Sayyid Mostafa Agha Mirsalim (born 10 June 1947) is an Iranian engineer and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

politician. He is currently member of the

Expediency Discernment Council The Expediency Discernment Council of the System ( fa, مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام ''Majma'-e Taškhīs-e Maslahat-e Nezām'') is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Co ...

and also a member of

Islamic Consultative Assembly 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 P ...

. He was a presidential candidate at the 2017 election which placed third with receiving 1.16% of the votes.

Early life and education

He obtained B.Sc. in Mechanics from

Universite de Poitiers The University of Poitiers (UP; french: Université de Poitiers) is a public university located in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group. It is multidisciplinary and contributes to making Poitiers the city with the highest stude ...

in 1969, M.Sc. in Mechanics from

École nationale supérieure de mécanique et d'aérotechnique The École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique (ISAE-ENSMA) is a grande école founded in 1948 and located near Poitiers, France. Graduates generally work as R&D engineers for corporations in the aerospace (60%), transportat ...

and M.Sc. Fluid Mechanics & Thermodynamics from Attestation d`Eludes Approfondies, Universite de Poitiers both in 1971 and M.Sc. in Internal Combustion Engines from

École Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs The IFP School (French: ''ENSPM - École Nationale Supérieure du Pétrole et des Moteurs'') is a graduate engineering school located in Rueil-Malmaison, France. Founded in 1954, IFP School is part of the IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN), a French ...

in 1972. He worked as an intern in Alsace Mechanical Industries until 1976, when he returned to Iran. He worked at

Tehran Metro The Tehran Metro ( fa, مترو تهران, translit=Metro-ye Tehrān) is a rapid transit system serving Tehran, the capital of Iran. It is the largest metro system in the Middle East. The system is owned and operated by Tehran Urban and Subur ...

as the operational director from 1976 to 1979.

Career

Mir-Salim served as the national police chief following the

Iranian 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 dynas ...

. He was proposed by then president

Abulhassan Banisadr Seyyed Abolhassan Banisadr ( fa, سید ابوالحسن بنی‌صدر; 22 March 1933 – 9 October 2021) was an Iranian politician, writer, and political dissident. He was the first president of Iran after the 1979 Iranian Revolution abolis ...

in July 1980 as a candidate for the prime minister as a compromise candidate acceptable to both Banisadr and the

Majlis ( ar, المجلس, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning "sitting room", used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural conne ...

dominated by the

Islamic Republican Party The Islamic Republican Party (IRP; fa, حزب جمهوری اسلامی, Ḥezb-e Jomhūrī-e Eslāmī, also translated Islamic Republic Party) formed in 1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini establish theocracy in Iran. ...

. However, Banisadr was pressured to accept

Mohammad-Ali Rajai Mohammad-Ali Rajai ( fa, محمدعلی رجائی; 15 June 1933 – 30 August 1981) was the second president of Iran from 2 to 30 August 1981 after serving as prime minister under Abolhassan Banisadr. He was also minister of foreign affairs fr ...

instead. From 1981 to 1989, Mir-Salim was the advisor to then president

Ayatollah 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 ...

. In the beginning of 1989, on the occasion of the

death and funeral of Hirohito On 7 January 1989, Emperor Shōwa, the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, died in his sleep at 6:33 am JST after suffering from intestinal cancer for some time. He was 87 years old. The late emperor's stat ...

, the 124th Emperor of Japan who had ruled for over 60 years until he died on January 7, Mir-Salim and

Hossein Saffar Harandi Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi (born 29 September 1953) is an Iranian politician who was minister of culture and Islamic guidance of Iran from 21 August 2005 until 23 July 2009 when he resigned after opposing the appointment of Esfandiar Rahim ...

, a Member of Parliament and the Chairman of Parliament Committee on Agriculture, went to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to attend the Rites of Imperial Funeral on February 24 with Mohammad Hossein Adeli, Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary in Japan, and his wife. Mir-Salim was appointed Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 1994. His tenure was characterized by a strongly conservative Islamist direction, aiming to stave off the "cultural onslaught" of

Western culture Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

and promote pious Islamic culture in its place, including through the use of repressive measures. The Ministry under his direction was particularly known for closing a number of

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can eve ...

newspapers. He was later appointed to the

. He is assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran.

Electoral history

Personal life

According to ''Iranian Diplomacy'', Mirsalim is married to an Iranian woman. He is fond of swimming and usually wears shenandoah beard, collarless tuxedos and dark calottes that serve as his

signature look Trademark look or signature look is the characteristic clothes or other distinguishing signs used by a certain character or performer, making the person more recognizable by the audience. Politicians may also have trademark signs, such as the sui ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mir-Salim, Mostafa 1947 births Living people Politicians from Tehran University of Poitiers alumni Members of the Expediency Discernment Council Government ministers of Iran Islamic Coalition Party politicians Islamic Society of Athletes politicians Central Council of the Islamic Republican Party members Iranian expatriates in France Iranian mechanical engineers 20th-century Iranian engineers 20th-century Iranian politicians