Iran election win moves Masoud Pezeshkian from fringes to centre stage

Reformist candidate has been outspoken against actions of hardline governments while serving as MP since 2008

Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to ease Iran's strict morality laws and end the country's international isolation over its nuclear programme. Getty Images

Masoud Pezeshkian’s election as Iran’s new president comes after nearly two decades of relative obscurity since he served as the country’s health minister.

The heart surgeon was elected to parliament five times since 2008 as a representative from Tabriz, including the parliamentary election held earlier this year.

He held the post of deputy speaker from 2016 to 2020.

Mr Pezeshkian, 69, will be the first reformist to hold the presidency since Mohammed Khatami, under whom he led the health ministry from 2001 to 2005.

His victory over hardline candidate Saeed Jalili in Friday’s run-off vote also makes him the first non-cleric to win a presidential election since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as president for two terms from 2005 to 2013.

Mr Pezeshkian’s presidency is expected to be a marked shift from that of his late predecessor Ebrahim Raisi, a cleric and former member of the judiciary who ordered a tightening of morality laws, oversaw a bloody crackdown to quell months of anti-government protests and took a tough stance in nuclear talks with world powers after taking office in 2021.

The president-elect publicly criticised the Raisi government over its handling of the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, days after she was arrested by morality police on charges of breaching the Islamic Republic's strict dress code for women.

In a post on Twitter, now known as X, he called on the authorities to "set up an investigation team" to look into the circumstances behind her death.

In recent campaigning, he has maintained his stance, criticising the enforcement of mandatory hijab laws that have required women to cover their head and neck in public since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"We oppose any violent and inhumane behaviour towards anyone, notably our sisters and daughters, and we will not allow these actions to happen," he said.

He also vowed to ease internet restrictions and to involve ethnic minorities in his government.

Mr Pezeshkian was born in 1954 to an Iranian father of Turkic origin and a Kurdish mother in the city of Mahabad in the north-western province of West Azerbaijan.

He has represented Tabriz in parliament since 2008, served as health minister in Mr Khatami's government, and supervised sending medical teams to the war front during the Iran-Iraq conflict between 1980 and 1988.

In 1993, Mr Pezeshkian lost his wife and one of his children in a car accident. He never remarried and raised his remaining three children – two sons and a daughter – alone.

Iran's main reformist coalition threw its weight behind Mr Pezeshkian's presidential bid, with two former presidents, Mr Khatami and the moderate Hassan Rouhani, declaring their support.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's former foreign minister who helped secure the milestone 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, campaigned on his behalf.

Mr Pezeshkian has called for reviving the nuclear accord, which sought to curb Tehran's nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief, to bring Iran "out of isolation".

"If we manage to lift the sanctions, people will have an easier life while the continuation of sanctions means making people's lives miserable," he said during a televised interview.

With reporting from agencies.