Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s two-week Presidential farewell tour has come to an end.
There had been media speculation that Ahmadinejad would go out with a blaze of glory, as his successor Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated on Sunday. However, when the time came, he was hardly recognizable as the outspoken, controversial President the Western media has come to know.
Ahmadinejad seemed compelled to make public statements that contrasted with his normal bombastic style. And while he barely caught the attention of the foreign reporters who used to hang on his words, his critics back home went in overdrive to expose his flaws, treating the outgoing President as a wounded boxer on the ropes who just wanted to get through the final round of the fight.
General Ramazan Sharif, the Revolutionary Guards’ PR chief, told reformist newspaper Shargh that “economic activities were more difficult under Ahmadinejad” — a telling barb, given that the prevailing narrative has been that the Guards thrived politically and economically under Ahmadinejad.
President Rouhani’s senior adviser, Akbar Torkan — dismissed as Deputy Oil Minister in 2009 in a politically-motivated move — claimed that the “[Ahmadinejad] government’s achievements are erroneous and do not reflect the nation’s true economic situation”. A former Minister of Roads, Torkan added that the administration “mistakenly or intentionally quadrupled its actual track record on road construction”.
Criticism came from outside Tehran too. Kareem Sadeghzadeh, the Secretary of the Tabriz House of Labor, declared that “the legacy of the Ahmadinejad government will be millions of unemployed people and negative growth in the economy”.
Instead of going on the offensive, Ahmadinejad and his entourage began a charm offensive. He stuck to themes of nationalism, gender equality, social justice, and welfare and his own pious and humble lifestyle, as well lauding his administration’s achievements.
First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi set the tone by saying that “Iranians will not forget their outgoing leader”.
Rahimi added: “The work of the Ninth and Tenth Governments will stand the test of time, and Dr. Ahmadinejad’s name will remain everlasting in Iran as his extensive self-service to the country will never be forgotten by the nation.”
To emphasize the outgoing President’s modesty — and perhaps conscious that a lavish farewell might not sit well in Iran’s current economic situation — Ahmadinejad’s office announced that, at the President’s behest, a ceremony meant to celebrate his governors, deputies, and ministers had been abandoned.
The only flutter of the old Ahmadinejad came in the rhetoric of the announcement:
In keeping with the spirit of simple living and conservative lifestyle, avoidance of extravagancies, and keeping in mind the lower levels of society, the beloved President has decided to cancel the event. In the last days of the tenth administration, this is yet another golden mark in his brilliant public service record.
The following weekend, the deparating President told State TV that he was “not interested in forming or being a part of political group”.
Why? “They are too constraining and dividing,” Ahmadinejad explained. “I’d rather serve the 76 million people of Iran.”
There was a flash of the past Mahmoud when Ahmadinejad referred to Israel. pronouncing that he was “the first Iranian President to reach the Zionists’ borders” during a 2010 trip to Lebanon:
I was four meters away to be exact.
And when I was in Beirut, I spoke in front of an enormous rally and the Lebanese people were kind enough to greet me, even with [Israeli] drones in the air. I was supposed to give my speech behind a bullet-proof glass wall due to security concerns, but I thought to myself, “Why should I speak behind this when all of these people are here to see me?”
If something happens to me, all of these people in front of me would be hurt too. So I decided to speak in front of the glass and I told my translator to take my place behind the bullet proof glass.
Having reminded Iranians of his bravery — and stressing his achievements in housing with the Mehr Project, which he toured during his final days in office — Ahmadinejad said he planned to establish “The Iranians’ University” in Tehran with an academic focus on “information technology, nanotechnology, aerospace” and, of course, “nuclear science.”
There was also a sign of repairing relations in his last week, as Ahmadinejad — who dismissed his only female member of Cabinet, Minister of Health Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, when she “criticized her colleagues for failing to provide funds to import vital medicines” — spoke at a ceremony held to honor women activists.
The President condescended to note that the wife of a martyr is even greater than the martyr himself:
People who look at martyrs from a physical perspective think that a martyr is greater [than a woman], he gets hit by a bullet and it’s over, but his wife has to stand strong, find a path, persevere and keep on going. This type of struggle is much harder.
It is unlikely that Ahmadinejad was thinking of women’s rights when he after she apparently
In a ceremony for reporters, often subject to harassment and even detention in what Reporters Without Borders called “the world’s biggest Prison for the media, Ahmadinejad praised them for their coverage of his two administrations.
The President noted: “We [the Tenth Government] like everybody; everyone who writes in agreement [with my policies], as well as everyone who writes against them; we all work towards higher goals.”
He then took a relaxed pose: “I want to add a little humor right now, one day a friend of mine told me, it is not important whether they write in favor about you, or write against you, what is important is that they are writing about you, and in this regard.”
Then it was time for the the final State TV interview.
Ahmadinejad defended his administration and proclaimed, “I have never signed a piece of legislation that wasn’t in the interests of the nation.”
Asked about his wealth, he returned to his theme of modesty, mentioning his famous 1977 white Peugeot sedan that he drives around Tehran. To illustrate the humble lifestyle further, he explained, “I have taken a bank loan to renovate our home in Narmak and make it bigger so my children and other family members can live in it as well, so we can all be together.”
The President said he even wrote a letter to judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani explaining that he was taking out bank loan and explaining what he planned on doing with the money.
The day before Rouhani’s inauguration, Fars News posted a series of photos of Ahmadinejad’s “heroic” return to his new home in the northeast Tehran neighborhood of Narmak where he was greeted with a sacrificial lamb.
But what of the past eight years, which had not always been so humble in Ahmadinejad’s declarations and defiance — not only of “enemies” like Israel and the US but sometimes of others, including the Supreme Leader, within the Iranian establishment?
Ending his final interview, Ahmadinejad offered a poem that he wrote about his relationship with a Shia Imam:
All my life from your sorrow,
I died and was resurrected,
In anything that had nothing to do with you,
Was a lost cause,
From the day your kindness entered my heart,
With your love I became an everlasting authority.
And was this just a last posture from Ahmadinejad or a moment of true reflection?
My neck is weak, my shoulders are weak…if I or my administration had any shortcomings, weakness, or hurt any individual or group I ask for their forgiveness.
Hanif Zarrabi-Kashani is a writer and researcher of Iranian affairs. He holds a Master’s Degree in Persian Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a consultant for the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.” He is also a contributor to www.Iranwrire.com.
Follow him on Twitter at @hanifzk.
