
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (25 August 1934-8 January 2017) was President of Iran from 1989 to 1997 (succeeding Ali Khamenei and preceding Mohammad Khatami) and was Chairman of the Iranian Parliament from 1980 to 1989.
Biography[]
Rafsanjani was born in Bahreman near Rafsanjan in Kerman Province, Iran, to a family of pistachio farmers. He studied theology in Qom alongside Ayatollah Khomeini, and became great friends with the Ayatollah, who made him the Chairman of the Iranian Parliament in 1980. He became the de facto commander of the Iranian Army, and in 1989 became President. Rafsanjani supported a free market and de-escalation of conflict with the United States, and agreed with the privatization of business; he was seen as a pragmatic conservative. In 1989 he lost elections for a third term, and he did so again in 2005. Rafsanjani died on 8 January 2017 at the age of 82 from a heart attack.