Gholamhossein Karbaschi ( fa, غلامحسین کرباسچی, Gholām-Hosein Karbāschī, ; born 23 August 1954) is an Iranian politician and former
Shia cleric
In Shi'a Islam the guidance of clergy and keeping such a structure holds a great importance. The clergy structure depends on the branch of Shi'ism is being referred to.
Twelver
Usooli and Akhbari Shia Twelver Muslims believe that the study ...
who was the
Mayor of Tehran from 1990 until 1998. He is considered politically
reformist and is a close ally of former president
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
. He was arrested, tried convicted and imprisoned on corruption charges in what the ''
New York Times'' claimed "was widely seen among moderates as a politically motivated attack" by the government's conservatives and hard-liners to thwart President
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
's reformist agenda.
[Iran's Ex-President Backs a Jailed Aide](_blank)
''The New York Times'', 9 May 1999. He
was the General Secretary of
Executives of Construction Party
The Executives of Construction of Iran Party ( fa, حزب کارگزاران سازندگی ایران, Hezb-e Kārgozārān-e Sāzandegi-ye Irān) is a reformist political party in Iran, founded by 16 members of the cabinet of the then President ...
until 2021.
Background
Karbaschi was trained as a cleric in the holy city of Qom and spent time in Evin prison for his political activities before the
Islamic Revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...
.
[The Case of the Tehran Mayor: Reform on Trial](_blank)
''The New York Times''
Karbaschi was a driving force for many new
modernization
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
efforts. As the Mayor of Tehran he was known for having bulldozed apartment buildings and office buildings built without city approval, removed revolutionary graffiti from walls, planted thousands of trees, banned much of the private traffic in central
Tehran and opened more than a hundred parks. Karbaschi also angered bazaar merchants by raising taxes and contributing to the city's soaring real estate prices, earning him the reputation during his time as mayor of "the most loved and hated man in Tehran."
He started the first Iranian full colour newspaper, ''
Hamshahri'' when he was the mayor of Tehran.
Karbaschi was one of the key supporters of President
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khatami ( fa, سید محمد خاتمی, ; born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to ...
's first presidential election campaign which led to Khatami's landslide victory (1997). After Khatami's victory, a power struggle started within the political establishment of Iran between the reformists and conservatives of the Iranian government. Karbaschi's arrest in April 1998 prompted thousands of student demonstrators to clash with riot police, and the Interior Minister (who was later arrested for sacrilege) to complain that he had not been informed of the arrest despite the fact that Karbaschi was a member of the president's cabinet in addition to being mayor of Iran's capital and largest city.
Trial and imprisonment
Karbaschi was arrested on 4 April 1998 on corruption charges.
The prosecution of Karbaschi was called "the most prominent part of a campaign" by Iranian clerical conservatives "to thwart the reformist administration" of President Mohammad Khatami, rather than an honest attempt to "uncover and punish" financial corruption. The trial was often "a heated debate — at times a shouting match" — between judge
Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei
Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i ( fa, غلامحسین محسنی اژهای, Ğolām-Hoseyn Mohseni Eže'i, ; born 29 September 1956) is an Iranian conservative politician, Islamic jurist and prosecutor who currently serves as Chief Justice of ...
and Karbaschi, who holds the same clerical rank as Ejei. The trial "captured record audiences" while being broadcast on Iranian television, and was "debated in detail" in Iran's press.
In July 1998 Karbaschi was convicted of corruption and misuse of funds and began serving a two-year sentence in May 1999, "despite last-ditch efforts by his supporters"
including a petition "signed by more than 130 members of parliament — nearly half the chamber" — asking
supreme leader Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
for a pardon.
Middle East, Tehran mayor goes to jail.
''BBC''. 6 May 1999 In January 2000 Khamenei agreed to decree his amnesty.
Post-release
He is also the manager of ''Ham-Mihan
''Ham-Mihan'' ( fa, هممیهن, lit=Compatriot) was a reformist daily newspaper in Tehran, Iran. It was in circulation between 2000 and 2009.
History and profile
In January 2000 Gholamhossein Karbaschi, former mayor of Tehran, established ' ...
'', a new reformist newspaper published in Tehran. This newspaper was forced to stop publishing twice. Once in the collective ban of almost all reformist newspapers in 2000[ and again in July 2007 after a very short period of publication.
]
See also
* Iranian reform movement
References
Further reading
*
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karbaschi, Gholamhossein
1954 births
Living people
People from Qom
Mayors of Tehran
Executives of Construction Party politicians
Governors of Isfahan
Iranian newspaper publishers (people)
Iranian Shia clerics
Secretaries-General of political parties in Iran
Rotating Presidents of the Council for Coordinating the Reforms Front
Iranian politicians convicted of crimes
Representatives of the Supreme Leader
Iranian Gendarmerie personnel
Iranian campaign managers