Ali Akbar Mousavi Khoeini (; fa, علی اکبر موسوی خویینی; also known as Seyed Ali Akbar Mosavi) is a notable

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He was an active member of

Tahkim vahdat The Office for Strengthening Unity (also Office for Consolidating Unity, fa, دفتر تحکیم وحدت, Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat), is an Iranian student organization created in 1979, and has been described as "the country's most well-known stud ...

before he was elected as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

in the 6th

Parliament of Iran The Islamic Consultative Assembly ( fa, مجلس شورای اسلامی, Majles-e Showrā-ye Eslāmī), also called the Iranian Parliament, the Iranian Majles (Arabicised spelling Majlis) or ICA, is the national legislative body of Iran. The Pa ...

. In the parliament, he made a significant attempt to defend the rights of

political prisoner A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

s during the 1990s. He is currently the President of Advar Tahkim Vahdat.

Biography

Mousavi Khoeini started his political career as an activist in the Islamic Students Association of Khajeh Nasir University. Students in "Islamic Associations" are the biggest pro-democracy student group in the universities in Iran. He was later elected to be a member of Adver Tahkim Vahdat, a representative body of Islamic Students Associations in Iran. In 1999, Mousavi Khoeini was elected to the Majlis of Iran (Iranian Parliament) from the district of

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. He along with

Fatemeh Haghighatjoo Fatemeh Haghighatjoo (also spelled Haghighatjou and Haqiqatju; fa, فاطمه حقیقت‌جو, lit=Truth/Justice Seeker) is an Iranian scholar and reformism, reformist politician who represented Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr in the Maj ...

, Ali Tajernia and others started the student faction in the parliament. They followed up with the demands of student activists within the parliament and initiated a sit-in in the parliament in support of jailed students, which resulted in many of them getting freed by the regime. Mousavi Khoeini also helped form a committee in the parliament to visit the prisons and report on the condition of the imprisoned activists. He was able to uncover a number of secret facilities that were used to keep the political activists in very poor conditions. Additionally, he tried to provide ways of financial support for families of imprisoned political activists. For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic, Mousavi Khoeini pressed the Majles Khobregan (the body which selects the supreme leader for a lifetime) to produce a report on the performance of the supreme leader. Mousavi Khoeini also founded Sazeman-e Danesh Amokhtegan-e Iran (Iran Students Alumni Organization) to defend the human rights of students, women, prisoners, and minorities. This led to his involvement with the demonstration of women in June 2006 in support of

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

in Iran. He was arrested during this protest on June 12, 2006, in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran and was put in solitary confinement

He was released on bail on October 22, 2006, in part due to the efforts of

Akbar Ganji Akbar Ganji ( fa, اکبر گنجی , born 31 January 1960 in Tehran) is an Iranian journalist, writer and a former member of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He has been described as "Iran's preeminent political dissident", and a "wildly popu ...

, the well known Iranian political activist recently released from jail, who launched a mass-

hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...

campaign to free Mosavi from jail. Ali Mousavi Khoeini currently resides in the U.S. (source: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html).

External links

Iranian MP Mousavi Khoeini may be arrested soon: report
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20061108171737/http://www.kosoof.com/archive/319.php His pictures after his release from jail {{DEFAULTSORT:Mousavi Khoeini, Ali Akbar Living people Members of the 6th Islamic Consultative Assembly Deputies of Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr Office for Strengthening Unity members 1969 births