Mojtaba Khamenei - Mojtaba Khamenei (born c. 1969), is an Iranian hard-line cleric, and the second son of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Mojtaba is reported to have a strong influence over his father and is talked about as his possible successor. The strength of Mojtaba's personal following has not been demonstrated and while he wears clerical robes he "by no means has the theological status" to rise to Supreme Leader. He would face opposition in the Assembly of Experts, which selects the Supreme Leader. Many conservatives, including the Revolutionary Guard hierarchy, support Mojtaba and oppose reformers who might question the financial management of the country and the billions of dollars conservatives use to support their regional political agenda. However, Mojtaba's religious and political stature may still not be enough for Ali Khamenei to one day just unveil his son as his successor.
Roozbeh Farahanipour - Roozbeh Farahanipour (born July 16, 1971 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian nationalist writer and journalist, cofounder of the Marze Por Gohar Party who escaped from Iran for exile in America in 2000 after being arrested for membership in Marze Por Gohar.
Remembering Neda - Neda was a very happy girl, she was, how can I put it, a simple person, innocent, sweet. She was the sort of girl that when we went somewhere together, everyone liked her, people were drawn to her. She was very kind with people, she had a really sweet personality, very sweet, innocent and open. People were drawn to her.
She was not at all into politics nor was she a protestor or part of this ‘green wave’ movement. She didn’t support any of the candidates. She just wanted democracy and a little freedom, a little freedom in a logical reasonable way, that was what she wanted — just the basic rights of the Iranian people which this regime wants to take away from them.
We knew each for just three months. It was not long enough…
Guide to Iran's Power Players - The battle between pro-democracy activists and the hardline regime over President Ahmadinejad's disputed election victory is the culmination of years of tension between a variety of powerful leaders. Who are the major players in the standoff?
Imprisoned Journalists and Politicians - Since June 13, the start of nationwide demonstrations and protests against Iran’s rigged presidential elections began, a clampdown on many of the leading reformist politicians, as well as journalists and bloggers, has been under way. Many have been arrested and imprisoned. There are strong rumors that some of them, including Messrs Tajzadeh, Ramazanpour, and Aminzadeh (see below), are under strong pressure to “confess” to planning the demonstrations well in advance of the elections, and having “connections” with foreign powers. The following is a list of those whose arrest and imprisonment have been confirmed, together with a brief background for each.
Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani - Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani a daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. She was a Majlis representative from Tehran between 1996 and 2000, during which she founded the women's newspaper Zan. Rafsanjani is currently enrolled as a student at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom. During the 2009 Iranian election protests, Reuters reported that Rafsanjani addressed a crowd at a banned opposition rally in Tehran on June 16, and was subsequently prohibited from leaving the country. She was arrested, together with four relatives, after participating in an opposition rally in Tehran on June 20, but was released shortly thereafter.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is an influential Iranian politician, writer and former president. Currently he holds the position of Chairman of the Assembly of Experts and Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran.
Rafsanjani is reportedly associated with the Iranian business class and Western energy sector and is hostile to Ahmadinejad and the more socialistic ideological tendency in the Islamic Republic. He has been described as a pragmatic and conservative, who supports a right-wing position domestically and a moderate position internationally, seeking to avoid conflict with the United States.
Manouchehr Mottaki - Manouchehr Mottaki is the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Whilst technically appointed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is considered to be closer to more pragamatic conservative factions and during the 2005 presidential election, he was the campaign manager of Ali Larijani, the right-conservative candidate.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president after winning the 2005 presidential election and was elected to a second term in 2009 after a disputed election. Many Iranians are involved in ongoing mass protests claiming election fraud and other abuses. Despite his title, he does not hold the highest constitutional office in Iran, which belongs to the Supreme Leader of Iran (Ali Khamenei), who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iran, according to Article 113 of the Constitution of Iran.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi @ Facebook - MirHossein Mousavi is on Facebook. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Millions of people use Facebook everyday. It is a fantastic social networking site that has tremendous social value.
Mir-Hossein Mousavi - Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, painter and architect who served as the fifth and last Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Mousavi is currently the president of the Iranian Academy of Arts and was a candidate for the 2009 presidential election.
He was the last Prime Minister in Iran before the 1989 constitutional changes which removed the post of prime minister. Before that, he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and the High Council of Cultural Revolution. However, he has not participated in their meetings for years, which is interpreted by political analysts and commentators as a sign of his disapproval. In the early years of the revolution, Mousavi was the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republican Party, the Jomhouri-e Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper. In 2009 presidential election, Mousavi chose green as his campaign color, a color which has since become pervasive in Iran.
Ayatollah Salid Ali Khamenei - Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i, is an Iranian politician and cleric. He has been Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989 and was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He has been described as one of only three people having "important influences" on the Islamic Republic of Iran, the other two being Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the revolution, and Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, president of Iran for much of the 1990s. The biggest challenge to his leadership arises in the mass protests following the June 2009 presidential elections.
Neda Agha-Soltani - The death of Neda Agha-Soltan drew international attention when her shooting, during the 2009 Iranian election protests, was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast over the internet. The video quickly became a rallying point for the reformist opposition. Nedā is also the the Persian word for "voice", "calling" or "divine message," and she has been referred to as the "voice of Iran".