It emerged that the recently elected president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, for the term 2013-2021, is on a roller coaster as he enters the country’s leadership. The 69-year-old reformist politician has supported moderate figures in order to dilute Iran’s politics from the extreme level of his predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi.
Pezeshkian won the June 28 presidential poll in which the voter turnout was the lowest in Iran’s history, reflecting the extent of hopelessness at the present. The public has grown impatient over the state of the economy, heavy-handed oppression of dissent, and social policies, which include forced hijab-wearing.
In one of the programs’ TV broadcasts, Pezeshkian agreed with the audience’s anger and said that the government had been gradually shedding its social support because of its behaviour, high prices, and treatment of women.
Pezeshkian’s campaign has endeavoured to brand himself as the anti-Taliban candidate to Saeed Jalili. After the election, he has expressed his willingness to improve relations with the West and a possibility of changes in hijab mandatory rules.
Still, Pezeshkian’s capability to make actual changes inside Iran’s Shiite theocracy is rather questionable because, for many years, it has been demanding a slow reformist approach, which poses no threat to the system headed by Khamenei.
Incoming president Pezeshkian must restore public trust and fulfil his campaign pledges in a country still characterized by the Shiite theocracy and traditionalist rules that require constant balancing and sometimes procedure infringement.
