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The Columbia Spectator September 24, 2007

Ahmadinejad Demystified

By Alex Peacocke

Ever since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted the invitation to speak on campus, students and observers have been searching everywhere for information regarding our latest lightning rod, so Spectator has provided you with a guide to this infamous world leader.

According to the Web site of the Iranian Presidency, Ahmadinejad was born in 1956 in the small Iranian village of Aradan. His rise to Iran’s highest elected office was unorthodox. Raised in a working class family in Tehran, the nation’s capital, Ahmadinejad scored high marks on Iran’s national college entrance examinations, earning him a place at the Science and Technology University in Tehran. He earned three degrees from that institution, a bachelor’s and master’s in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in transportation engineering and planning.

After earning his master’s and and prior to receiving his doctorate in 1993, Ahmadinejad served in a secret unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that he joined following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, according to www.globalsecurity.org, a source of global political analysis. During the Iran-Iraq War, he performed covert extraterritorial operations for the Iranian government.

Many, including some who were detained during the crisis, have also speculated that Ahmadinejad was involved in the 1979 seizure of 66 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran following the Islamic Revolution.

After leaving the army and before running for the presidency, Ahmadinejad held several minor gubernatorial posts around Iran. He won national fame when, in 2003, he was elected mayor of the Tehran. A perpetual dark horse candidate, his reputation as a hard-liner—even by Iranian standards—preceded him.

In the 2003 mayoral elections, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard mobilized to support his candidacy. He won the office with a voter turnout rate of less than 10 percent.

As mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad’s most notable achievement was the conversion of all the cultural centers around the city into religious centers, a move that bolstered his right-wing base.

Many Iranian commentators were also surprised when he placed second to Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a political leader supported by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini in the presidential runoff election. Ahmadinejad gained significant support from regions outside Tehran, leading some to believe that the results had been tampered with by the Revolutionary Guard. But Ahmadinejad went on to win the runoff election, without the wealth and fame that some of the other candidates possessed.

Running on a platform of economic reform, Ahmadinejad’s campaign was decidedly unlike the Western-style campaigns of his opponents. Avoiding flashy videos and large posters, Ahmadinejad bolstered his austere image with only one half-hour TV spot, which portrayed his father’s humble home.

The runoff results were a landslide in his favor. Ahmadinejad garnered more than 17 million votes, in contrast to his opponent Rafsanjani’s 9 million. The election shocked the world, since few predicted that such a hard-line candidate would win without the support of Khomeini.

Khomeini did not interfere with the election results, and Ahmadinejad’s tenure at the helm of Iran was baptized by a media firestorm, as his denial of the Holocaust and involvement in Islamist organizations drew widespread attention.

Named as a member of President Bush’s “axis of evil,” he has started a budding nuclear program in Iran—which he claims is solely for civilian purposes—and has been accused of sheltering the top leaders of Lebanese Militant Islamic group Hezbollah. The group has most of its offices in Tehran, and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, routinely appeared on television from Tehran after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

Last Saturday, before his trip to New York, Ahmadinejad issued a warning against an attack on his country while presiding over a military parade commemorating the end of the Iran-Iraq War.

“Those [countries] who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran’s fast drive toward progress are mistaken” Ahmadinejad said, referring to the U.S. trade embargo and other methods of breaking Iran’s hard-line resolve.

His remarks are a response to a statement from French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who said last week that the world should “prepare for the worst” in dealing with Iran—namely, by preparing for an attack.

Much of the outcry and sanctions levvied against Iran stem from human rights abuses under the nation’s strict adherence to the Sharia, or traditional Islamic religious law. The Sharia mandates the stoning to death of women who commit adultery as well as the death penalty for homosexuality, punishments that have both been carried out during Ahmadinejad’s presidency.

Despite remaining in vogue on the world stage, Ahmadinejad has had serious troubles at home. Failures to deliver on promised economic reforms and the institution of gasoline rationing have caused him to fall out of favor with many of his original supporters. For those Iranians who had hoped for a quieter role on the world stage, his prominence in international affairs has touched a raw nerve.

Despite his falling star at home, Ahmadinejad’s polarizing influence is certain to take effect on campus this afternoon.

Lydia Wileden contributed reporting to this article.