name	Durban
native name lang
settlement type	City
map caption	Map of the eThekwini metropolitan area, showing Durban
dot x	|dot_y
pushpin map	South Africa
pushpin map caption	Location of Durban in South Africa
coordinates type	region:ZA_type:city
coordinates display	inline,title
subdivision type	Country
subdivision name	South Africa
subdivision type1	Province
subdivision name1	KwaZulu-Natal
subdivision type2	Metropolitan municipality
subdivision name2	eThekwini
established title	Established
established date	1835
area magnitude	1 E9
area footnotes
population total	3468086
population as of	2007
population density km2	1513
timezone1	South Africa Standard Time
utc offset1	+2
postal code type	Postal Code
postal code	4001
area code	031
website	www.durban.gov.za
footnotes	}}

Durban (, from ''itheku'' meaning 'bay') is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in the country. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism because of the city's warm subtropical climate and extensive beaches. The municipality, which includes neighbouring towns, has a population of almost 4.5 million, making the combined municipality the biggest city on the east coast of the African continent. The metropolitan land area of is comparatively larger than other South African cities, resulting in a somewhat lower population density of .

History

Archaeological evidence from the Drakensberg mountains suggests that the Durban area has been inhabited by communities of hunter-gatherers since 100,000 BC. These people lived throughout the area of present day KwaZulu-Natal until the expansion of Bantu farmers and pastoralists from the north saw their gradual displacement,incorporation or extermination.

Little is known of the history of the first residents, as there is no written history of the area until it was sighted by Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who sailed parallel to the KwaZulu-Natal coast at Christmastide in 1497 while searching for a route from Europe to India. He named the area "Natal", or Christmas in Portuguese.

First European settlers

The modern city of Durban dates from 1824, when a party of 25 men under British Lieutenant F. G. Farewell arrived from the Cape Colony and established a settlement on the northern shore of the Bay of Natal, near today's Farewell Square. Accompanying Farewell was an adventurer named Henry Francis Fynn. Fynn was able to befriend the Zulu King Shaka by helping him to recover from a stab wound he suffered in battle. As a token of Shaka's gratitude, he granted Fynn a "30-mile strip of coast a hundred miles in depth."

During a meeting of 35 European residents in Fynn's territory on 23 June 1835, it was decided to build a capital town and name it "d'Urban" after Sir Benjamin d'Urban, then governor of the Cape Colony.

Republic of Natalia

The Voortrekkers established the Republic of Natalia in 1838, with its capital at Pietermaritzburg.

Reports filtered back to the Cape Colony of mistreatment of the Zulu by the Voortrekkers. The governor of the Cape Colony dispatched a force under Captain Charlton Smith to re-establish British rule in Port Natal. The force arrived on 4 May 1842 and built a fortification that was later to be ''The Old Fort''. On the night of 23/24 May 1842 the British attacked the Voortrekker camp at Congella. The attack failed, and the British had to withdraw to their camp which was put under siege. A local trader Dick King and his servant Ndongeni were able to escape the blockade and rode to Grahamstown, a distance of in fourteen days to raise reinforcements. The reinforcements arrived in Durban 20 days later; the Voortrekkers retreated, and the siege was raised.

Fierce conflict with the Zulu population led to the evacuation of Durban, and eventually the Afrikaners accepted British annexation in 1844 under military pressure.

British colonial rule

A British governor was appointed to the region and many settlers emigrated from Europe and the Cape Colony. The British established a sugar cane industry in the 1860s. Farm owners had a difficult time attracting Zulu labourers to work on their plantations, so the British brought thousands of indentured labourers from India on twenty five-year contracts. As a result of the importation of Indian labourers, Durban has the largest Asian community in South Africa and the African continent. South Africa also has the largest Hindu population outside India.

Durban's historic regalia

When the Borough of Durban was proclaimed in 1854, the council had to procure a seal for official documents. The seal was produced in 1855 and was replaced in 1882. The new seal contained a coat of arms without helmet or mantling that combined the coats of arms of Sir Benjamin D’Urban and Sir Benjamin Pine. An application was made to register the coat of arms with the College of Arms in 1906, but this application was rejected on grounds that the design implied that D’Urban and Pine were husband and wife! Nevertheless, the coat of arms appeared on the council’s stationery from about 1912. The following year, a helmet and mantling was added to the council’s stationery and to the new city seal that was made in 1936.

The blazon of the arms registered by the South African Bureau of Heraldry and granted to Durban on 9 February 1979. The coat of arms fell into disuse with the reorganisation of the South African local government structure in 2000. The seal ceased to be used in 1995.

Durban today

Today, Durban is the busiest container port in Africa and a popular tourist destination. The Golden Mile, developed as a welcoming tourist destination in the 1970s, as well as Durban at large, provide ample tourist attractions, particularly for people on holiday from Johannesburg. It lost its international holiday pre-eminence to Cape Town in the 1990s, but remains more popular among domestic tourists. The city is also a gateway to the national parks and historic sites of Zululand and the Drakensberg.

Government and politics

Since the creation of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, Durban has not had a mayor ''per se''. The mayor of eThekwini is elected for a five year term. Since 1996, the mayor has been Obed Mlaba, who was re-elected to his third term in 2006. Following the May 2011 Local Government election James Nxumalo, the former Speaker of the Council, was elected as the new mayor.

The name of the Durban municipal government, prior to the post-apartheid reorganisations of municipalities, was the Durban Corporation or City of Durban.

The Freedom of Expression Institute has reported that there have been problems with the Municipality allowing shack dwellers their legal right to march.

There have been reports of serious corruption by high level city officials.

Geography and climate

Durban is characterised by a mild subtropical climate with warm wet summers and mild moist to dry winters, which are frost-free. However, due to large altitude variations, some western suburbs get slightly chilly in the winter. Durban has an annual rainfall of The average annual temperature is , with daytime maxima peaking from January to March at and the minimum is , dropping to daytime highs from June to August of and the minimum is . Sunrise in Durban is at 04h45 *(04h15) and sunset is 19h00 *(19h30) in summer & rise at 06h30 *(06h10) and set at 17h20 *(17h00) in winter. (* = dawn and dusk)

Durban and its suburbs are hilly, with very few flat areas, except for locations in and around the central business district and the harbour. The western suburbs off Hillcrest and Kloof are significantly higher above sea-level, reaching up to in the community of Botha's Hill. Many gorges and ravines are found within the metropolitan area. There is almost no true coastal plain.

Demographics

[[File:Ethekwini dominant language map.svg|thumb|Geographical distribution of home languages in eThekwini metropole ]] Durban is ethnically diverse, with a cultural richness of mixed beliefs and traditions. Zulus form the largest single ethnic group.

The city’s demographics indicate that 68% of the population are of working age, and 38% of the people in Durban are under the age of 19 years.It has an extremely high rate of HIV/AIDS at 32%.

Economy

The Durban Metropolitan Area (DMA) has a large and diversified economy with strong manufacturing, tourism, transportation, finance and government sectors. Its coastal location and large port gives it comparative advantage over many other centres in South Africa for export-related industry. Durban's mild climate, warm marine current and culturally diverse population has also provided a drawcard for tourism to the region.

There has, however, been little growth in the number of jobs provided by DMA's formal sector over the past 20 years. The manufacturing sector, which is second only to government in the number of jobs provided, has been shedding jobs as firms restructure and become more capital intensive. High rates of crime have become a disincentive to growth in tourism and many other sectors. Despite a dynamic and growing small and micro business sector, the DMA has very high rates of unemployment, reaching over 30% in some areas of the city. There are still few economic opportunities in the former township areas. The central business district has experienced an economic decline due to crime and grime. Many corporates have relocated due to rampant decentralisation, especially to the Umhlanga area north of the city. This region has become a new central business district near the Gateway Theatre of Shopping.

Efforts have recently been made to attract business back to the city, with the new Durban Point Waterfront development south-east of downtown sporting uShaka Marine World and many new residential and leisure developments. It is hoped efforts by the city to clean up the business district, new developments in Point and the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium north of the CBD (Moses Mabidha Stadium) will aid in the economic turnaround.

Durban's economic contribution to the region

The Durban Metropolitan Area is the main economic driver in KwaZulu-Natal, contributing over half of the province's output, employment and income. In national terms, Durban is the second most important economic complex after Gauteng, accounting for 15% of national output, 14% of household income and 11% of national employment. Regional development corridors link Durban northwards to Richards Bay and Maputo, and westward to Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg.

Informal sector

The City's responses to informal housing have been met with a mixed reaction. The City won two Vuna awards from the state. But its treatment of shack dwellers has been strongly criticised by a report from the United Nations linked Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and there has also been strong criticism of the city's treatment of street traders and street children.

Civil Society

There are a number of prominent civil society organisations based in ethekwini. These include: Abahlali baseMjondolo (shackdwellers') movement which has over 10,000 members, the Diakonia Council of Churches, the Right2Know Campaign, and the South African Unemployed Peoples' Movement.

Visitor attractions

The Golden Mile

Suncoast Casino and Entertainment World

The Victoria Embankment (also known as The Esplanade) is home to many tourist sites.

The International Convention Centre (ICC) – the leading conference centre in Africa for the last 5 years, and rated 4th in the world in 2005.

uShaka Marine World, one of the largest Aquariums in the world.

Sahara Stadium Kingsmead is a major test match and one-day cricket venue.

Kings Park Stadium (Previously known for sponsorship reasons as ABSA Stadium) is host to the internationally renowned Sharks Rugby Team.

Gateway Theatre of Shopping

Greyville Racecourse (home of the Durban July Handicap) and Durban Country Club and golf course.

Umgeni River Bird Park

Communications and media

Two major English-language daily newspapers are published in Durban, both part of the Independent Newspapers, the national group owned by Irish media magnate Tony O'Reilly. These are the morning editions of The Mercury and the afternoon Daily News. Like most news media in South Africa, they have seen declining circulations in recent years. Major Zulu language papers comprise "Isolezwe" ( Independent Newspapers), "UmAfrika" and "Ilanga", the latter being seen to be politically aligned to the IFP. Independent Newspapers also publish "Post", a newspaper aimed largely at the Indian community. A national Sunday paper, the "Sunday Tribune" is also published by Independent Newspapers as is the "Independent on Saturday".

A variety of free weekly suburban newspapers are published by the Caxton Group and there are numerous "community" newspapers, some of which are short lived and others which have had stable tenure. The Tabloid Newspaper group situated in North Coast Road,Durban has also added to the variety of community newspapers.They have ten newspaper publications, three of them in the isiZulu language. Community newspapers target specific areas or zones rooting out and exposing community issues like a magnifying glass. These papers rely solely on advertising revenue and are delivered to each house hold irrespective of race or wealth. Many journalists gain experience at these papers before moving on to other major national publications.

A major city initiative is the eZasegagasini Metro Gazette (). It is the official newspaper of the eThekwini Municipality, through which ratepayers and residents are kept informed about projects, programmes and activities of the eThekwini Municipality. It is also a forum for readers’ views. Published fortnightly, the newspaper hits the streets on a Friday morning, with 400 000 copies distributed in English and Zulu. The publication is an in-house product of the Municipality’s Communications Department.

A major English language radio station, East Coast Radio (), operates out of Durban and is owned by SA media giant Kagiso Media. The national broadcaster, the SABC, has regional offices in Durban and operates two major stations here, the Zulu language "Ukhozi FM" with a huge national listenership of over 5 million, and Radio Lotus, aimed at "Indian" listeners. The other SABC national stations have smaller regional offices here, as does TV for news links and sports broadcasts. There are a number of smaller stations which are independent, having been granted licences by ICASA, the national agency charged with the issue of broadcast licences.

Sports teams and stadia

Durban is home to two closely related rugby union teams, the Natal Sharks, who compete in the domestic Currie Cup competition, and the Sharks, who compete in the international Super Rugby competition. Both teams play out of the 56,000 capacity Kings Park Stadium, sometimes referred to as the ''Shark Tank'' – currently it is known as the Mr Price Kings Park for sponsorship reasons.

The City is also home to three clubs in the Premier Soccer League—AmaZulu, Thanda Royal Zulu and the Golden Arrows. AmaZulu play most of their home games in their own Princess Magogo Stadium, but will take especially important fixtures to ABSA Stadium. Similarly, the Golden Arrows have their own stadium, King Zwelithini Stadium in the suburb of Umlazi, but play their most important matches in ABSA Stadium. Durban used to be home to a fourth team, Manning Rangers, who won several honours including the league championship. Durban is also host to the Dolphins, the provincial cricket team. Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Barry Richards all come from the Dolphins (although it was formally called Natal). Cricket in Durban is played at Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.

Durban hosted matches in the 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup. In 2007 the city hosted nine matches, including a semi-final, as part of the inaugural ICC World Twenty20. The 2009 IPL season was played in South Africa, and Durban was selected as a venue. 2010 saw the city host six matches, including a semi-final, in the 2010 Champions League Twenty20.

Durban was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and is the host of an A1GP motor race, driven on a street track. It is rumoured that Durban will bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2020 Summer Olympics. Durban hosted the 123rd IOC Session in July 2011.

The City is home to Greyville Racecourse, a major Thoroughbred horse racing venue which annually hosts a number of prestigious races including the country's premier event, the July Handicap, and the premier staying event in South Africa, the Gold Cup. Another well-equipped Racecourse is located at Clairwood, just south of the city centre and not far from Durban International Airport.

A professional Tennis venue is located at Westridge Park near The Berea, and an Olympic-standard swimming pool is found in the Kings Park Sporting Precinct. In addition to these venues, Durban has facilities for Water Polo, Hockey, and other sports, most notably the outstanding beach front which has played host to numerous water sports events such as the Mr Price Pro (previously known as the Gunston 500) surfing competition and the related Ocean Action festival. Beach volleyball is regularly played on local beaches and Powerboat racing has taken place in the Harbour. Durban and surrounding areas are also well patronised by Professional and Amateur golfers, with the golf course at Durban Country Club near the CBD being particularly well-known.

Transport

Air

King Shaka International Airport services both domestic and international flights, with regularly scheduled service to Dubai, Swaziland, Mozambique, and Mauritius. The airport opened in May 2010, replacing all operations from Durban International Airport, which handled four million passengers in 2005, up over 15 percent from 2004. King Shaka International Airport was constructed at La Mercy, about north of central Durban. All operations at Durban International have been transferred to King Shaka International as of 1 May 2010; with plans for flights to Singapore, London and Australia.

The Durban International Airport was used by the South African Defence Force during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and as a secondary airport to handle overflow.

The airport serves as a major gateway for travellers to KwaZulu-Natal and the Drakensberg.

Sea

Durban has a long tradition as a port city. The Port of Durban, which was formerly known as the Port of Natal, is one of the few natural harbours between Port Elizabeth and Maputo, and is also located at the beginning of a particular weather phenomenon which can cause extremely violent seas. These two features made Durban an extremely busy port of call for ship repairs when the port was opened in the 1840s. The Port of Durban is now the busiest port in South Africa, as well as the third busiest container port in the Southern Hemisphere.

The modern Port of Durban grew around trade from Johannesburg, as the industrial and mining capital of South Africa is not located on any navigable body of water. Thus, products being shipped from Johannesburg outside of South Africa have to be loaded onto trucks or railways and transported to Durban. The Port of Maputo was unavailable for use until the early 1990s due to civil war and an embargo against South African products. There is now an intense rivalry between Durban and Maputo for shipping business.

Salisbury Island now joined to the mainland and part of the Port of Durban, was formerly a full naval base until it was downgraded in 2002. It now contains a naval station and other military facilities. The future of the base, however, is uncertain, as there is increasing demand to use Salisbury Island as part of the port facilities.

Rail

Durban featured the first operating steam railway in South Africa when the Natal Railway Company started operating a line between the Point and the city of Durban in 1860.

Durban is well-served by railways due to its role as the largest trans-shipment point for goods from the interior of South Africa. Shosholoza Meyl, the passenger rail service of Spoornet, operates two long-distance passenger rail services from Durban: a daily service to and from Johannesburg via Pietermaritzburg, and a weekly service to and from Cape Town via Kimberley and Bloemfontein. These trains terminate at Durban railway station.

Metrorail operates a commuter rail service in Durban and the surrounding area. The Metrorail network runs from Durban Station outwards as far as Stanger on the north coast, Kelso on the south coast, and Cato Ridge inland.

A high speed rail link has been proposed, between Johannesburg and Durban.

Roads

The City's main position as a port of entry onto the southern African continent has led to a development of national roads around it. One such highway starts in Durban, and one passes through it. The N3 Western Freeway; which links Durban with the economic hinterland of Gauteng heads west out of the city. The N2 Outer Ring Road links Durban with the Eastern Cape to the south, and Mpumalanga in the north. The Western Freeway is particularly important because freight is shipped by truck to and from the Witwatersrand for transfer to the port.

The N3 Western Freeway starts in the central business district and heads west under Tollgate Bridge and through the suburbs of Sherwood and Mayville. The EB Cloete Interchange (which is informally nicknamed the Spaghetti Junction) lies to the east of Westville, allowing for transfer of traffic between the N2 Outer Ring Road and the Western Freeway.

The N2 Outer Ring Road cuts through the city from the north coast to the south coast. It provides a vital link to the Durban International Airport and to the coastal towns (such as Scottburgh and Stanger) that rely on Durban.

Durban also has a system of freeway and dual arterial metropolitan routes, which connect the sprawling suburbs that lie to the north, west and south of the city. The M4 exists in two segments: The northern segment, named the Leo Boyd Highway, starts as an alternative highway at Ballito where it separates from the N2. It passes through the northern suburbs of Umghlanga and La-Lucia where it becomes a dual carriageway and ends at the northern edge of the CBD. The southern segment of the M4, the Albertina Sisulu Highway, starts at the southern edge of the CBD, connecting through to the Durban International Airport, where it once again reconnects with the N2 Outer Ring Road.

The M7 connects the southern industrial basin with the N3 and Pinetown via Queensburgh via the N2. The M19 connects the northern suburbs with Pinetown via Westville.

The M13 is an untolled alternative to the N3 Western Freeway (which is tolled at Mariannhill). It also feeds traffic through Gillitts, Kloof, and Westville. In the Westville area it is called the Jan Smuts Highway, while in the Kloof area it is named the Arthur Hopewell Highway.

A number of streets in Durban were renamed in the late 2000s to the names of figures related to the anti-apartheid struggle, persons related to liberation movements around the world (including Che Guevera, Kenneth Kaunda and SWAPO), and others associated with the governing African National Congress. A few street names were changed in the first round of renaming, followed by a larger second round . The renamings provoked incidents of vandalism , as well as protests from opposition parties and members of the public .

Buses

Remant Alton, a company which bought Durban Transport in 2003, operated scheduled bus services throughout the Durban metropolitan area. However, Remant Alton's services were suspended in March 2009 due to violent industrial action by its employees, unroadworthy vehicles and the company's poor financial position. Remant Alton is barely functional, has lost key individuals, suffered the loss of 56 buses in a fire, and had many of the remainder impounded due to unroadworthiness. This has left Durban with a poorly functioning formal public transport system.

The Durban People Mover is a tourist-oriented bus service which runs every 15 minutes and consists of three routes within the central business district and along the beachfront, connecting various attractions.

Several companies run long-distance bus services from Durban to the other cities in South Africa. Buses have a long history in Durban. Most of them run by Indian owners since the early 1930`s. Privately owned buses who are not subsidised by the government service the communities timeoulsy. Buses operate in all areas of the eThekwini Municipality. Since 2003 buses have been violently taken out of the routes and bus ranks by taxi operators. This has brought bus operations into disarray. Bus owners have bought into taxi operations using their bus permits to make a living.

Taxis

Durban has two kinds of taxis: metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city to solicit fares and instead must be called and ordered to a specific location. There are a number of companies which service the Durban and surrounding regions. These taxis can also be called upon for airport transfers, point to point pick ups and shuttles.

Mini bus taxis are the standard form of transport for the majority of the population who cannot afford private cars. With the high demand for transport by the working class of South Africa, minibus taxis are often filled over their legal passenger allowance, making for high casualty rates when minibuses are involved in accidents. Minibuses are generally owned and operated in fleets, and inter-operator violence flares up from time to time, especially as turf wars over lucrative taxi routes occur.

Rickshaws

Durban is also famous for its iconic Zulu Rickshaw pullers navigating throughout the city. These colourful characters are famous for their giant, vibrant hats and costumes. Although they had been a mode of transportation since the early 1900s, they have been displaced by other forms of motorised transport, and the 25 or so remaining rickshaws mostly cater to tourists today.

Suburbs

Educational institutions

Private schools

{| |- style="vertical-align:top;" |

Al Falaah College

Clifton School

Eden College, South Africa

Crawford College, La Lucia

Crawford College, North Coast

Deutsche Schule Durban

Durban Girls' College

Highbury Preparatory School

Hillcrest Christian Academy

Highway College

Holy Family College

Eden College Durban

|

Kearsney College

Inanda Seminary

St Henry's Marist Brothers' College

Maris Stella School

Oakridge College

Orient Islamic School

Jasmine Codd School

St. Mary's D.S.G.

Thomas More College

Roseway Waldorf School

Star College

Victory Christian Academy

|}

Public schools

{| |- style="vertical-align:top;" |

Apollo Secondary School

Arena Park Secondary School

Atholton Primary School

Avoca Primary School

Avoca Secondary School

Bechet High School

Berea Primary School

Bonela Primary School

Brighton Beach Senior Primary

Carrington Primary School

Chatsworth High School

Chelsea Preparatory School

Crystalpiont Secondary School

Daleview Secondary School

Dawnridge Primary school

Dr AD Lazarus Secondary School

Durban Academy High School

Durban Girls' High School (DGHS)

Durban High School (DHS)

Durban North College

Effingham Primary School

Effingham Secondary School

Foresthaven Secondary

Gelofte High School

George Campbell School of Technology

Glenwood High School

Glenwood Preparatory School

Glenover Secondary school

Greenbury Secondary School

Greenheights Primary School

Grosvenor Boys High School

Grosvenor Girls High School

Hillgrove Secondary School (HSS)

Hillcrest High School

Hunt Road Secondary

Isipingo Secondary School

John Dube High School

Kingsway High School

Kloof High School

|

Kloof Junior Primary School

Kloof Pre-Primary School

Kloof Senior Primary School

Montclair Senior Primary School

Mowat Park High School

Mzuvele Secondary School

New Forest High School

New Germany Primary School

Northlands Girls' High School

Northmead Secondary School

Northwood School

NqabakaZulu Comprehensive High School

Ogwini Comprehensive High School

Open Air School

Palmcroft Primary School

Parkhill Secondary School

Parlock Primary School

Penzance Primary School

Pinetown Boys' High School

Pinetown Girls' High School

Port Natal High School

Queensburgh Girls' High School

Queensburgh High School

Reservoir Hills Secondary School

Ridge Park College

Sastri College

Sibonelo High School

Sishosonke High School

Sivananda Technical College and High School

Stanmore Secondary School

Swelihle High School Virginia Preparatory School Vukuzakhe High School

Werda Hoërskool

Westcliff Secondary School

Westville Boys' High School

Westville Girls' High School

Wingen Heights Secondary School

Werda High School

Zakhe High School

Zeph Dlomo High School

Zwelibanzi High School

|}

Tertiary institutions

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Durban University of Technology

Varsity College

Regent Business School

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Durban is twinned with:

* Alexandria, Egypt

* Baku, Azerbaijan

* Chicago, Illinois, United States

* Leeds, United Kingdom,

* Rotterdam, Netherlands

Guangzhou, China

* Nantes, France

* Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

Bremen, Bremen (state)>Bremen, Germany

* Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

* Le Port, Réunion

* [[Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

* New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

* Oran, Algeria

Eilat, Israel

* Maracaibo, Venezuela

* Kaohsiung, Taiwan

See also

Art Deco in Durban

Durban Industry Climate Change Partnership Project (DICCPP)

World Conference against Racism 2001 – held in Durban

Durban International Film Festival

References

External links

Official Durban city website

Municipal Demarcation Board

Statssal

Independent Electoral Commission 2004 election results

Category:Cities in South Africa Category:EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality Category:History of KwaZulu-Natal Category:Indian Ocean Category:Populated places established in 1824 Category:Populated places in KwaZulu-Natal Category:Port cities in South Africa Category:Populated coastal places in South Africa Category:IOC Session Host Cities

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Name	Barbara Boxer
Order	Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Term start	January 4, 2007
Predecessor	James Inhofe
Order2	Chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics
Term start2	January 4, 2007
Predecessor2	George Voinovich
Jr/sr3	Junior Senator
State3	California
Alongside3	Dianne Feinstein
Term start3	January 3, 1993
Preceded3	Alan Cranston
State4	California
District4	6th
Term start4	January 3, 1983
Term end4	January 3, 1993
Preceded4	Phillip Burton
Succeeded4	Lynn C. Woolsey
Birth date	November 11, 1940
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York
Occupation	Politician
Residence	Rancho Mirage, California
Party	Democratic
Spouse	Stewart Boxer
Children	Douglas BoxerNicole Boxer
Alma mater	Brooklyn College
Net worth	$1–5.5 million (USD)
Religion	Judaism
Website	Barbara Boxer: US Senator from California }}

Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is the junior United States Senator from California (since 1993). A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1983–1993).

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Boxer graduated from Brooklyn College. She worked as a stockbroker for several years before moving to California with her husband. During the 1970s, she worked as a journalist for the ''Pacific Sun'' and as an aide to U.S. Representative John L. Burton. She served on the Marin County Board of Supervisors for six years and become the board's first female president. With the slogan "Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn", she was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, representing California District 6. She sat on the House Armed Services Committee, and was involved in government oversight, passing several procurement reforms.

Boxer won the 1992 election for the U.S. Senate. She holds the record for the most popular votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, having received 6.96 million votes in her 2004 re-election. Boxer is the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee and the chair of the Select Committee on Ethics, making her the only senator to preside over two committees simultaneously. She is also the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip.

Early life and family

Barbara Levy Boxer was born in Brooklyn, New York to Jewish parents Sophie (née Silvershein; born in Austria) and Ira Levy. She attended public schools, and graduated from George W. Wingate High School in 1958.

In 1962, she married Stewart Boxer and graduated from Brooklyn College with a bachelor's degree in Economics. While in college she was a member of Delta Phi Epsilon (social) sorority and was a cheerleader for the Brooklyn College basketball team.

Boxer worked as a stockbroker for the next three years, while her husband went to law school. Later, the couple moved to Greenbrae, Marin County, California, and had two children, Doug and Nicole. She first ran for political office in 1972, when she challenged incumbent Peter Arrigoni, a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, but lost a close election. Later during the 1970s, Boxer worked as a journalist for the Pacific Sun and as an aide to John Burton, then a member of Congress. In 1976, Boxer was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors, serving for six years. She was the Board's first woman president.

In 1994, her daughter Nicole married Tony Rodham, brother of then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a ceremony at the White House. The couple had one son, Zachary, and divorced in 2000.

Boxer's husband, Stewart, a prominent attorney in Oakland, represents injured workers in worker's compensation cases, keeping a very low political profile. Many cases are referred to him by labor unions, including the Teamsters. In 2006, the Boxers sold their house in Greenbrae, where they had lived for many years, and moved to Rancho Mirage. Their son, Douglas, a lawyer, practices with Stewart and is a member of the Oakland Planning Commission, having been appointed to that office by then-mayor Jerry Brown.

According to one story, which Boxer has acknowledged, in 1972, Stewart had planned to run for the Marin County Board of Supervisors, but decided the campaign would interfere with his law practice in Oakland, so Barbara ran instead. She was supported in that election by Marin Alternative, a broad-based, liberal political organization which she had helped found a few years before. A very active force in Marin County politics for a while, Marin Alternative dissolved in the late 1970s.

Boxer's first novel, ''A Time to Run'' was published in 2005 by San Francisco-based publishing company Chronicle Books. Her second novel ''Blind Trust'' was released in July 2009 by Chronicle Books.

U.S. Representative

Boxer was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1982, defeating Dennis McQuaid. Her slogan was "Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn." In the House, she represented California District 6 (Marin and Sonoma Counties) for five terms.

During this time she focused on human rights, environmental protection, military procurement reform, and abortion issues from a pro-choice stance. She was also involved in seeking protection for whistleblowers in government and pushed for higher budget allocations for health, biomedical research, and education.

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, with the help of the Project on Military Procurement (now Project On Government Oversight [POGO]), Boxer exposed the "$7,600 Pentagon coffee pot" and successfully passed more than a dozen procurement reforms.

In 1992, Boxer was embarrassed by the House banking scandal, which revealed that more than 450 Congressional Representatives and aides, herself included, wrote overdraft checks covered by overdraft protection by the House Bank. In response, she issued a statement saying "in painful retrospect, I clearly should have paid more attention to my account" and wrote a $15 check to the Deficit Reduction Fund for each of her 87 overdrafts.

In 1991, during the Anita Hill Senate hearings, where Hill accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, Boxer led a group of women House members to the Senate Judiciary Committee – demanding that the all-white, all-male Committee of Senators take Hill's charges seriously.

U.S. Senator

Elections

Democratic Senator Alan Cranston retired in 1992, creating an open contest, which Boxer won in the U.S. Senate elections that year, defeating Bruce Herschensohn, a conservative television political commentator, by 4.9% after a last-minute revelation that Herschensohn had attended a strip club. In 1998, she won a second term, beating sitting California State Treasurer Matt Fong by 10% of the vote. She had decided to retire in 2004 but says she decided to run to "fight for the right to dissent" against conservatives like Tom DeLay. After facing no primary opposition in the 2004 election, Boxer defeated GOP candidate Bill Jones, the sitting California Secretary of State, by a margin of 20 percent.

Committees

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

*Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security

*Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance

*Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard

*Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security

*Subcommittee on Science and Space

Committee on Environment and Public Works (Chairwoman)

'''Committee on Foreign Relations

*Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs

*Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs

*Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Women's Issues (Chairwoman)

*Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, and International Environmental Protection

Select Committee on Ethics (Chairwoman)

A member of the Senate Democratic Leadership, Boxer serves as the Democratic Chief Deputy Whip, which gives her the job of lining up votes on key legislation. She also serves on the Democratic Policy Committee's Committee on Oversight and Investigations.

Presidential politics

2004

On January 6, 2005, Boxer joined Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) in filing a U.S. Congressional objection to the certification of Ohio's Electoral College votes in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. She called the objection her "opening shot to be able to focus the light of truth on these terrible problems in the electoral system". The Senate voted the objection down 1–74; the House voted the objection down 31–267. It was only the second Congressional objection to an entire State's electoral delegation in U.S. history; the first instance was in 1877.

2008

As a superdelegate, Boxer had declared that she would support the winner of the California primary, which was won by Hillary Clinton. However, she remained neutral and only officially backed Barack Obama's candidacy the day after the last primaries, once he had garnered enough delegate votes to clinch the nomination.

Platform and votes

Health care

Senator Boxer is part of a coalition to increase medical research to find cures for diseases. In 2007, she authored successful bipartisan legislation with Senator Gordon Smith to combat HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis globally. In 1997, she authored a Patients' Bill of Rights. She has written a bill to make health insurance tax-deductible and another bill to let any American buy into the same health insurance program that members of Congress have. She supports comprehensive prescription drug coverage through Medicare and the right of all consumers to purchase lower-cost prescription drugs re-imported from Canada.

In October 2002, Boxer urged the Bush Administration to take specific steps to address the causes of the steep increase in autism cases in California. She wrote Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson to establish a common national standard for the diagnosis of autism; instruct the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to convene a task force to review the current literature on autism and conduct its own study if necessary; and direct the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to work with the states to create a national chronic disease database.

Boxer is an advocate for embryonic stem-cell research, which has the potential to help those with diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, and other diseases.

In March 2010, Boxer voted to support the health care reform agenda of the Obama Administration and Democratic 111th Congress by voting yes on the Health Care Reconciliation Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Education

Boxer introduced legislation providing Federal funding for local after-school programs, which have been shown to increase student performance while decreasing juvenile delinquency, crime, and drug use. Her 'Computers in Classrooms' law encourages the donation of computers and software to schools.

Boxer supported the No Child Left Behind Act. Since its passage in 2001, she claims that the bill has been underfunded by billions of dollars. She vows to work towards a goal that assures it will be fully funded going forward, as originally pledged by former President George W. Bush.

Boxer has voted to increase the maximum award for the Pell Grant program, which provides grants to lower income students for college. In addition, she has supported tax benefits that she claims will help more families pay for higher education.

Boxer has co-introduced legislation that she claims is designed to allow college graduates to refinance their student loans at market rate, in order to ease the financial burden on those starting their careers.

Boxer established the Excellence in Education award to recognize teachers, parents, businesses and organizations that are working to make positive changes in education. Since 1997 Senator Boxer has presented the Excellence in Education Award to 38 recipients.

The economy

Senators Boxer and John Ensign (R-NV) are the authors of the Invest in the USA Act. This legislation, which was signed into law in October 2004 as a small part of the more comprehensive American Jobs Creation Act, is intended to encourage American companies to bring overseas profits back to the United States, to create jobs in the U.S., and stimulate domestic economic growth.

In March 2004, Boxer offered an amendment to the Federal budget to create a $24 billion jobs reserve fund. The amendment would set aside funds for a variety of investments to improve the economy and create jobs by establishing a manufacturing jobs tax credit for companies that create jobs in the United States, expanding investment in science research and development, providing a tax credit to small businesses to pay for health insurance for their employees, and expanding trade adjustment assistance to help those who lose their jobs because of foreign trade. The Boxer amendment would also end the tax break that companies receive after moving plants overseas.

On October 1, 2008, Boxer voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

On May 11, 2010, Boxer voted against the Vitter Amendment to the financial reform bill (no. 3760) originally crafted by Ron Paul, which would have given authorization for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve. Boxer instead voted for a stripped down version of the Amendment offered by Senator Bernard Sanders.

The environment

Boxer successfully led the 2003 Senate floor battle to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In 2005, Boxer voted again to block oil drilling at ANWR.

Boxer has introduced the National Oceans Protection Act (NOPA) of 2005. Some of the provisions of this act are: strengthen ocean governance; protect and restore marine wildlife and habitats; address ocean pollution; improve fisheries management. The bill also addresses needs regarding marine science, research and technology, marine mammals, coastal development, and invasive species.

Boxer is an original cosponsor of Senator Jim Jeffords’ (I-VT) Clean Power Act. This legislation would reduce emissions of three pollutants coming from power plants; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury, and also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide .

As the new head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in January 2007, Boxer wants to reduce energy consumption. She is attempting to curb global warming by leading pilot programs. The few things that she and some of her fellow Senators are doing could cut electricity consumption by as much as 50 percent in their Capitol Hill offices.

Senator Boxer was the Senate sponsor of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, which was signed in to law by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The bill protected of federal land as wilderness and of stream as a wild and scenic river, including such popular areas as the King Range and Cache Creek. Senator Boxer worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Mike Thompson (the bill's House sponsor) in the five-year effort to pass the legislation.

Boxer along with her colleague Dianne Feinstein voted in favor of subsidy payments to conventional commodity farm producers at the cost of subsidies for conservation-oriented farming.

Reproductive rights

Boxer maintains a strong stance in support of reproductive rights and the "pro-choice" movement. Boxer authored the Freedom of Choice Act of 2004 and participated in the floor fight for passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Boxer is an original cosponsor of the Title X Family Planning Services Act of 2005, S.844, by Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY). This legislation aims to improve access to women's health care. It authorizes funding for family planning services grants; allows states to provide such services to individuals who may not be eligible for Medicaid; prohibits health insurance providers from excluding contraceptive services, drugs or devices from benefits; establishes a program to disseminate information on emergency contraception; requires hospitals receiving federal funding to offer emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault; provides grants to public and private entities to establish or expand teen pregnancy prevention programs; and requires that federally funded education programs about contraception be medically accurate and include information about health benefits and failure rates.

She was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which would prevent taxpayer-funded abortions possibly resulting in women not being able to pay with their own funds for abortion coverage Affordable Health Care for America Act.

Social Security

Boxer supports the current system of Social Security, and opposed President George W. Bush's plan for partial privatization of Social Security. She introduced the 401(k) Pension Protection Act to protect retirement by requiring the diversification of 401(k) plans. A modified version of the bill was signed into law as part of the 1997 tax bill.

Following the Enron scandal, Boxer again worked to ensure that retirement plans are diversified. She also introduced a bill to prohibit accounting firms from auditing and consulting for the same company.

National security

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Boxer authored a bill to protect commercial airliners against attacks by shoulder-fired missiles, and wrote the law allowing airline pilots with special training to carry guns in the cockpit.

Boxer wrote the High-Tech Port Security Act, and sponsored the Chemical Security Act to address terrorist threats against chemical plants. Senator Boxer also cosponsored comprehensive rail security legislation.

Iraq War

In October 2002, Boxer voted against the joint resolution passed by the U.S. Congress to authorize the use of military force by the Bush Administration against Iraq. In June 2005, Senators Boxer and Russ Feingold (D-WI) cosponsored Senate Resolution 171 calling for a timeframe for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Boxer's petition demanding an exit strategy from Iraq drew 107,218 signatures.

Boxer was sharply critical of General Petraeus testimony regarding the political and military situation in Iraq in 2007, charging him with reporting while wearing 'rosy glasses'.

Surveillance

In June 2008 Boxer spoke in the Senate in opposition to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, a pending bill in the United States Congress to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and later broke with her counterpart Sen. Dianne Feinstein and voted against it.

Election reform

Boxer voted in support of the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which mandated the use of voting machines across the country, among other provisions. On February 18, 2005 Senators Boxer, Hillary Clinton, and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones introduced the Count Every Vote Act of 2005, which would provide a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines and ensure access to voter verification for all citizens. The bill mandates that this ballot be the official ballot for purposes of a recount. The bill sets a uniform standard for provisional ballots and requires the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines and trained election personnel in every community. The bill also mandated improved security measures for electronic voting machines. The bill did not pass.

Bush nominees

During the confirmation hearings for the United States Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice in January 2005, Boxer challenged her to admit to alleged mistakes and false statements made by the Bush Administration in leading the United States into the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and ultimately voted against confirmation, along with twelve other senators. The dissent was the highest vote against a Secretary of State nominee since 1825 when Henry Clay was so named.

Boxer voted against John Bolton's nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and filibustered him on the Senate floor. As a result of the strong Democratic opposition Bolton could not obtain Senate approval. However, President Bush bypassed the Senate by employing the constitutional right of recess appointment, only the second time such an appointment has been used for a United States ambassador to the United Nations since the UN's founding in 1945. Recess appointments themselves have been used numerous times by various presidents.

Boxer voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice of the United States nominee John Roberts, and against the confirmation of Associate Justice nominee Samuel Alito.

Foreign policy

In 1997, the Senate passed a Boxer resolution calling on the United States not to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan because of its human rights abuses against women.

In 2002, Senator Boxer voted against the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She has subsequently referred to that vote as the best vote of her career. She also voted against the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) while a member of the House in 1991 and was a very vocal protester against the Vietnam War in the 1970s.

Boxer is a cosponsor of S. 495, or the Darfur Accountability Act of 2005, which would impose sanctions against perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Drug Policy Reform

Senator Boxer has come out against reforming marijuana policy and is opposed to the California Ballot measure to legalize and tax marijuana for those 21 and older in the state. Notably, this position is against the majority of Californians, of whom a recent Field Poll pegs 56% as supporting taxing and legalizing the plant.

Gun control

Senator Boxer joined colleagues to pass a Federal ban on various semi-automatic firearms and established the COPS program. She supports reauthorization of both programs.

LGBT issues

The Human Rights Campaign gave Boxer ratings of 100%, 88% and 100% for the 107th, 108th, and 109th sessions of Congress, respectively, indicating a support of the HRC's slate of pro-gay rights legislative issues. In 1996, she was one of fourteen Senators to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act and also voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 and 2006, although when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples she stated that she supported California's domestic partnership law but agreed with its definition that marriage was between a man and a woman. However, her 2010 re-election campaign website states that "Senator Boxer supports marriage equality."

She has also co-sponsored the Matthew Shepard Act, which expanded the federal definition of hate crimes to include crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as the Uniting American Families Act. She opposed Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that prohibited same-sex marriage in California. Proposition 8 passed with a 52.30% to 47.70% majority, but has since been over turned by a federal court

India-U.S. nuclear deal

Boxer is one of the most outspoken critics of the nuclear energy deal between the United States and India. Boxer is of the opinion that India should not get help from the U.S. in the civilian nuclear energy sector until it breaks its relationship with Iran.

Censuring President Bush

Senator Boxer was, along with Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, one of only two Senate Democrats to come out in favor of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's resolution to censure President George W. Bush.

Congressional scorecards

See also

Project Vote Smart provides the following results from congressional scorecards.

American Civil Liberties Union – 83% for 2005–2006

Americans for Democratic Action – 95% for 2006

American Land Rights Association – 11% for 2006

Americans for Tax Reform – 5% for 2006

AFL-CIO – 100% in 2006

Campaign for America's Future – 100% for 2005–2006

Conservative Index-John Birch Society – 20% for Fall 2004

Children's Defense Fund – 100% for 2006

Drum Major Institute – 100% for 2005

Family Research Council – 0% for 2006

FreedomWorks – 17% for 2006

Gun Owners of America – 0% for 2006

Humane Society of the United States – 100% for 2005–2006

League of Conservation Voters – 100% for 2006

NARAL Pro-Choice America – 100% for 2006

National Association of Wheat Growers – 0% for 2005

National Education Association – 100% for 2005–2006

National Federation of Independent Business – 0% for 2005–2006

National Journal – Composite liberal score of 95% for 2006

National Organization for Women – 96% for 2005–2006

National Rifle Association – F for 2006

National Right to Life Committee – 0% for 2005–2006

National Taxpayers Union – 11% for 2006

Population Connection – 100% for 2006

Republican Liberty Caucus – 10% for 2005

Secular Coalition for America – 90% on 2006 scorecards

United States Chamber of Commerce – 25% for 2006

Public image, political reception and controversy

Criticizing Condoleezza Rice's judgment

Boxer criticized then United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's judgment in relation to the war in Iraq: "I personally believe – this is my personal view – that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell the war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth."

In January 2007, Boxer was in the news for comments she made when responding to Bush's plans to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq. "Who pays the price?" Boxer asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a personal price with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families... not me, not you." When Rice interjected, Boxer responded by saying, "Madam Secretary, please. I know you feel terrible about it. That's not the point. I was making the case as to who pays the price for your decisions. And the fact that this administration would move forward with this escalation with no clue as to the further price that we're going to pay militarily... I find really appalling."

''The New York Post'' and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow considered this an attack on Rice's status as a single, childless female and referred to Boxer's comments as "a great leap backward for feminism." Rice later echoed Snow's remarks, saying "I thought it was okay to not have children, and I thought you could still make good decisions on behalf of the country if you were single and didn’t have children." Boxer responded to the controversy by saying "They’re getting this off on a non-existent thing that I didn’t say. I’m saying, she’s like me, we do not have families who are in the military."

Keith Olbermann accused the commentators, particularly Rush Limbaugh, of making Boxer's comments into an issue when the same people were not outraged when "Laura Bush said Secretary Rice would never be elected president because she was not married."

Television appearances

She has made cameo appearances as herself in several television shows, including ''Murphy Brown'' (1994), ''Gilmore Girls'' (2002) and ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' (2007), as well as a cameo (as herself) in the 2000 film ''Traffic''. On November 2, 2005 she made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to discuss her new novel “A Time To Run”.

Awards and honors

Boxer has been awarded with two Doctor of Laws honorary degrees, one from Mills College and the other from Dominican University of California.

Major speeches and statements

Excerpts from Senator Boxer's Senate Floor Statement on the Resolution Authorizing the Use of Military Force against Iraq, October 10, 2002

Transcript from the Confirmation Hearing of Condoleezza Rice, January 18, 2005

Senate Floor Debate on the Confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, January 26, 2005 On the Nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General, February 1, 2005 On the President's Budget, February 7, 2005 On Social Security, February 11, 2005 Senate Floor Debate on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, March 16, 2005 Statement on Earth Day, April 20, 2005 On the Iraq War, July 6, 2005

On Karl Rove's CIA Leak, July 20, 2005

On the Energy Bill, July 29, 2005 On Her Opposition to the Confirmation of Chief Justice Nominee John Roberts, September 21, 2005

Addressing World Affairs Council of Northern California (Video), October 13, 2006

Congressional service

Public Offices
! Office	! Branch	! Location	! Elected	! Term began	! Term ended
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1982	January 3, 1983	January 3, 1985
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1984	January 3, 1985	January 3, 1987
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1986	January 3, 1987	January 3, 1989
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1988	January 3, 1989	January 3, 1991
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1990	January 3, 1991	January 3, 1993
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1992	January 3, 1993	January 3, 1999
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	1998	January 3, 1999	January 3, 2005
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	2004	January 3, 2005	January 3, 2011
	Legislative	Washington, D.C.	2010	January 3, 2011	January 3, 2017

United States Congressional service
!Dates	!Congress	!Chamber	!Majority	!President	!Committees	!Class/District
1983–1985				Ronald Reagan
1985–1987				Ronald Reagan
1987–1989				Ronald Reagan
1989–1991				George H. W. Bush
1991–1993				George H. W. Bush
1993–1995				Bill Clinton	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
1995–1997				Bill Clinton	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
1997–1999				Bill Clinton	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
1999–2001				Bill Clinton	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
2001–2003				George W. Bush	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
2003–2005				George W. Bush	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
2005–2007				George W. Bush	Commerce, Environment, Foreign Relations
2007–2009				George W. Bush	Commerce, Environment (chair), Foreign Relations
2009–2011				Barack Obama	Commerce, Environment (chair), Foreign Relations
2011–Present				Barack Obama	Commerce, Environment (chair), Foreign Relations

Electoral history

Boxer was first elected to the Senate by a 4.9% margin in 1992. She was reelected in 2010, defeating businesswoman Carly Fiorina.

References

External links

United States Senator Barbara Boxer ''official U.S. Senate site''

Barbara Boxer 2010 Senate ''official campaign site''

NPR: Barbara Boxer: Rice Hearings and the 2004 Vote, Terry Gross, February 10, 2005

Progressive Magazine: Barbara Boxer Interview, Ruth Conniff, July 2005

Barbara Boxer speaks at The World Affairs Council of Northern California video, October 13, 2006

{{U.S. Senator box |before=Alan Cranston |state=California |class=3 |start=1993 |alongside=Dianne Feinstein}}

Category:1940 births Category:American pro-choice activists Category:Brooklyn College alumni Category:California county supervisors Category:California Democrats Category:Democratic Party United States Senators Category:Female members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Female United States Senators Category:United States congressional aides Category:Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Jewish United States Senators Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from California Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from Marin County, California Category:United States Senators from California Category:Women in California politics

cs:Barbara Boxer cy:Barbara Boxer da:Barbara Boxer de:Barbara Boxer es:Barbara Boxer fr:Barbara Boxer ga:Barbara Boxer it:Barbara Boxer he:ברברה בוקסר nl:Barbara Boxer no:Barbara Boxer pl:Barbara Boxer pt:Barbara Boxer ru:Боксер, Барбара fi:Barbara Boxer sv:Barbara Boxer zh:芭芭拉·柏克瑟

Election name	Iranian presidential election, 2009
Country	Iran
Type	presidential
Ongoing	no
Party colour	no
Previous election	Iranian presidential election, 2005
Previous year	2005
Next election	Iranian presidential election, 2013
Next year	2013
Election date	12 June 2009
Image1
Colour1	ff7070
Nominee1	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Party1	Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran
Popular vote1	24,592,793
Percentage1	64.22%
Image2
Colour2	28c0a6
Nominee2	Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Party2	Independent Reformist
Popular vote2	13,338,121
Percentage2	33.86%
Title	President
Map image	2009 Iranian Votes.png
Map size	200px
Map caption	Map showing the votes of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi, '' ''Red is the votes of Ahmadinejad and '' ''Green is the votes of Mousavi.
Title	President
Before election	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Before party	Alliance_of_Builders_of_Islamic_Iran
After election	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
After party	Alliance_of_Builders_of_Islamic_Iran }}

Iran's tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009, with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad running against three challengers. The next morning the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that with two-thirds of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad had won the election with 62% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 34% of the votes cast. The European Union, the United Kingdom the United States, and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, and many analysts and journalists from the United States, Europe and other western based media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results. Meanwhile many OIC member states, as well as Russia, China, India, and Brazil congratulated Ahmadinejad on his victory.

Mousavi issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this charade," and urged his supporters to fight the decision, without committing acts of violence. Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, broke out in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling his victory as a "divine assessment". Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. On 15 June, Khamenei announced there would be an investigation into vote-rigging claims, which would take seven to ten days. On 16 June, the Guardian Council announced it would recount disputed votes. However, Mousavi stated that 14 million unused ballots were missing, giving a chance to manipulate the results. On 29 June, Iran's electoral board completed the partial recount and concluded that Ahmadinejad had won the election; this was protested by opposition parties.

The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popular vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader) and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and elected by Parliament).

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn into his second term in office on 5 August, in an inauguration ceremony that was boycotted by many opposition leaders.

Background

Ahmadinejad became President of Iran after the 2005 election. The losing candidates at that time claimed irregularities at the polls, but the charges were not investigated. A formal protest to the Guardian Council was made and the group dismissed it without comment. His victory had surprised most observers of the campaign. At that time the reformist camp had mostly either boycotted elections entirely or held back out of disillusionment with past lack of progress. The voting for the 2009 election was scheduled for 12 June 2009 and ended up being extended until midnight that day because the turnout was unexpectedly high. Voting ended up proceeding four hours longer than originally scheduled.

The President is elected by direct vote, however candidates for the presidency must be approved by the 12-member Council of Guardians. Candidates need to win a majority (more than half) to become President. Iran has a two-round system: if none of the candidates wins the majority in the first round, the top two candidates will go to a run-off. The first round was held on 12 June 2009; the run-off would have been held one week later, on 19 June 2009. All Iranian citizens of age 18 and up are eligible to vote. Both the Iranian Center for Statistics and the Iranian Ministry of the Interior have stated that there are around 46.2 million eligible voters.

Candidates

On 20 May 2009, the Guardian Council officially announced a list of approved candidates, while rejecting a number of registered nominees. Only four candidates were approved by the Guardian Council, out of the 476 men and women who had applied to seek the presidency of Iran in the 2009 election.

Approved candidates

;Conservatives

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, incumbent

Mohsen Rezaee, former Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and current secretary of the Expediency Council

;Reformists

Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of the Majlis

Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the last Prime Minister of Iran (''Campaign'')

Rejected candidates

;Conservatives Rafat Bayat, female Majlis representative from Zanjan

;Independents Akbar Alami, former Majlis representative from Tabriz Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, former Majlis representative

Withdrawn candidates

Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran, endorsed Mousavi. (See article on ''Khatami presidential campaign'' for details.)

Declined candidates

The following people were said to be possible candidates in the election, but did not register within the five days allowed for registration. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President and chairman of the Assembly of Experts, would have been over 75 years old on the election day and therefore ineligible to run by election law.

;Conservatives Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mayor of Tehran Gholamali Haddad-Adel, former Speaker of the Majlis Mohammad Jahromi, Iranian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ali Larijani, speaker of the Majlis Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, former Speaker of the Majlis Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, former Minister of the Interior Ali Akbar Velayati, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1981–97

;Reformists

Mohammad Reza Aref, former First Vice President

Masoumeh Ebtekar Mohammad Ali Najafi, member of the Tehran City Council and former Minister of Education Abdollah Nouri, former Minister of Interior, former Speaker of Tehran City Council Hassan Rowhani, former Secretary of National Security Council

Campaign

Background

The incumbent was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian reform movement attempted to unite behind a single candidate; former President Mohammad Khatami had been the leading opponent to Ahmadinejad in some opinion polls until he withdrew and endorsed former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi, another Reformist, was also running, as was former Commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezaee, a Conservative with a reputation of political pragmatism.

''The Telegraph'' has described the campaign as "unusually open by Iranian standards, but also highly acrimonious." It was marked by heated rhetoric between the incumbent and his challengers. Mousavi and two other candidates said Ahmadinejad had lied about the state of the economy, which was suffering from high inflation and a fall in oil revenues from last year's record levels. Ahmadinejad responded by comparing his opponents to Adolf Hitler, adding that they could be jailed for their comments. "No one has the right to insult the president, and they did it. And this is a crime. The person who insulted the president should be punished, and the punishment is jail... Such insults and accusations against the government are a return to Hitler's methods, to repeat lies and accusations... until everyone believes those lies," Ahmadinejad said.

Debates about the economy played the biggest role in the campaign, with the global economic recession looming in people's minds. calling for an end to the regime's 'Vice Police'. He advocated letting private individuals and groups own Iranian media. Both candidates strongly supported further development of the Iranian nuclear program. However, Mousavi advocated a less combative and tense tone with other nations about the program. He also floated the idea of an international consortium overseeing uranium enrichment in Iran. The BBC stated about Mousavi that "[i]n foreign affairs, he seems to be offering little change on major issues". Mousavi adopted the traditional Islamic color, green, as a campaign symbol. Young male supporters wore green ribbons tied around their wrists and young female supporters wore green headscarves. Activists used the term 'Change' as his main slogan, chanting phrases such as "Green change for Iran", "Together for change", and "Vote for change".

Debates

Between 2 and 8 June 2009 Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting broadcast nightly debates on TV channel IRIB 3 between two candidates at a time, with each candidate facing the others once. This was the first time Iran had held televised debates between candidates. Each debate lasted for around one and a half hours. During the debate on 3 June between President Ahmadinejad and reformist rival, former Prime Minister Mousavi, Ahmadinejad made accusations regarding former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Iranian Revolution. Rafsanjani responded to these charges on 9 June in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requesting that he step in to rebuke Ahmadinejad for his comments at the debate.

Polling

The opinion polls in Iran have been considered unreliable. A number of polls conducted between relatively small voting groups, like university students and workers, have been reported as election propaganda. More general polls reported in the media do not state the polling organization nor the basic facts about the methodology. The results show a high variance and depend heavily on who is reporting the poll. In 2002, the polling organization Ayandeh and another polling organization was closed and its directors were arrested. The director of Ayandeh, Abbas Abdi, spent several years in prison.

Mousavi's and Karroubi's campaign posters in Tehran claimed that a high turnout would reduce Ahmadinejad's chance of winning the election. Karroubi's campaign manager, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, claimed that the chance of Ahmadinejad losing the election would be over 65 percent if over 32 million people voted, but less than 35 percent if less than 27 million people voted.

An independent poll, conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow: The Center for Public Opinion, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism, found that Ahmadinejad was leading by a margin of 2 to 1. 34% said they would vote for Ahmadinejad, 14% favored Mousavi, 2% favored Karroubi, 1% favored Rezaee and 27% were undecided. The poll was taken from 11 May to 20 May. The poll was carried out by a company whose work for ABC News and the BBC in the Middle East has received an Emmy award. Polling itself was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Writing in the ''Washington Post'', pollsters Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty have used this to suggest that Ahmadinejad's apparent victory might reflect the will of the Iranian people. The poll was quoted by Reuters, ''Khaleej Times'' and Jim Muir of BBC News. However, the ''Irish Times'', while quoting the poll, also pointed out that it was taken three weeks before the election, and electoral campaigning in Iran is only allowed for a period of 30 days prior to the election date, which means this poll was conducted only one week into the campaigning. Another critic of the poll, Mansoor Moaddel, pointed out that of "1,731 people contacted [by the poll], well over half either refused to participate (42.2%) or did not indicate a preferred candidate (15.6%)." Though it is quite useful to mention here that the average response rate in US for such telephonic surveys doesn't exceed 30%. This is while the minimum response rate for an opinion poll to be considered scientific by many leading academic journals is 50%.,

A post-election national poll was conducted in late August and early September 2009 by the American polling agency, World Public Opinion, which is affiliated to the University of Maryland. Of the initial 46% respondents of the poll, 27% did not state their chosen candidate, 55% said that they had voted for Ahmadinejad. Both Mr Karroubi and Mr Rezai received minimal support. 87% of respondents replied that they had voted compared to 85% according to the official figures, which is within the margin of error provided. Also, the survey found that 62% of Iranians had "strong confidence" in the election result whilst 64% expressed a similar feeling towards the incumbent president. This finding almost exactly matches up with the proportion of the vote that Ahmadinejad received.

Polls by Western Organizations

Polling organisation	Date	Poll details	Candidate
!Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	!Mehdi Karroubi	!Mir-Hossein Mousavi	!Mohsen Rezaee
		Nationwide; 1001 people, error margin +/-3.1% (27% undecided); (59% satisfied, 23% unsatisfied)		2%	14%	1%
		reported by International Peace Institute and Charney Research			42%
		reported by International Peace Institute and Charney Research			37%
		Post-election national poll;1003 respondents in 30 provinces		1%	14%	3%
		Nationwide; stratified using provincial telephone area codes with random number generation. Around 83% of respondents reported some (21%) or a high level (62%) of confidence in the declared election results, while 13% percent reported little or no confidence in the results.		''Unknown''	14%13% (if new election held)	''Unknown''
		Nationwide, error margin +/-3.5%, ( the governments crackdown on post-election protests: 59% was correct, 19% went too far, 10% refused to answer).			36%

Polls by Iranian Organizations

Polling organisation	Date	Poll details	Candidate
!Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	!Mehdi Karroubi	!Mir-Hossein Mousavi	!Mohsen Rezaee
		Nationwide		7%	13%	0%
		Nationwide survey of workers	36%	8%		''Unknown''
		Nationwide		8%	24%	1%
		''Unknown''		''Unknown''	22% (29% in Tehran)	''Unknown''
		62 cities		''Unknown''	22%	''Unknown''
		Nationwide		12%	32%	15%
style="text-align:left"		Nationwide		2nd	3rd	4th
		10 major cities	34%	''Unknown''		''Unknown''
		1650 people	35%	''Unknown''		''Unknown''
		National, 11285 people		4.7	21.3	2.6
style="text-align:left"		Nationwide; 30,000 people	2nd	3rd		4th
		Nationwide; 77,058 people	33%	3%		27%
		Nationwide; 18,391 people; (Who will you not vote for?)	28%	7%		4%
		Nationwide	32%	6%		27%
		major cities		''Unknown''	36%	''Unknown''
		1743 people	29.5%	7.5%		25.2%
style="text-align:left"		Nationwide 300,000 people	24.61%	10.72%		10.14%
		nationwide	6-8 millions	Unknown		Unknown
		more than 16,000 people, 30 major cities in each Province		Unknown	25.7	Unknown
		Major cities		Unknown	28	Unknown
style="text-align:left"		Nationwide; 7900 people	23%	''Unknown''		''Unknown''
		1743 people	25.5%	6.1%		30.8%
		National		Unknown	31	Unknown

Irregularities

Pre-election violence

On 1 June, a campaign office of Ahmadinejad's primary opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was torched. The office was located in the city of Qum, in northwest Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. At the same time, it was reported that an assassination had been attempted against former president Mohammad Khatami by means of a bomb placed on an aircraft he was to board.

Blocking of communications

Mobile phone communications were interrupted in Tehran on election day and the BBC has stated that "heavy electronic jamming" was being used to halt their broadcasts. On 23 May 2009, the Iranian government temporarily blocked access to Facebook across the country. Gulfnews.com reported that this move was a response to the use of Facebook by candidates running against Ahmadinejad. PC World reported that Mousavi's Facebook page had more than 6,600 supporters. Access was restored by 26 May 2009.

Alleged vote rigging or coup attempt

In an interview taken after third partial results were announced, Mohsen Makhmalbaf said he was told that there was to be a coup on Saturday. Makhmalbaf also claimed to be Mousavi's official speaker, which was refuted by Mousavi's official site Ghalamnews. Makhmalbaf then claimed that Ghalamnews is hacked, which was refuted this time by Ghalamnews, Kaleme, and officials at Mousavi's campaign headquarter, which repeated that only these two sites and his campaign headquarter are reliable sources for Mousavi's position and people should not consider any other source as reliable.

''The New York Times'' quoted an employee of the Interior Ministry claiming that "the government had been preparing its fraud for weeks, purging anyone of doubtful loyalty and importing pliable staff members from around the country." ''The New Yorker'' stated that "dissident employees of the Interior Ministry... have reportedly issued an open letter" saying that the election was stolen. ''The Guardian'' has also mentioned "reports of a leaked interior ministry figures allegedly suggesting Mousavi had won", although the article questioned the credibility of the report.

''The Guardian'' reported on 17 June 2009 that an Iranian news website identified at least 30 polling sites with turnout over 100% and 200 sites with turnout over 95%. On 21 June 2009, a spokesman from the Guardian Council (an organ of the Iranian government) stated that the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters in no more than 50 cities, something the Council argued was a normal phenomenon which had taken place in previous elections as people are not obliged to vote where registered (when they have been born).

On 18 June, Iranian film makers Marjane Satrapi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf appeared before Green Party members in the European Parliament to present a document allegedly received from a member of the Iranian electoral commission claiming that that Mir Hossein Mousavi had actually won the election, and that the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had received only 12% of the vote.

Result

Analysis

The published evidence supporting an election fraud may only show the possibility of an election fraud. Some of them are based on the unexpectedness of announced results by supporters of Mousavi. So far no credible evidence has been published which would indicate that a major fraud has happened in fact. Most of official objections to the election filed by Mousavi are related to issues before election like misuse of government resources by Ahmadinejad in his election campaign. Several analysis has been published rejecting the claims that Ahmadinejad did not win the election. A comprehensive analysis by Eric A. Brill of claimed evidence published by Mousavi and other activists (including those listed below) has concluded that there are no grounds to suspect the occurrence of fraud. For example, Mousavi claimed that over 10 million people had voted without proper identification, but his official complaint mentioned only 31 such voters. Widespread ballot-box stuffing was alleged, but no single stuffed box has ever been identified. Buying and selling of votes was alleged, but Mousavi has identified only four instances, and failed to provide any evidence. Thousands or millions of Mousavi votes were claimed to have been thrown away and replaced by Ahmadinejad votes, but no one has identified any of the perpetrators, nor mentioned exactly where or how this was accomplished. Vote counts from the field,approved in writing by Mousavi's observers, were said to have been altered by the Interior Ministry, but nobody has identified a single ballot box ­where this occurred even though the data has long been available to compare the counts for all 45,692 ballot boxes. Western polling organizations have repeated that the official result of election is consistent with their pre and post election polls.

On the other hand, several supporters of green movement have continued to repeat the evidence supporting the alleged vote rigging. Reza Esfandiari and Yousef Bozorgmehr also maintain that the election data does comport to a natural outcome, allowing for some possible fraud at the local level.

Mohtashami, former interior minister of Iran, who was in the election monitoring committee of Mousavi's campaign claimed that according to official censuses, the number of counted votes in 70 municipalities were more than the number of eligible voters who lived in those regions. In all those cities Ahmadinejad won by 80% to 90% However, "excess votes" have been common in all Iranian elections partly due to the way eligible voters are counted. For example, the Interior Ministry based their calculation of eligible voters on birth certificate registrations. Iranians do not register to vote and hundreds of thousands regularly vote outside their own regions. Shemiran, which had the highest excess voter turnout (13 times the number of eligible voters), overwhelmingly voted for Mousavi.

On 17 June, Tabnak, the news agency close to defeated candidate Mohsen Rezaei who got only 678,240 votes in the election stated that "Mohsen Rezaei, until yesterday afternoon, found evidence that proves at least 900,000 Iranians, who had sent in their national ID card numbers, voted for [him]." However, there is no way of independently verifying whether those who disclosed their ID numbers had actually voted for Rezaei.

BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba found abnormalities in the way results were announced. Instead of results by province, the "results came in blocks of millions of votes," with very little difference between the blocks in the percentages going to each candidate. This suggested that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did equally well in rural and urban areas, while his three opponents did equally badly in their home regions and provinces as in the rest of the country. This contradicted "all precedent in Iranian politics", where Ahmadinejad had been very popular in rural areas and unpopular in the big cities, where ethnic minorities had favored anti-establishment candidates, and where candidates had tended to carry their home provinces.

Another anomaly, according to British-based researcher Ali Alizadeh, is that a large turnout did not favor the opposition, since in elections, both in Iran and abroad, "those who usually don’t vote, i.e. the silent majority, only come out when they want to change the status quo."

According to modern Middle Eastern and South Asian historian Juan Cole, there were several anomalies in the election results. Official reports gave Ahmadinejad 50% of the vote in the city of Tabriz despite the fact that this was the capital of Mousavi's home province, Eastern Azerbaijan, where Mousavi's rallies were well attended and which has traditionally given good turnouts for even "minor presidential candidates" who came from the province. Ahmadinejad also won Tehran province by over 50%, but crucially lost to Mousavi in the actual city of Tehran and was also soundly beaten in the affluent suburb of Shemiran to the north of the capital.

Aftermath

Protests

Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. Initially, the protests were largely peaceful. However, as time passed, they became increasingly violent. Some protesters began to get violent after the results of the election were announced. Angry crowds in Tehran broke into shops, tore down signs, and smashed windows. Civil unrest took place as protesters set fire to tyres outside the Interior Ministry building and others formed a human chain of around 300 people to close off a major Tehran street.

The demonstrations grew bigger and more heated than the 1999 student protests. Al Jazeera English described the 13 June situation as the "biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution." It also reported that protests seemed spontaneous without any formal organization. Two hundred people protested outside Iran's embassy in London on 13 June. Ynet has stated that "tens of thousands" protested on 13 June. Demonstrators are chanting phrases such as "Down with the dictator", "Death to the dictator", and "Give us our votes back". Mousavi has urged for calm and asked that his supporters refrain from acts of violence.

Ynet reported on 14 June that two people had died in the rioting so far. That day, protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, London, Rome, Sydney, Vienna and The Hague. In response to the reformist protests, tens of thousands of people rallied in Tehran on 14 June to support the victory of Ahmadinejad.

On 15 June, Mousavi rallied, with anywhere from hundreds of thousands to three million, of his supporters in Tehran, despite being warned by state officials that any such rally would be illegal. The demonstration, the largest in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 30-year history, was Mousavi's first public appearance after the election. Protests focused around Azadi Tower, around which lines of people stretched for more than nine kilometers met. Gunshots were reported to have been fired at the rally, where Mousavi had spoken to his supporters saying, "The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person." All three opposition candidates appeared.

Competing rallies for Mousavi and for Ahmadinejad took place on 16 June. The pro-Ahmadinejad protesters, chanting the phrases "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!", outnumbered their opponents, but they did not match the numbers of opponents who had protested the day before. Reports from the state media and elsewhere stated on 16 June that seven people have died in all of the protests so far. However, ''The Times'' quoted a Rasoul Akram Hospital nurse that day who asserted that 28 people have suffered from "bullet wounds" and eight have died so far. Over half a million reformist Iranians marched silently from Haft-e-Tir Square to Vali Asr Square on 17 June. The National Iranian American Council stated that day that 32 people had died protesting so far.

Government actions

Arrests

On the weekend of 13 and 14 June, in a series of raids across Tehran, the government arrested over 170 people, according to police officials. Among them were prominent reformist politicians, including MIRO founder Behzad Nabavi, IIPF leader Mohsen Mirdamadi, and former president Mohammad Khatami's brother Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who was later released. Also arrested were Mostafa Tajzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, whom the IRNA said were involved in orchestrating protests on 13 June. Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the IIPF and arrested a number of people. Iranian journalist Mashallah Shamsolvaezin claimed that Mousavi was put under house arrest, although officials denied this. An estimated 200 people were detained after clashes with students at Tehran university, although many were later released.

Acting Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan stated via the state press service on the 14th that “in the interrogation of related rebels, we intend to find the link between the plotters and foreign media". A judiciary spokesman said they had not been arrested but that they were summoned, "warned not to increase tension," and later released. Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei linked some arrests to terrorism supported from outside Iran, stating that "more than 20 explosive consignments were discovered". Others, he said, were "counter-revolutionary groups" who had "penetrated election headquarters" of the election candidates.

On 16 June, Reuters reported that former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and former presidential advisor Saeed Hajjarian had been arrested. Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who had been demanding a recount of all votes, was also arrested on the Tuesday according to Shirin Ebadi, who said that security officials had posed as clients. Over 100 students were arrested after security forces fired tear gas at protesters at Shiraz university on the same day. Reporters Without Borders reported that 5 of 11 arrested journalists were still detention as of 16 June, and that a further 10 journalists were unaccounted for and may have been arrested.

On 17 June, former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, was arrested while undergoing tests at Pars hospital in Tehran. He was held overnight in Evin Prison before being released and returning to hospital, where according to Human Rights Watch he remained under guard. In Tabriz, other Freedom Movement activists and eight members of the IIPF were arrested, with reports of at least 100 civic figures' arrests. The total number of arrests across Iran since the election was reported as 500.

Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the international campaign for human rights in Iran, stated that "Iranian intelligence and security forces are using the public protests to engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals whose situations in detention could be life-threatening". In Isfahan Province, prosecutor-general Mohammadreza Habibi warned that dissidents could face execution under Islamic law.

Censorship allegations

According to the ''Telegraph'', on 14 June "Iran's regime was doing its utmost to choke off the flow of news from its capital." Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes. The ''Al Arabiya'''s offices in Tehran were closed on 14 June for a week by Iranian authorities, who gave no explanation for the decision. Meanwhile, the director of BBC World Service accused the Iranian Government of jamming its broadcasts to the country. Peter Horrocks said audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe had been affected by an electronic block on satellites used to broadcast the BBC Persian Television signal to Iran, adding: "It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election".

''Al Jazeera English'' leveled allegations of direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that "some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines". ''BBC'' correspondent John Simpson was arrested, his material confiscated, and then released. ''NBC News'' offices in Tehran were raided, with cameras and other equipment confiscated. ''ABC News'' reporter Jim Sciutto also has had material taken. People from the German public broadcasters ''ZDF'' and ''ARD'' have been harassed as well, with men carrying batons and knives reportedly storming the ''ARD'''s Tehran office. A BBC corporate official has referred to the network's conflict with the regime as 'electronic warfare'.

On 13 June 2009, when thousands of opposition supporters clashed with the police, Facebook was filtered again. Some news websites were also blocked by the Iranian authorities. Mobile phone services including text messaging also stopped or became very difficult to use. Specifically, all websites affiliated with the BBC were shut off, as were ones with ''The Guardian''. Associated Press labeled the actions "ominous measures apparently seeking to undercut liberal voices". The restrictions were likely intended to prevent Mousavi's supporters from organizing large-scale protests. The protesters used phone calls, e-mails and word of mouth to get around the measures.

Ahmadinejad has responded to concerns by saying, "[d]on't worry about freedom in Iran... Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it." In response to the crackdown, anti-regime activists have repeatedly taken down Ahmadinejad's and Khamenei's websites. According to CNN, the United States State Department has worked with Twitter to expand the website's access in Iran.

Recount

Due to protests, from the opposition, the Supreme Leader approved a partial recount of the results. The recount was random counting of 10% of the ballots. In order to create transparency, a 12 member council, showed the recount on television, and concluded that President Ahmadinejad still led Mousavi after the recount. After the recount, the Guardian council certified the election, and concluded no evidence of irregularities, and closed the dossier on the election.

Scapegoats

The Iranian government has blamed the unrest on a variety of targets, including the Bahá'í Faith who have served as "canaries in the coal mine of Iran’s theocracy" as Iran's largest religious minority by their persecution and as "scapegoats". The Speaker of the Iranian Parliament even claimed that BBC stands for ''Bahá'í Broadcasting Company'' and other allegations of Bahá'í involvement with other powers like the Israeli, British and American governments though these accusations have little to do with the religion and rather seem to be an part of an Islamic repertoire of what a heresy is supposed to look like and are "categorically rejected" by the Bahá'ís.

Iranian political reactions

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei initially urged the country to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling a victory by him as a "divine assessment." On 15 June, however, he ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud. Referring to Mousavi's appeal letter about the irregularities, Khamenei said that "the Guardian Council has been emphasized to carry out investigation into this letter carefully," and probe allegations of Ahmadinejad cheating. Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said that he had not received any "written complaint" about election fraud or irregularities. He also remarked that the vote proceeded in a way that "ruled out the possibility of cheating." Chairman of the Assembly of Experts Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was reported to have called a meeting of the Assembly, as they have the constitutional power to elect and dismiss the Supreme Leader. Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a live address on state run television on 13 June, called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran. He also said, "[t]oday, the people of Iran have inspired other nations and disappointed their ill-wishers... propaganda facilities outside Iran and sometimes inside Iran were totally mobilized against our people." Ahmadinejad praised the country’s youth as well, but made no direct mention of the protests. He later dismissed the protests, comparing them to "the passions after a football match." In his 25 September 2009 speech at the UN he stated “Our nation has successfully gone through a glorious and successfully democratic election, ... They entrusted me once more with a large majority ..." Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition candidate, issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation." Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. He is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial". Reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, another opposition candidate, echoed Mr. Mousavi’s demand for the election to be canceled. He said, "I am announcing again that the elections should not be allowed and the results have no legitimacy or social standing... Therefore, I do not consider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the republic." He later declared in a speech to his supporters in Khoramabad that "this phase [Election dispute] will not subside until we [Reformist leaders] suggest so". Mohsen Rezai, On 17 June, he gave an ultimatum to Interior Ministry to release details of the results by that day, otherwise he would call for a new election. He said "The unprecedented delay has raised doubts about the possibility of manipulation in the results." However, on 24 July he withdrew formal complaints filed with the Guardian Council, saying that "The [current] political, social and security situation has entered a sensitive and decisive phase, which is more important than the election". Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, a former Iranian parliamentary speaker, called on Mousavi to concede defeat, saying that then "everyone will benefit". The Association of Combatant Clerics, a moderate reformist clerical body which former President Khatami is a member of, issued a statement posted on reformist web sites saying the election was rigged and calling for it to be canceled, warning that "if this process becomes the norm, the republican aspect of the regime will be damaged and people will lose confidence in the system." Former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi has said, "[w]e don't have any doubt. And as far as we are concerned, it is not legitimate. There were many, many irregularities." He also described the process as a "coup". On 17 June, he was arrested and transferred to prison. Reformist politician Ata'ollah Mohajerani blasted the election as "The End of the Islamic Republic". Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, denounced the outcome. He also compared the government's post-election activities to those of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In a letter published on his website, reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri stated that government used elections "in the worst way possible. Declaring results that no one in their right mind can believe, and despite all the evidence of crafted results, and to counter people protestations, in front of the eyes of the same nation who carried the weight of a revolution and 8 years of war, in front of the eyes of local and foreign reporters, attacked the children of the people with astonishing violence. And now they are attempting a purge, arresting intellectuals, political opponents and Scientists." The Iranian national soccer team playing in their World Cup Qualifier wore green wristbands in support for Mousavi. Popular classical musician Mohammad Reza Shajarian demanded that Iranian government television and radio never play his music again after Ahmadinejad called Mousavi supporters "brushwood and thorns". Shajarian remarked, "my voice is like brushwood and thorns". British politician George Galloway has stated that Ahmadinejad "is the president of an important country and we'll just have to accept it." According to three Iranian newspapers 105 of 290 members of the Iranian Parliament invited to attend a 24 June victory party for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended the event, suggesting, according to the American New York Times newspaper, "a deep divide within the political elite over the election and its aftermath." In his 19 June address to the nation after Friday prayers, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei defended the reputations of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri despite the fact that "Never before have I mentioned people by name in the Friday prayer sermons" adding that "The live televised debates were a positive step, but these (accusations against fellow candidates) should be removed. After the debates, I had a talk with the president because I knew he would listen to me." This amounted to a criticism of Ahmadinejad, who had made accusations against Nateq-Nouri's family during the debate and had accused Rafsanjani of being "corrupt" and whom had had called "the main puppet master."

International reactions

[[File:Map of the Iranian Presidential election of 2009 international responses.png|thumb|right|350px|Map of countries by reaction to the 2009 presidential election ]]

Many western countries expressed doubt about the result and/or reacted in favour of protestors. Other countries, namely Brazil and some other Asian countries, amongst others, welcomed the result.

See also

2009 Iran poll protests trial

References

Further reading

External links

Official links Coordination site for Ahmadinejad's supporters Mir-Hossein Mousavi campaign site Mehdi Karroubi campaign site Mohsen Rezaee campaign site

Images

Iranian Pictures of Post Election 2009

Iranian Protesters Fill Streets After Election Result - slideshow by ''The New York Times''

The Big Picture: Iran's Disputed Election - high res images by ''The Boston Globe''

Flickr Photos - Iranian Elections 2009 From The Beginning

Video testimonies Iranian Stories - webdocumentary disseminating and collecting eye witness testimonies of 2009 Iran election

Election aftermath

Who's Who in Iran? by ''BBC News''

Rafsanjani's Gambit Backfires

Letter from Mousavi to the Guardian Council - Challenging the Results

Roundup: Analyses of Fraud in Iran

Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis

Don't Assume Ahmadinejad Really Lost by Robert Baer, ''Time Magazine'', 16 June 2009

Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax by Professor James Petras

Iran’s Presidential Elections, Islamic Populism and Liberation Theology by Prof. Akbar E. Torbat, ''Global Research'', 28 June 2009

Coverage from the Huffington Post: Live-Blogging The Uprising, Aljazeera, BBC, New York Times, The Globe Opinion

The Iranian elections and the aftermath, Analysis by Rouzbeh Parsi, June 2009, European Union Institute for Security Studies

Iran Electoral Archive - 2009 Presidential Election

Category:2009 elections in Iran Presidential election Presidential election, 2009 Category:History of the Islamic Republic of Iran

ar:انتخابات إيران الرئاسية 2009 bg:Ирански президентски избори 2009 cs:Prezidentské volby v Íránu 2009 da:Irans præsidentvalg 2009 de:Iranische Präsidentschaftswahlen 2009 es:Elecciones presidenciales de Irán de 2009 fa:انتخابات ریاست جمهوری ایران (۱۳۸۸) fr:Élection présidentielle iranienne de 2009 ko:2009년 이란 대통령 선거 it:Elezioni presidenziali iraniane del 2009 ms:Pilihan raya Presiden Iran 2009 nl:Iraanse presidentsverkiezingen 2009 ja:イラン大統領選挙 (2009年) no:Presidentvalget i Iran 2009 pl:Wybory prezydenckie w Iranie w 2009 roku pt:Eleições presidenciais no Irã em 2009 ru:Президентские выборы в Иране (2009) sv:Presidentvalet i Iran 2009 tr:2009 İran cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimi vi:Bầu cử tổng thống Iran, 2009 zh:2009年伊朗总统选举

Name	Mahmoud Ahmadinejadمحمود احمدی‌نژاد
Office	6th President of Iran
1blankname	Supreme Leader
1namedata	Ali Khamenei
Vicepresident	Parviz DavoodiMohammad-Reza Rahimi
Term start	3 August 2005
Predecessor	Mohammad Khatami
Office2	Mayor of Tehran
Term start2	20 June 2003
Term end2	3 August 2005
Deputy2	Ali Saeedlou
Predecessor2	Mohammad-Hassan Malekmadani
Successor2	Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf
Office3	Governor of Ardabil
Term start3	1 May 1993
Term end3	28 June 1997
Predecessor3	Hossein Taheri (East Azerbaijan)
Successor3	Javad Negarandeh
Birth date	October 28, 1956
Birth place	Aradan, Iran
Party	Alliance of Builders (2003–present)
Otherparty	Islamic Society of Engineers (1990–2005)
Spouse	Azam Farahi (1981–present)
Children	MehdiAlirezaFatemeh
Residence	Sa'dabad Palace (Official)Gisha (Private)
Alma mater	Iran University of Science and Technology
Profession	Civil engineer
Religion	Twelver Shia Islam
Signature	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signature.svg
Signature alt	Signature of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Website	Official website }}

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (, ''Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād'' , ; born 28 October 1956) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005. His second presidency term ends on August 3, 2013. He is not eligible to run for another term under the current Iranian constitution.

Ahmadinejad is a controversial figure both within Iran and internationally. He has been criticized domestically for his economic lapses and disregard for human rights. He launched a gas rationing plan in 2007 to reduce the country's fuel consumption, and cut the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He supports Iran's nuclear energy program. His election to a second term in 2009 was widely disputed and caused widespread protests domestically and drew significant international criticism. In 2011 the presence of a so-called "deviant current" among his aides and supporters led to the arrest of several of them.

Early life

Ahmadinejad was born near Garmsar in the village of Aradan, in Semnan province. His father, Ahmad, was an ironworker, grocer, barber, blacksmith and religious Shi'a who taught the Qur'an. His mother, Khanom, was a Seyyede, an honorific title given to those believed to be direct bloodline descendants of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ahmadinejad's father changed his name from "Saborjhian" or "Sabaghian" when Ahmadinejad was four years old to avoid discrimination when the family moved to Tehran, as the rural name indicated a lowly social standing. Sabor is Persian for thread painter, a once common occupation within the Semnan carpet industry. Ahmadinejad was chosen as it means from the race of Ahmad, one of the names given to Muhammad.

In 1976, Ahmadinejad took Iran's national university entrance contests. According to his autobiography, he was ranked 132nd out of 400,000 participants that year, and soon enrolled in the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering. He earned his PhD (1997) in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology, located at Tehran, when he was the Mayor of Ardabil Province, located at the north-west of the country.

Supporters of Ahmadinejad consider him a "simple man" that leads a "modest" life. As president, he wanted to continue living in the same house in Tehran his family had been living in, until his security advisers insisted that he move. Ahmadinejad had the antique Persian carpets in the Presidential palace sent to a carpet museum, and opted instead to use inexpensive carpets. He is said to have refused the V.I.P. seat on the Presidential plane, and that he eventually replaced it with a cargo plane instead. Also upon gaining Iran's presidency, Ahmadinejad held his first cabinet meeting in the Imam Reza shrine at Mashhad, an act perceived as "pious".

Administrative and academic careers

Some details of Ahmadinejad's life during the 1980s are not publicly known, but it is known that he held a number of administrative posts in the province of West Azerbaijan, Iran.

Many reports say that after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, Ahmadinejad joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and served in their intelligence and security apparatus, but his advisor Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi says "He has never been a member or an official member of the Revolutionary Guards", having been a Basiji-like volunteer instead.

Ahmadinejad was accepted to a Master of Science program at his alma mater in 1986. He joined the faculty there as a lecturer in 1989, and in 1997 received his doctorate in civil engineering and traffic transportation planning.

Embassy siege

Shortly after being elected president, some western media outlets published claims that Ahmadinejad was among the students who stormed the US embassy in Tehran, sparking the Iran hostage crisis. This claim has been denied by the Iranian government, the Iranian opposition as well as a CIA investigation on the matter.

Early political career

After the Islamic Revolution, Ahmadinejad became a member of the Office for Strengthening Unity, an organization developed to prevent students from sympathizing or allying with the budding Mojahedin-e Khalq.

He first took political office as unelected governor to both Maku and Khoy in West Azarbaijan Province during the 1980s. He eventually became an advisor to the governor general of Kurdistan Province for two years. During his doctoral studies at Tehran, he was appointed governor general of Ardabil Province from 1993 until Mohammad Khatami removed him in 1997 when he returned to teaching.

Mayor of Tehran

In 2003, a 12 percent turnout elected conservative candidates from the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran to the City Council of Tehran. The Council appointed Ahmadinejad mayor.

As mayor, he reversed changes made by previous moderate and reformist mayors. He put religious emphasis on the activities of cultural centres they had founded, publicised the separation of elevators for men and women in the municipality offices, and suggested that people killed in the Iran–Iraq War be buried in major city squares of Tehran. He also worked to improve the traffic system and put an emphasis on charity, such as distributing free soup to the poor.

After his election to the presidency, Ahmadinejad's resignation as the Mayor of Tehran was accepted on 28 June 2005. After two years as mayor, Ahmadinejad was one of 65 finalists for World Mayor in 2005, selected from 550 nominees, only nine of them from Asia. He was among three strong candidates for the top ten list, but his resignation made him ineligible.

Presidency

2005 campaign

Ahmadinejad was not widely known when he entered the presidential election campaign as he had never run for office before, (he had only been mayor of Tehran for two years and had been appointed not elected), although he had already made his mark in Tehran for rolling back earlier reforms. He was/is a member of the Central Council of the Islamic Society of Engineers, but his key political support is inside the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran (''Abadgaran'' or ''Developers''). He was also helped by support from supreme leader Ali Khamanei, who some described Ahmadinejad as a "protege" of.

Ahmadinejad generally sent mixed signals about his plans for his presidency, perhaps to attract both religious conservatives and the lower economic classes. His campaign slogan was: "It's possible and we can do it".

In the campaign, he took a populist approach. He emphasized his own modest life, and compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, Iran's second president. Ahmadinejad said he planned to create an "exemplary government for the people of the world" in Iran. He was a "principlist", acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals was "putting the petroleum income on people's tables", meaning Iran's oil profits would be distributed among the poor.

Ahmadinejad was the only presidential candidate who spoke out against future relations with the United States. He told Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting the United Nations was "one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam." He opposed the veto power of the UN Security Council's five permanent members: "It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege." He defended Iran's nuclear program and accused "a few arrogant powers" of trying to limit Iran's industrial and technological development in this and other fields.

In his second round campaign, he said, "We didn't participate in the revolution for turn-by-turn government....This revolution tries to reach a world-wide government." He spoke of an extended program using trade to improve foreign relations, and called for greater ties with Iran's neighbours and ending visa requirements between states in the region, saying that "people should visit anywhere they wish freely. People should have freedom in their pilgrimages and tours."

Ahmadinejad described Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a senior cleric from Qom as his ideological and spiritual mentor. Mesbah founded the Haghani School of thought in Iran. He and his team strongly supported Ahmadinejad's 2005 presidential campaign.

2005 election

Ahmadinejad won 62 percent of the vote in the run-off poll against Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his presidency on 3 August 2005. Ahmedinejad kissed Khamenei's hand during the ceremony to show his loyalty.

2005 cabinet appointments

Ministry	! Minister
Agriculture	Mohammadreza Eskandari
Commerce	Masoud Mirkazemi
Communication and Information Technology	Mohammad Soleimani
Ministry of Cooperatives (Iran)	Cooperatives	Mohammad Abbasi
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance	Culture and Islamic Guidance	Hossein Saffar Harandi
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Economy and Financial Affairs	Hossein Samsami
Ministry of Education (Iran)	Education	Alireza Aliahmadi
Energy	Parviz Fattah
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)	Foreign Affairs	Manoucher Mottaki
Ministry of Health and Medical Education	Health and Medical Education	Kamran Bagheri Lankarani
Housing and Urban Development	Mohammad Saeedikia
Industries and Mines	Aliakbar Mehrabian
Ministry of Intelligence of Iran	Intelligence	Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei
Ministry of Interior (Iran)	Interior	Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi
Ministry of Justice (Iran)	Justice	Gholam Hossein Elham
Labour and Social Affairs	Mohammad Jahromi
Ministry of Petroleum of Iran	Petroleum	Rostam Ghassemi
Roads and Transportation	Hamid Behbahani
Science, Research, and Technology	Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi
Welfare and Social Security	Abdolreza Mesri

Iran's President is constitutionally obliged to obtain confirmation from the parliament for his selection of ministers. Ahmadinejad presented a short-list at a private meeting on 5 August, and his final list on 14 August. The Majlis rejected all of his cabinet candidates for the oil portfolio and objected to the appointment of his allies in senior government office. The Majlis approved a cabinet on 24 August. The ministers promised to meet frequently outside Tehran and held their first meeting on 25 August in Mashhad, with four empty seats for the unapproved nominees.

2006 Councils and Assembly of Experts election

Ahmadinejad’s team lost the 2006 city council elections, and his spiritual mentor, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, was ranked sixth on the country's Assembly of Experts. In the first nationwide election since Ahmadinejad became President, his allies failed to dominate election returns for the Assembly of Experts and local councils. Results, with a turnout of about 60%, suggested a voter shift toward more moderate policies. According to an editorial in the Kargozaran independent daily newspaper, "The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support.. moderate figures." An Iranian political analyst said that "this is a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah Yazdi's list."

2009 presidential election

On 23 August 2008, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced that he "sees Ahmadinejad as president in the next five years," a comment interpreted as indicating support for Ahmadinejad's reelection. 39,165,191 ballots were cast in the election on 12 June 2009, according to Iran's election headquarters. Ahmadinejad won 24,527,516 votes, (62.63%). In second place, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, won 13,216,411 (33.75%) of the votes. The election drew unprecedented public interest in Iran.

2009 Iranian election protests

, the election results remain in dispute with both Mousavi and Ahmadinejad and their respective supporters who believe that electoral fraud occurred during the election. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad as President on 3 August 2009, and Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second term on 5 August 2009. Iran's Constitution stipulates term limits of two terms for the office of President. Several Iranian political figures appeared to avoid the ceremony. Former presidents Mohammad Khatami, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is currently head of the Expediency Discernment Council, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, did not attend the ceremony. Opposition groups asked protesters on reformist websites and blogs to launch new street demonstrations on the day of the inauguration ceremony. On inauguration day, hundreds of riot police met opposition protesters outside parliament. After taking the oath of office, which was broadcast live on Iranian state television, Ahmadinejad said that he will "protect the official faith, the system of the Islamic revolution and the constitution". France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States announced that they would not send the usual letters of congratulation.

2009 cabinet appointments

Ministry	! Minister
Agriculture in Iran	Agriculture	Sadeq Khalilian
	Mehdi Ghazanfari
Communications in Iran	Communication and Information Technology	Reza Taqipour
Ministry of Cooperatives (Iran)	Cooperatives	Mohammad Abbasi
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance	Culture and Islamic Guidance	Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini
Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Defense and Armed Forces Logistics	Ahmad Vahidi
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance (Iran)	Economy and Financial Affairs	Shamseddin Hosseini
Ministry of Education (Iran)	Education	Hamid-Reza Haji Babaee
Energy in Iran	Energy	Majid Namjoo
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)	Foreign Affairs	Manouchehr Mottaki
Ministry of Health and Medical Education	Health and Medical Education	Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi
Construction in Iran	Housing and Urban Development	Abdolreza Sheikholeslami
Industry of Iran	Industries and Mines	Aliakbar Mehrabian
Ministry of Intelligence of Iran	Intelligence	Heydar Moslehi
Ministry of Interior (Iran)	Interior	Mostafa Mohammad Najjar
Ministry of Justice (Iran)	Justice	Morteza Bakhtiari
Labor and tax laws in Iran	Labour and Social Affairs	Ali Nikzad
Ministry of Petroleum of Iran	Petroleum	Masoud Mir Kazemi
Transport in Iran	Roads and Transportation	Hamid Behbahani
Science and technology in Iran	Science, Research, and Technology	Kamran Daneshjoo
Economy of Iran#Labor and welfare	Welfare and Social Security	Sadeq Mahsouli

Ahmadinejad announced controversial ministerial appointments for his second term. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei was briefly appointed as first vice president, but opposed by a number of Majlis members and by the intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i. Mashaei followed orders to resign. Ahmadinejad then appointed Mashaei as chief of staff, and fired Mohseni-Eje'i.

On July 26, 2009, Ahmadinejad's government faced a legal problem after he sacked four ministers. Iran's constitution (Article 136) stipulates that, if more than half of its members are replaced, the cabinet may not meet or act before the Majlis approves the revised membership. The Vice Chairman of the Majlis announced that no cabinet meetings or decisions would be legal, pending such a re-approval.

The main list of 21 cabinet appointments was announced on August 19, 2009. On September 4, Majlis approved 18 of the 21 candidates, and rejected three, including two women. Sousan Keshavarz, Mohammad Aliabadi, and Fatemeh Ajorlou were not approved by Majlis for the Ministries of Education, Energy, and Welfare and Social Security respectively. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi is the first woman approved by Majlis as a minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Domestic policy

Economic policy

In Ahmadinejad's first four years as president, Iran's real GDP reflected growth of the economy. Inflation and unemployment have also decreased under Ahmadinejad due to better economic management and ending the unsustainable spending and borrowing patterns of previous administrations . Ahmadinejad has increased spending by 25 percent and has supported subsidies for food and petrol. He also initially refused a gradual increase of petrol prices, saying that after making necessary preparations, such as a development of public transportation system, the government will free up petrol prices after five years. Interest rates were cut by presidential decree to below the inflation rate. One unintended effect of this stimulation of the economy has been the bidding up of some urban real estate prices by two or three times their pre-Ahmadinejad value by Iranians seeking to invest surplus cash and finding few other safe opportunities. The resulting increase in the cost of housing has hurt poorer, non-property owning Iranians, the putative beneficiaries of Ahmadinejad's populist policies. The Management and Planning Organisation, a state body charged with mapping out long-term economic and budget strategy, was broken up and its experienced managers were fired.

In June 2006, 50 Iranian economists wrote a letter to Ahmadinejad that criticized his price interventions to stabilize prices of goods, cement, government services, and his decree issued by the High Labor Council and the Ministry of Labor that proposed an increase of workers' salaries by 40 percent. Ahmadinejad publicly responded harshly to the letter and denounced the accusations. Ahmadinejad has called for "middle-of-the-road" compromises with respect to Western-oriented capitalism and socialism. Current political conflicts with the United States have caused the central bank to fear increased capital flight due to global isolation. These factors have prevented an improvement of infrastructure and capital influx, despite high economic potential. Among those that did not vote for him in the first election, only 3.5 percent said they would consider voting for him in the next election. Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a member of Iranian parliament that campaigned for Ahmadinejad, said that his government "has been strong on populist slogans, but weak on achievement." President Ahmadinejad has changed almost all of his economic ministers, including oil, industry and economy, since coming to power in 2005. In an interview with Fars News Agency on April 2008, Davoud Danesh Jaafari who acted as minister of economy in President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet, harshly criticized Ahmadinejad’s economic policy: "During my time, there was no positive attitude towards previous experiences or experienced people and there was no plan for the future. Peripheral issues which were not of dire importance to the nation were given priority. Most of the scientific economic concepts like the effect of liquidity on inflation were put in question." In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad accused his minister of not being "a man of justice" and declared that the solution to Iran’s economic problem is "the culture of martyrdom". In May 2008, the Petroleum minister of Iran admitted that the government illegally invested 2 billion dollars to import petrol in 2007. At Iranian parliament, he also mentioned that he simply followed the president's order.

While his government had 275 thousand billion toman oil income, the highest in Iranian history, Ahmadinejad’s government had the highest budget deficit since the Iranian revolution.

During his presidency, Ahmadinejad launched a gasoline rationing plan to reduce the country's fuel consumption. He also instituted cuts in the interest rates that private and public banking facilities could charge. He issued a directive that the Management and Planning Organization be affiliated to the government. In May 2011 Ahmadinejad announced that he would temporarily run the Oil Ministry.

Family planning and population policy

In October 2006, Ahmadinejad began calling for the scrapping of Iran's existing birth control policies, which discouraged Iranian couples from having more than two children. He told MPs that Iran could cope with 50 million more people than the current 70 million. In November 2010 he urged Iranians to marry and reproduce earlier, "We should take the age of marriage for boys to 20 and for girls to about 16 and 17." His remarks have drawn criticism and been called ill-judged at a time when Iran was struggling with surging inflation and rising unemployment, estimated at around 11 percent. Ahmadinejad’s call was reminiscent of a call for Iranians to have more children made by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. The policy increased Iran's population by 16 million in seven years but was eventually reversed in response to the resultant economic strain.

In 2008, the government sent the "Family Protection Bill" to the Iranian parliament. Women's rights activists criticized the bill for removing protections from women, such as the requirement that a husband obtain his wife's consent before bringing another wife into the family. Women's rights in Iran are more religiously based than those in secular countries.

Housing

The first legislation to emerge from his newly formed government was a 12 trillion rial (US$1.3 billion) fund called ''"Reza's Compassion Fund"'', named after Shi'a Imam Ali al-Rida. Ahmadinejad's government said this fund would tap Iran's oil revenues to help young people get jobs, afford marriage, and buy their own homes. The fund also sought charitable donations, with a board of trustees in each of Iran's 30 provinces. The legislation was a response to the cost of urban housing, which is pushing up the national average marital age (currently around 25 years for women and 28 years for men). In 2006 the Iranian parliament rejected the fund. However, Ahmadinejad ordered the administrative council to execute the plan.

Human rights

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, "Since President Ahmadinejad came to power, treatment of detainees has worsened in Evin Prison as well as in detention centers operated clandestinely by the Judiciary, the Ministry of Information, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps." Again according to Human Rights Watch, "Respect for basic human rights in Iran, especially freedom of expression and assembly, deteriorated in 2006. The government routinely tortures and mistreats detained dissidents, including through prolonged solitary confinement." Human Rights Watch described the source of human rights violations in contemporary Iran as coming from the Judiciary, accountable to Ali Khamenei, and from members directly appointed by Ahmadinejad.

Responses to dissent have varied. Human Rights Watch writes that "the Ahmadinejad government, in a pronounced shift from the policy under former president Mohammed Khatami, has shown no tolerance for peaceful protests and gatherings." In December 2006, Ahmadinejad advised officials not to disturb students who engaged in a protest during a speech of his at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran, although speakers at other protests have included among their complaints that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.

In April 2007, the Tehran police, which is under Khamenei's supervision, began a crackdown on women with "improper hijab." This led to criticism from associates of Ahmadinejad.

Universities

In 2006, the Ahmadinejad government reportedly forced numerous Iranian scientists and university professors to resign or to retire. It has been referred to as "second cultural revolution". The policy has been said to replace old professors with younger ones. Some university professors received letters indicating their early retirement unexpectedly. In November 2006, 53 university professors had to retire from Iran University of Science and Technology.

In 2006, Ahmadinejad's government applied a 50 percent quota for male students and 50 percent for female students in the university entrance exam for medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. The plan was supposed to stop the growing presence of female students in the universities. In a response to critics, Iranian minister of health and medical education, Kamran Bagheri Lankarani argued that there are not enough facilities such as dormitories for female students. Masoud Salehi, president of Zahedan University said that presence of women generates some problems with transportation. Also, Ebrahim Mekaniki, president of Babol University of Medical Sciences, stated that an increase in the presence of women will make it difficult to distribute facilities in a suitable manner. Bagher Larijani, the president of Tehran University of Medical Sciences made similar remarks. According to Rooz Online, the quotas lack a legal foundation and are justified as support for "family" and "religion."

December 2006 student protest

On 11 December 2006, some students disrupted a speech by Ahmadinejad at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in Tehran. According to the Iranian Student News Agency, students set fire to photographs of Ahmadinejad and threw firecrackers. The protesters also chanted "death to the dictator." It was the first major public protest against Ahmadinejad since his election. In a statement carried on the students' Web site, they announced that they had been protesting the growing political pressure under Ahmadinejad, also accusing him of corruption, mismanagement, and discrimination. The statement added that "the students showed that despite vast propaganda, the president has not been able to deceive academia." It was also reported that some students were angry about the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust.

In response to the students' slogans, the president said: "We have been standing up to dictatorship so that no one will dare to establish dictatorship in a millennium even in the name of freedom. Given the scars inflicted on the Iranian nation by agents of the US and British dictatorship, no one will ever dare to initiate the rise of a dictator." It was reported that even though the protesters broke the TV cameras and threw hand-made bombs at Ahmadinejad, the president asked the officials not to question or disturb the protesters. In his blog, Ahmadinejad described his reaction to the incident as "a feeling of joy" because of the freedom that people enjoyed after the revolution.

One thousand students also protested the day before to denounce the increased pressure on the reformist groups at the university. One week prior, more than two thousand students protested at Tehran University on the country's annual student day, with speakers saying that there had been a crackdown on dissent at universities since Ahmadinejad was elected.

Nuclear program

Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion." He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those that want to solve all problems by the use of force. In a 2008 interview Ahmadinejad elaborated that countries striving to obtain nuclear weapons are not politically progressive nations and those who possess them and continually make new generations of such bombs are "even more backward".

In April 2006, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully refined uranium to a stage suitable for the nuclear fuel cycle. In a speech to students and academics in Mashhad, he was quoted as saying that Iran's conditions had changed completely as it had become a nuclear state and could talk to other states from that stand. On 13 April 2006, Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the peaceful Iranian nuclear technology would not pose a threat to any party because "we want peace and stability and we will not cause injustice to anyone and at the same time we will not submit to injustice." Nevertheless, Iran's nuclear policy under Ahmadinejad's administration has received much criticism, spearheaded by the United States and Israel. The accusations include that Iran is striving to obtain nuclear arms and developing long-range firing capabilities—and that Ahmadinejad issued an order to keep UN inspectors from freely visiting the nation's nuclear facilities and viewing their designs, in defiance of an IAEA resolution. Following a May 2009 test launch of a long-range missile, Ahmadinejad was quoted as telling the crowd that with its nuclear program, Iran was sending the West a message that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is running the show."

Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005. Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue.

Ahmadinejad vowed on February 2008, that Iran will not be held back from developing its peaceful nuclear program and has stated that at least 16 different peaceful uses for nuclear technology have so far been identified. Ahmadinejad has stressed the importance of the right to peaceful nuclear development. Iranian opposition leader, Mousavi, has even stated that giving up the country's nuclear program would be "irreparable" and that the Iranian people support the nuclear program. "No one in Iran will accept suspension," Mousavi has said, adding that if elected, his policy would be to work to provide "guarantees" that Tehran's nuclear activities would never divert to non-peaceful aims.

In October 2009 the United States, France and Russia proposed a U.N.-drafted deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, in an effort to find a compromise between Iran's stated need for a nuclear reactor and the concerns of those who are worried that Iran harbors a secret intent on developing a nuclear weapon. After some delay in responding, on October 29, Ahmadinejad seemed to change his tone towards the deal. "We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate," he said in a live broadcast on state television. However, he added that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its right to a sovereign nuclear program.

Domestic criticism and controversies

Alleged corruption

Ahmadinejad has been criticized for attacking private "plunderers" and "corrupt officials," while engaging in "cronyism and political favouritism". Many of his close associates have been appointed to positions for which they have no obvious qualifications, and "billion dollar no-bid contracts" have been awarded to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), an organization with which he is strongly associated.

Other statements

In June 2007, Ahmadinejad was criticized by some Iranian parliament members over his remark about Christianity and Judaism. According to Aftab News Agency, Ahmadinejad stated: "In the world, there are deviations from the right path: Christianity and Judaism. Dollars have been devoted to the propagation of these deviations. There are also false claims that these [religions] will save mankind. But Islam is the only religion that [can] save mankind." Some members of Iranian parliament criticized these remarks as being fuels to religious war.

Conservative MP Rafat Bayat has accused Ahmadinejad for a decline in observance of the required hijab for women, calling him "not that strict on this issue". Ahmadinejad has been also accused of indecency by people close to Rafsanjani, after he publicly kissed the hand of a woman who used to be his school teacher.

The UN and football stadiums

Two statements that have brought criticism from some religious authorities concern his speech at the United Nations, and the attendance of women at football matches. In a visit to group of Ayatollahs in Qom after returning from his 2005 speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors. According to at least one source (Hooman Majd), this was offensive to the conservative religious leaders because an ordinary man cannot presume a special closeness to God or any of the Imams, nor can he imply the presence of the Mahdi.

In another statement the next year, Ahmadinejad proclaimed (without consulting the clerics beforehand), that women be allowed into football stadiums to watch male football clubs compete. This proclamation "was quickly overruled" by clerical authorities, one of whom, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Lankarani "refused for weeks to meet with President Ahmadinejad" in early 2007.

Iran constitution conflict

In 2008, a serious conflict emerged between the Iranian President and the head of parliament over three laws approved by Iranian parliament: "the agreement for civil and criminal legal cooperation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan", "the agreement to support mutual investment between Iran and Kuwait", and "the law for registration of industrial designs and trademarks". The conflict was so serious that the Iranian leader stepped in to resolve the conflict. Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, furiously denouncing him for an "inexplicable act" in bypassing the presidency by giving the order to implement legislation in an official newspaper. President Ahmadinejad accused the head of parliament of violating Iranian constitutional law. He called for legal action against the Parliament speaker. Haddad-Adel responded to Ahmadinejad accusing him of using inappropriate language in his remarks and letters.

Ali Kordan

In August 2008, Dr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appointed Ali Kordan as Iran's interior minister. Kordan's appointment has been criticized by Iranian parliamentarians, media and analysts after it came to light that a doctoral degree allegedly awarded to Ali Kordan was fabricated, and that the putative issuer of the degree, Oxford University, had no record of Ali Kordan receiving any degree from the University. It was also revealed that he had been jailed in 1978 for moral charges. Fabrication of legal documents is punishable in Iranian law with one to three years of imprisonment and in the case of government officials, the maximum sentence (three years) is demanded.

In November 2008, President Ahmadinejad announced that he was against impeachment of Ali Kordan by Iranian parliament. He refused to attend the parliament on the impeachment day. Ali Kordan was expelled from Iranian interior ministry by Iranian parliament on 4 November 2008. 188 MPs voted against Ali Kordan. An impeachment of Kordan would push Ahmadinejad close to having to submit his entire cabinet for review by parliament, which is led by one of his chief political opponents. Iran's constitution requires that step if more than half the cabinet ministers are replaced, and Ahmadinejad has replaced nine of 21.

Conflict with Parliament

On February 2009 after Supreme Audit Court of Iran reported that $1.058 billion of surplus oil revenue in the (2006–2007) budget hasn't been returned by the government to the national treasury, Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, called for further investigations to make sure the missing funds are returned to the treasury as soon as possible. Ahmadinejad criticized the National Audit Office for what he called its "carelessness", saying the report "incites the people" against the government. The head of the parliament Energy Commission, Hamidreza Katouzian, reported: The government spent $5 billion to import fuel, about $2 billion more than the sum parliament had authorized. Katouzian quoted Iran's Oil Minister, Gholam-Hossein Nozari, as saying that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered the extra purchase.

In May 2011 several members of parliament threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Ahmadinejad after his merger of eight government ministries and the firing of three ministers without parliament’s consent. According to the Majles News Web site, MP Mohammad Reza Bahonar stated, "legal purging starts with questions, which lead to warnings and end with impeachment." On May 25 parliament voted to investigate another allegation, that Ahmadinejad had committed election irregularities by giving cash to up to nine million Iranians before the 2009 presidential elections. The vote came within hours after the allegations appeared in several popular conservative news sites associated with supreme leader Ali Khamenei, suggesting the supreme leader supported the investigation. The disputes were seen as part of the clash between Ahmadinejad and other conservatives and former supporters, including supreme leader Khamenei, over what the conservatives see as Ahmadinejad's confrontational policies and abuse of power.

Relations with Supreme Leader

Early in his presidency, Ahmadinejad was sometimes described as "enjoy[ing] the full backing" of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and even as being his "protege." In Ahmadinejad's 2005 inauguration the supreme leader allowed Ahmadinejad to kiss his hand and cheeks in what was called "a sign of closeness and loyalty," and after the 2009 election fully endorsed Ahmadinejad against protesters. However as early as January 2008 signs of disagreement between the two men developed over domestic policies, and by 2010-11 several sources detected a "growing rift" between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. The disagreement has been described as centering on Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, a top adviser and close confidant of Ahmadinejad and opponent of "greater involvement of clerics in politics", who was First Vice President of Iran until being ordered to resign from the cabinet by the supreme leader. In 2009 Ahmadinejad dismissed Intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, an opponent of Mashaei. In April 2011, another Intelligence minister, Heydar Moslehi, resigned after being asked to by Ahmadinejad, but was reinstated by the supreme leader within hours. Ahmadinejad declined to officially back Moslehi's reinstatement for two weeks and in protest engaged in an "11-day walkout" of cabinet meetings, religious ceremonies, and other official functions. Ahmadinejad's actions led to angry public attacks by clerics, parliamentarians and military commanders, who accused him of ignoring orders from the supreme leader. Conservative opponents in parliament launched an "impeachment drive" against him, four websites with ties to Ahmadinejad reportedly were "filtered and blocked", and several people "said to be close" to the president and Mashaei (such as Abbas Amirifar and Mohammed Sharif Malekzadeh) were arrested on charges of being "magicians" and invoking djinns. On 6 May 2011 it was reported that Ahmadinejad had been given an ultimatum to accept the leader's intervention or resign, and on 8 May he "apparently bowed" to the reinstatement, welcoming back Moslehi to a cabinet meeting. The events have been said to have "humiliated and weakened" Ahmadinejad, though the president has denied that there was any rift between the two, and according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency stated that his relationship with the supreme leader "is that of a father and a son."

Foreign relations

During Ahmadinejad's tenure as President of Iran the foreign policy of the country took a different approach from the previous administration. Relations with the West generally soured while relations with other parts of the world, including Africa and Latin America, were on the ascendance. In light of the calls for sanctions on Iran for its nuclear weapons programme, Ahmadinejad and his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, traveled extensively throughout the two regions, as well as hosted other leaders. Relations with the ALBA states, and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in particular, were most strengthened. Relations with America during the Bush administration and Israel were weakened.

Ahmadinejad is an outspoken critic of the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom.

Israel and Palestine

He abides by Iran's long-standing policy of refusing to recognize Israel as a legitimate state.

He was embroiled in controversy in regards to statements he made about the Holocaust and for commenting that "the occupying regime" would, according to various translations, be eliminated, or "vanish from the pages of time." The ''New York Times'' reported this as a call for the destruction of the State of Israel when the phrase was translated as "wiped off the map". American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia, Juan Cole says the word "map" doesn't even appear in the quote. It has also been claimed that he said that "Israel's regime will be wiped off the map", not the actual state.

He advocates "free elections" for the region, and believes Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future. Criticism of him in the West has been coupled with accusations of describing the Holocaust as a myth and of statements influenced by "classic anti-Semitic ideas," which has led to accusations of anti-Semitism, though he has denied these accusations, saying that he "respects Jews very much" and that he was not "passing judgment" on the Holocaust.

On al-Quds Day in September 2010 criticized the Palestinian Authority over its president's decision to renew direct peace talks with Israel saying the talks are "stillborn" and "doomed to fail", urging the Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel. He said that Mahmoud Abbas had no authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, fired back, saying, Ahmadinejad "does not represent the Iranian people,..., is not entitled to talk about Palestine, or the President of Palestine"

Lebanon

In October 2010, Ahmadinejad plans to visit Lebanon. The ''Jerusalem Post'' reported that he plans to throw a rock towards Israel "to demonstrate his hatred". Hizbullah operatives will provide him with security throughout his visit, and a rock to chuck. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper ''Al-Anbaa'', Syrian President Bashar al-Assad advised Ahmadinejad not to visit southern Lebanon. In response, Ahmadinejad expounded the "strategic importance for him because southern Lebanon is Iran's border with Israel".

United States

In September 2010 he caused yet-another controversy at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly by claiming that most people believed the United States government was behind the 9/11 attacks and later called for an inquiry, stating: "The fact-finding mission can shed light on who the perpetrators were, who is al-Qaeda... where does it exist? Who was it backed by and supported? All these should come to light." The speech triggered a mass walkout, and the U.S. president Barack Obama described the claims as "inexcuseable", "offensive" and "hateful". In 2010, Ahmadinejad reiterated the 9/11 conspiracy, and wrote:

"Establishing an independent and impartial committee of investigation, which would determine the roots and causes of the regrettable event of 9/11, is the demand of all the peoples of the region and the world. [...] Any opposition to this legal and human demand means that 9/11 was premeditated in order to achieve the goals of occupation and of confrontation with the nations.

He made similar comments in 2011.

Ahmadinejad was criticized for his claims in an article appearing in Al-Qaeda's magazine. The article claimed Ahmadinejad was jealous of Al-Qaeda.

Personal life

He was married to Fatemeh Sadat Farahi on 12 June 1981 in Tehran. Farahi was a classmate of Ahmadinejad when he studied at the Iran University of Science and Technology. They have three children, including one daughter, Fatemeh, and two sons, Mehdi and Alireza. His older son, Mehdi, married the daughter of Ahmadinejad's chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei in 2007, and his younger son, Alireza, is married to the niece of former military general, Mahmoud Kaveh. All of his children studied at the Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic). His son in law is Mehdi Khorshidi.

See also

2006 Iranian sumptuary law controversy

Advisors to the president: Hamid Mowlana, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, Ali Akbar Javanfekr

Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi

Politics of Iran

References

Further reading

"Referral of Iranian President Ahmadinejad on the Charge of Incitement to Commit Genocide" by Justus Reid Weiner, Esq., with Amb. Meir Rosenne, Prof. Elie Wiesel, Amb. Dore Gold, Irit Kohn, Adv., Amb. Eytan Bentsur, and MK Dan Naveh

Ali Rahnema, ''Superstition as Ideology in Iranian Politics: From Majlesi to Ahmadinejad'', Cambridge University Press, 2011 (Reviewed in The Montréal Review), ISBN: 978-0-521-18221-8

External links

Official website of the President of Iran

Blog of President Ahmadinejad

Biography at CIDOB Foundation

Video Archive of President Ahmadinejad at ''Irannegah.com''

People Who Mattered: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ''Time'', 16 December 2006

The Results As They Came In, Andrew Sullivan, ''The Atlantic'', 13 June 2009

Category:1956 births Category:9/11 conspiracy theorists Category:Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran politicians Category:Current national leaders Category:Holocaust deniers Category:Holocaust denial in Iran Category:Iranian anti-communists Category:Iranian civil engineers Category:Iranian governors Category:Islamic Society of Engineers politicians Category:Living people Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Category:Mayors of Tehran Category:People from Semnan Province Category:Presidents of Iran Category:Shi'a politicians Category:Iran University of Science and Technology alumni Category:Iran University of Science and Technology faculty

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