When Khomeini led Iran to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty and complete the Islamic Revolution, Khomeini became the supreme leader of Iran, and the Khomeini family also fell in power in Iran; and when Khomeini died, Khamenei became the supreme leader, and the strength of his family in Iran should not be underestimated.
But to say, the richest family in Iran, who also "covered the sky with one hand", is the Rafsanjani family with Rafsanjani as the core.
Rafsanjani himself served as the president of Iran, and most of his family members held important positions in Iran, but what no one expected was that this once powerful family was actually dismissed by the civilian-born Nejadra.
Rafsanjani
Born into a wealthy merchant family in central Iran, Akbar Hashmi Rafsanjani's hometown of Coleman produces some of the best pistachios in all of Iran, and his father amassed his wealth by running a pistachio business.
This gave Rafsanjani a well-educated education from an early age, and at the age of 14 he also went to the Shiite holy land of Qom to study the philosophy of religion, and at the age of 22 graduated from the Fazi Seminary presided over by Khomeini. It was during this time of study that Rafsanjani came into contact with Khomeini's ideas and became a loyal follower of Khomeini.
Rafsanjani preferred politics to business, and in 1957 he founded the Islamic Shiite Publishing Center, publishing Shia, a secular reform movement that propagated Islamic teachings and opposed the king.
Because of his frequent anti-king remarks, Rafsanjani was arrested and imprisoned seven times, adding up to more than 4 years in prison. After his release from prison, Rafsanjani was also forcibly sent to serve in the army, but he escaped from the army in 1964 and continued to secretly engage in activities against the king.
Later, when Khomeini was exiled for 14 years for leading the Islamic Revolution, Rafsanjani often tried to find ways to visit Khomeini and continued to raise funds, recruit troops, and carry out various propaganda activities against the United States and the king according to Khomeini's instructions.
Under the continuous propaganda of Rafsanjani, Khomeini's ideas spread rapidly in Iran, and according to Khomeini's instructions, Rafsanjani also organized demonstrations of strikes, school strikes, and strikes of the Iranian people against the Pahlavi dynasty.
During this period, due to the growing influence of Rafsanjani, he was also sentenced to 6 years in prison by the king on the grounds of "association with the guerrillas", but in fact, Rafsanjani only stayed in prison for 3 years, but in any case, this shows Rafsanjani's support for Khomeini and his enthusiasm for the Islamic Revolution.
At the end of 1978, the dawn of victory in the Islamic Revolution was approaching, and because of Rafsanjani's outstanding contribution, he was appointed by Khomeini as a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Committee. As far as Khomeini knew, Rafsanjani formed the Islamic Republican Party and served as its central committee member and secretary general.
During this period, Rafsanjani fully demonstrated his superiority in politics, his political views were relatively gentle and pragmatic, which won the favor of many people, and at the same time, his political skills were very flexible, which allowed him to gain a lot of support, which laid a good foundation for his subsequent political path.
Khomeini
Soon, the Islamic Revolution triumphed, and Khomeini returned to Iran as Iran's supreme leader, while Khamenei and Rafsanjani continued to serve as Khomeini's right-hand men, becoming two politicians in Iran second only to Khomeini.
For quite some time, Rafsanjani was a member of the Islamic Parliament and speaker of parliaments, and he was also the host of the Friday service in Tehran designated by Khomeini.
We may not know much about the position of "moderator", but in fact, because many decisions of the Iranian government are announced at the "gathering" on Friday, this position is a very important position of real power.
At that time, the Iranian president had no real power, which was equivalent to a "virtual head of state", and this position was held by Khamenei, whose political status was lower than that of Rafsanjani according to the political structure of Iran at that time.
Moreover, in 1988, Rafsanjani was also appointed acting commander-in-chief of the armed forces by Khomeini, and the military power was in hand, and Rafsanjani could be said to be in a position of power.
When Khomeini died in 1989, Khamenei succeeded Khomeini as iran's supreme leader, while Rafsanjani became Iran's president.
There are rumors that when Khomeini was alive, he wanted Rafsanjani to take the presidency, but Rafsanjani refused on the grounds that the president did not have real power, so Khomeini also amended the constitution, abolished the post of prime minister, and "transferred" the power of the prime minister to the president.
It is also reported that Originally Rafsanjani also hoped to compete for Iran's top leadership position, but in the end Rafsanjani voluntarily withdrew from the competition. In any case, though, the truth is that after Khomeini, Khamenei and Rafsanjani shared the "world" of Iran.
At that time, Iran had just finished the national war, the domestic social unrest, economic development stagnated, and at the same time, because of its opposition to the United States, Iran was also in a state of isolation in the international community.
As a moderate reformer, Rafsanjani began to undertake a number of reform measures after coming to power in order to improve the development of Iran.
Economically, Rafsanjani advocated the development of infrastructure development and the promotion of privatization;
Culturally, Rafsanjani advocated a relaxation of state supervision and control over culture, among other things;
In social affairs, Rafsanjani advocated the advancement of women and the use of specialized organizations to deal with women's affairs;
In education, Rafsanjani actively promotes higher education and focuses on cultivating talents;
Diplomatically, Rafsanjani began to ease relations with Western countries and neighboring countries, allowing Iran's international status to be improved to a certain extent.
However, a series of reform measures by Rafsanjani have touched the interests of Conservatives in Iran, and under the complex entanglement of interests, Rafsanjani has had to make some compromises, and the pace of Reform in Iran has gradually slowed down.
Khamenei is actually the representative of a conservative faction, and if the two can live in peace during the Khomeini era, after the two have taken on the responsibility of Iran, the signs of "one mountain and no two tigers" began to appear.
In 1993, when international oil prices plummeted, Iran, whose economy was heavily dependent on crude oil exports, suffered a major blow, and conservatives took the opportunity to attack it and besiege Rafsanjani's reform policy, bringing his reform to a standstill and Rafsanjani's status declined sharply.
In 1997, Rafsanjani lost the general election and retreated to the second line, but his position in Iran was relatively stable at this time. On the one hand, this is because the Rafsanjani family is already the richest man in Iran, and its family power cannot be underestimated; on the other hand, many members of his family hold real power in Iran, and the influence of the entire family is huge.
For example, one of Rafsanjani's younger brothers has served as vice president several times, the other brother controls Iran's oil industry, his daughter is a female parliamentarian, who also runs the "Women" book, and his son-in-law is a local iranian official; for example, the Rafsanjani family controls many of Iran's main industrial sectors, which can be described as "one hand covering the sky" in Iran.
At that time, it can be said that neither the Khomeini family nor the Khamenei family could compete with it, but between the two, there was always a "decision to win".
During his presidency of Iran, relations between Khatami and Khamenei became increasingly strained, and it was almost entirely up to Rafsanjani to persuade him to make peace, so it seemed natural that after Khatami's term ended, Rafsanjani announced that he would run again in the general election.
Moreover, many people at the time thought that Rafsanjani's presidency was like a probe, and he would once again come to power to push forward the pace of reform in Iran.
In the first round of voting in the Iranian election, Rafsanjani also led Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but unexpectedly, due to Khamenei's strong support for Ahmadinejad, who was born a civilian, Ahmadinejad overtook Rafsanjani in a subsequent vote and was successfully elected president of Iran in 2005.
After Ahmadinejad came to power, he launched a strong anti-corruption campaign, mainly against corruption and family-controlled industries, and it is clear that Rafsanjani has become the primary target of Ahmadinejad's anti-corruption campaign.
Many analysts have pointed out that if it were not for the support of Iran's supreme leader, Ahmadinejad would never have been able to shake the Rafsanjani family, because Rafsanjani is the elder of the party, and he can even be said to be the "founding father", even if he is no longer the president, it is not a civilian president like Ahmadinejad who is a blacksmith who can "move".
Soon, Rafsanjani's children were thrown into jail by Ahmadinejad for their open support for reformers, and other members of his family were confiscated for anti-corruption campaigns.
Ahmadinejad
The wealth confiscated by Ahmadinejad from the Rafsanjani family has been used by the Iranian people in various forms, improving the living standards of the Iranian people, which has made Ahmadinejad more supported and loved by the people.
Rafsanjani did not think of making a comeback and "avenging" his family, and even in 2016 he was elected to the Iranian Expert Council with a high vote, once again becoming a key figure in Iranian politics, but at that time he did not know that there was not much time left for him, and he never had the opportunity to make a comeback.
On January 8, 2017, Rafsanjani died of a heart attack and ineffective rescue at the age of 82. In order to commemorate this hero who made great contributions to the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian government announced a three-day national holiday to mourn him.
Khamenei, who learned of this news, lamented that he had lost a close comrade-in-arms, and for what he had done before, Khamenei simply said that he had been deceived and provoked.
As for who was deceived? Perhaps this can be seen in Ahmadinejad's attempt to run for president again, but Khamenei disqualified him.
Afterwards, some people believe that the pulldown of the Rafsanjani family is almost inevitable, and even if there is no political struggle between Khamenei and Rafsanjani behind it, the family will eventually decline.
This is because in the later years of Rafsanjani's administration, his reform policies did not bring practical benefits to iran's poor class, but seemed to have let his family "reap the benefits", and the family corruption scandal that was constantly exposed by the media made Rafsanjani's political prestige plummet.
At that time, Ahmadinejad was born in the grassroots, which was in stark contrast to Rafsanjani, and it was inevitable that he would win the favor of the Iranian people under the circumstances at that time.
However, perhaps when the family declined, Rafsanjani may also regret that he withdrew from the competition for Iran's supreme leader, but fully supported Khamenei to take over, after all, the supreme leader is the holder of the highest power in Iran, and can even decide the president's stay.
But it was too late, Rafsanjani could only see his family decay but could not return to heaven, and as for whether he actively promoted reform when he was president, whether it was for the sake of safeguarding the interests of the family or for the development of Iran, it can only be left to posterity.