Iran's Rafsanjani Was Neither a Moderate Nor a Reformer

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who served as Iran's President from 1989 to 1997, has died of a stroke at the age of 82.

I am struck by the headlines characterizing Rafsanjani as a moderate or a reformer.

The New York Times: "Death of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Is Blow to Iran Reform Movement"

NPR: "Former Iranian President Rafsanjani, A Leading Voice for Reform, Dies at 82"

Reuters: "Former Iran President Rafsanjani Dies in Blow to Moderates"

Rafsanjani was a confidante of both the Ayatollah Khomeini and the Ayatollah Khamenei. He was synonymous with the Iranian Revolution. What exactly makes Rafsanjani either a moderate or a reformer?

As recently as July 2015, Rafsanjani called the Jewish State a "forged, temporary Israeli entity" and hoped for its destruction. During his presidency, Iran perpetrated the 1994 terrorist attack against the AMIA Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires which killed 85 people and was responsible for the murder of Iranian dissidents in Europe. Dissidents in Iran fared little better. As Azar Nafisi wrote in her 2003 book Reading Lolita in Tehran:

Our president, the powerful former speaker of the house, Hojatol-Islam Rafsanjani, the first to earn the title of reformist, was the new hope, but he who called himself the general of reconstruction and was nicknamed Ayatollah Gorbachov was notorious for financial and political corruption and for his involvement in terrorizing dissidents both at home and abroad. He did talk about some liberalization of the laws-again, as Manna reminded us, these reforms meant that you could be a little Islamic, you could cheat around the edges, show a bit of hair from under your scarf. It was like saying you could be a little fascist, a moderate fascist or communist, I added….

….But the president's liberalism, as would later be the case with his successor, President Khatami, stopped there. Those who took his reforms seriously paid a heavy price, sometimes with their lives, while their captors went free and unpunished. When the dissident writer Saidi Sirjani, who had the illusion of presidential support, was jailed, tortured and finally murdered, no one came to his assistance-another example of the constant struggle between the Islamic republic of words and deeds, one that continues to this day. Their own interests precede everything, Mrs. Rezvan was fond of reminding me. No matter how liberal they claim to be, they never give up the Islamic façade: that's their trademark. Who would need Mr. Rafsanjani in a democratic Iran?

It is true that Rafsanjani fell out of favor with the regime in the final years of his life dating from the bloody 2009 "elections". In their aftermath, he called for the release of political prisoners following the 2009 "elections". No doubt this led to his two children being imprisoned, his removal as Chairman of Iran's Assembly of Experts in 2011 and was prohibited from running for President in 2013 by the Guardian Council. That "election" was won by current President Hassan Rouhani.

But notwithstanding these events, it doesn't change the fact there can be no moderation or reform in Iran without the end of an Islamic regime governed by Sharia law. In this respect and in consideration of his words and deeds when in a position of power, Rafsanjani cannot be called a moderate or reformer in any meaningful way.