Abolhassan Banisadr

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Abolhassan Banisadr in December 2010
Signature of Abolhassan Banisadr
Banisadr in 1958

Abolhassan Banisadr ( Persian ابوالحسن بنی‌صدر, DMG Abū l-Ḥasan Banīṣadr [ æbolhæˈsæn bæniːˈsædr ]; * March 22, 1933 in Hamadan ) was the first elected President of Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 . His term of office lasted from January 25, 1980 to June 21, 1981.

Life

Abolhassan Banisadr is the son of Ayatollah Nasrollah Banisadr. His father was known to be an opponent of Reza Shah . The Banisadr family had close ties to the Khomeini family and the Musa al-Sadr family . Khomeini often came to Hamadan in the summer months and so Abolhassan met him as a child. Abolhassan and Khomeini's sons Ahmad and Mostafa became playmates.

Abolhassan's passion, however, was not religion but politics. During his school days he became a supporter of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh . After the fall of Mossadegh, Banisadr became an opponent of the monarchy, took part in demonstrations against the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , went underground and was arrested several times. On June 5, 1963, he took part in the demonstrations against the reform program of the white revolution and was wounded during a protest.

Banisadr went to France to study. There he joined the Islamic opposition in exile around the supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , who himself came to Paris from Iraq in 1978 to prepare for the coup that followed in 1979. Many Iranian students and left-wing intellectuals supported Khomeini, not because they were against women's rights or the Shah's land reform, but because they wanted to eliminate the monarchy and establish a republic. The fact that Khomeini had stood on the side of the clergy who had advocated the overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 was not noticed by them.

When Khomeini finally returned to Iran as a revolutionary leader in February 1979 , Banisadr accompanied him and was immediately integrated into the political leadership. After the resignation of Khomeini appointed Prime Minister of the transition Mehdi Bāzargān on October 6, 1979 after the occupation of the American embassy , Banisadr was initially foreign, economic and finance minister in a "cabinet without a prime minister".

After the referendum on the new constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was passed on December 3, 1979 with almost 100% according to official figures - other sources speak of only around 60% - Banisadr was voted on January 25, 1980 by 75.7% elected the first President of the Islamic Republic of Iran of the Iranians participating in the presidential election and formally appointed President by Khomeini on February 4, 1980.

Khomeini had insisted that clergymen should not hold government offices, which Banisadr accommodated. An Iranian newspaper described Banisadr as Stalin plus Abraham Lincoln plus Don Quixote .

Fall and Exile

During his tenure, he was accused in the first Gulf War , the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran to have performed poorly and thus be in charge of military defeats. The Iranian parliament declared Banisadr "politically incompetent" on June 21, 1981 and removed him from his post as President of the Republic. His attempt to curtail the power of the mullahs in the state could only be carried out by means of counterrevolution after the Iranian constitution was drafted by the assembly of experts . He fled under adventurous conditions, disguised as a woman according to unconfirmed reports, with the help of the People's Mujahedin on July 29, 1981 to France , where he still lives today.

His last well-known public appearance was as a witness in the Mykonos trial .

In an interview with Bahman Nirumand in April 2007 he was convinced:

“That Iran does not have the ability to build the bomb, at least not in the foreseeable future. Of course the radicals would like to have nuclear weapons. But they too know that they are far from it. But why do they insist on enriching uranium, why do they expose the country to dangers that can have serious consequences? Because they cannot exist without crises. "

- Iran Report 05/2007 of the Heinrich Böll Foundation

See also

literature

  • Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. Translated from the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006, pp. 99-106. (Original edition: London 2004)

Web links

Commons : Abolhassan Banisadr  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 110.
  2. ↑ Andrew S. Cooper: The Fall of Heaven. New York 2016, p. 111.
  3. ↑ Christopher de Bellaigue: In the rose garden of the martyrs. A portrait of Iran. Translated from the English by Sigrid Langhaeuser. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2006, (English original edition: London 2004), ISBN 3-406-54374-X , p. 99.
  4. ↑ 1980 Presidential Election. In: syr.edu . Accessed December 1, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Hans Georg Ebert, Henner Fürtig , Hans-Georg Müller: The Islamic Republic of Iran. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-05-000079-1 , p. 459.
  6. ↑ Iran's President: The Man of the Hour? In: time online. February 1, 1980, accessed May 17, 2010 .
  7. ↑ The father lost his son . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1981, pp. 90-93 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Hans Georg Ebert, Henner Fürtig, Hans-Georg Müller: The Islamic Republic of Iran . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-05-000079-1 , p. 459, p. 176.
  9. ↑ Under pressure to act. In: time online. Retrieved May 17, 2010 .
  10. ↑ Iran Report 05/2007 of the Heinrich Böll Foundation (PDF file; 91 kB).
personal data
SURNAME Banisadr, Abolhassan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Banīṣadr, Abū'l-Ḥasan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Iranian President (1980–1981)
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamadan