiss Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi; Khamenei reinstated Moslehi, and the president withdrew from cabinet meetings for days, signaling an open power struggle. Cabinet instability also included the firing of Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in 2010. Meanwhile, economic pressures mounted. Ahmadinejad implemented a sweeping subsidy reform, replacing cheap energy and basic goods with cash transfers, which, combined with sanctions and mismanagement, fed inflation and a currency crisis by 2012. Large-scale housing schemes like Maskan-e Mehr delivered units but drew criticism over quality, infrastructure, and financing. Corruption cases touched members of his circle in later years; Hamid Baghaei, a former vice president, and Mashaei faced prosecution amid an intensifying feud with judicial authorities led by figures such as Sadegh Larijani and, earlier, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei in the intelligence portfolio.

End of Presidency and Later Career
Ahmadinejad left office in 2013, succeeded by Hassan Rouhani, whose team, including Mohammad Javad Zarif, later negotiated the nuclear deal. Ahmadinejad was appointed by Khamenei to the Expediency Discernment Council, though he was not consistently active in it. He returned to IUST and maintained a public profile that mixed populist appeals with sharp criticism of the judiciary and parliament, often targeting the Larijani brothers. He registered to run for president in 2017 despite Khamenei's public advice that he not do so; the Guardian Council disqualified him. He tried again in 2021 and was again disqualified. His allies, including Baghaei and Mashaei, were arrested in 2017, 2018, deepening his rift with the establishment. Internationally he kept ties with former partners and attended events such as Hugo Chavez's funeral, where his eulogies reflected the personal rapport he cultivated with Latin American leaders.

Personal Life and Views
Ahmadinejad is married to Azam Farahi. He has long projected an austere image, emphasizing modest dress and personal frugality, a style that helped cement his appeal among poorer constituencies. His rhetoric blended nationalist themes, religious conviction, and a promise of social justice through redistribution of oil wealth. He frequently criticized Israel and the West and used global platforms like the UN General Assembly to press his case, often prompting walkouts by Western delegations. Domestically he framed himself as a defender of the downtrodden against entrenched elites, while his opponents saw in his approach a centralization of power and a confrontational foreign policy that deepened Iran's isolation.

Legacy
Ahmadinejad's legacy is polarizing. Supporters credit him with elevating social justice to the top of the agenda, delivering cash transfers, expanding some infrastructure, and confronting corruption rhetorically. Critics point to escalated international sanctions, spikes in inflation and unemployment, institutional clashes with the Supreme Leader's circle, and an erosion of Iran's diplomatic standing. His tenure reshaped the balance among Iran's power centers, from the Revolutionary Guards to the judiciary and parliament led at times by Ali Larijani, and set the stage for the pragmatic turn under Hassan Rouhani. Even after leaving office, Ahmadinejad remained a figure around whom debates about populism, legitimacy, and the direction of the Islamic Republic continued to orbit.

Our collection contains 28 quotes who is written by Mahmoud, under the main topics: Justice - Freedom - Faith - Equality - Peace.