40 Facts About Mehdi Karroubi

Mehdi Karroubi is an Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician leading the National Trust Party.

Mehdi Karroubi was the speaker of the parliament from 1989 to 1992 and 2000 to 2004, and a presidential candidate in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.

Mehdi Karroubi has been described as a "moderate" with a "mostly rural" base of support.

Mehdi Karroubi considers himself a pragmatic reformist and now is one of the leaders of the Iranian Green Movement.

Mehdi Karroubi is a founding member and former secretary-general of the Association of Combatant Clerics party.

Mehdi Karroubi is a critic of the Guardian Council and Iran's Judicial System.

Mehdi Karroubi is born on 26 September 1937 into a Shia clerical family in Aligudarz, a city in the western part of Lorestan province.

Mehdi Karroubi studied theology and Islamic studies at seminaries in Qom and Tehran.

Mehdi Karroubi studied under notable figures such as Hossein-Ali Montazeri and Ruhollah Khomeini.

Mehdi Karroubi was promoted to Mujtahid on the recommendation of the Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei and others.

Mehdi Karroubi was imprisoned several times by the government of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, during the 1970s, including a stint at the Qasr Prison in Tehran.

In 1978, Mehdi Karroubi retired from law in order to commit to politics.

Mehdi Karroubi was the head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee.

In 1988, Mehdi Karroubi re-entered business after 10 years of emphasis on politics.

Mehdi Karroubi eventually left this association in 2005 and founded his own party, Etemad-e-Melli.

Mehdi Karroubi was outspoken in supporting the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

Mehdi Karroubi visited churches, synagogues and Zoroastrian temples during his time as speaker of Parliament.

Mehdi Karroubi is a critic of the Guardian Council and on numerous occasions wrote letters to the council expressing his concerns.

Mehdi Karroubi criticized the nature of the Guardian Council's supervision over the elections.

Early after the election of Barack Obama as US president, Mehdi Karroubi stated that the changes from the United States have been positive.

Mehdi Karroubi has been a critic of President Ahmadinejad's foreign policy and his infamous remarks about the Holocaust.

Mehdi Karroubi was among the reformist candidates in the presidential election of 2005, where he finished third in the vote count, closely following the front runners, ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ayatollah Khamenei wrote to Mehdi Karroubi, characterizing these allegations as "below his dignity" and warning that they would "result in a crisis" in Iran, which he would not allow.

Mehdi Karroubi responded in an open letter, resigning from all his political posts, including that as adviser to the Supreme Leader and as a member of Expediency Discernment Council, both of which he had been appointed to by Khamenei.

Immediately after the 2005 presidential election Mehdi Karroubi founded Etemad-e Melli Party, and along with it Etemad-e Melli newspaper.

Mehdi Karroubi was described as "the best-organized" among the main candidates.

Mehdi Karroubi has his own party, his own newspaper and has always followed a clear political stance.

Mehdi Karroubi claimed to be the first candidate to announce his candidacy for the presidency.

Later, both Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi stated that a union among reformists would only help Ahamadinejad's reelection, claiming that reformists needed a massive turn out in order to win and that more candidates would advance their interests.

Mehdi Karroubi questioned mandatory Islamic dress code and proposed that Hijab needs to be optional.

Mehdi Karroubi has predicted that this will add 70000 Tomans a month to every Iranian's income.

Mehdi Karroubi has promised to appoint him vice president if elected.

Mehdi Karroubi gained endorsements from journalist Abbas Abdi, now his political advisor, and Jamileh Kadivar, former member of the parliament and his advisor on women's issues.

Mehdi Karroubi widely campaigned with his wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, during the campaign, which had previously been an unusual for a politician and his wife in Iran.

Fatemeh Mehdi Karroubi additionally served as the head of her husband's campaign in Tehran province and made separate speeches in support of her husband's candidacy.

Mehdi Karroubi raised concerns about the 2009 Iranian presidential election, saying the results had been rigged.

The head of a security team protecting Mehdi Karroubi was in a coma after being beaten, as he tried to talk with a group of attackers.

On 16 August 2017, Mehdi Karroubi started a hunger strike in protest to his house arrest situation, calling for an public trial and demanding security agents to leave his house.

Mehdi Karroubi was 79 at the time and had undergone heart surgery only days earlier; he was taken to hospital after less than 24 hours and resumed eating after the government agreed to remove intelligence agents from his home.

Mehdi Karroubi has been married to Fatemeh Mehdi Karroubi, the daughter of an Aligoudarz mercantile family, since she was 14.