After the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, Iranian lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian wrote that it was unacceptable in the Islamic Republic to arrest a girl for her hijab and then hand over her dead body to her family.
Days later as nationwide protests and a bloody crackdown on all dissent took hold, he warned that those insulting the supreme leader ... will create nothing except long-lasting anger and hatred in the society."
The stances by Pezeshkian, now a 69-year-old candidate for Iran's next president, highlight the dualities of being a reformist politician within Iran's Shiite theocracy always pushing for change but never radically challenging the system overseen by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
After Iran's June 28 presidential election saw the lowest turnout in history, Pezeshkian now must convince a public angered by years of economic pain and bloody crackdowns to go vote in a runoff poll on Friday even though a majority of them earlier decided not to cast ballots at all.
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