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Biography:
Hashemi Rafsanjani is a relatively moderate Iranian cleric who served two terms as
president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, from 1989 to 1997. Rafsanjani began his
political activism in the 1960s and 1970s when he was part of the student movement
opposed to the Western-backed regime of the Shah. He became a trusted aide and
friend of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution which toppled
the government 1979 and established a new, theocratic regime.
Despite being more moderate than clerics who count themselves as part of the religious tradition of the city of Qom, the even more liberal political polices of his successor, Mohammad Khatami, have caused Rafsanjani to move further and further to the right. Rafsanjani has the Shi'ite clergy title of "Hojatol-Islam," which means "a sign of God." This is a slightly lower ranking than Ayatollah.
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