Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Some Lesser Known Facts About Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

• Did Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani smoke?: Not Known

• Did Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani drink alcohol?: Not Known

• Rafsanjani was born to a wealthy family of pistachio farmers.

• His father, Mirza Ali Hashemi Behramani, was one of Kerman’s famous businessmen and a Pistachio merchant.

• One of his brothers, Mohammad Hashemi is the former director of IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).

• Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was his teacher in his study of theology.                                                                            

• He was one of the opposition of Shah’s White Revolution and accompanied with Khomeini. With Khomeini’s exile, Hashemi’s role in the fight against the Shah and representing Khomeini in the country was highlighted. This opposition eventually led to his arrest and imprisonment.

• Rafsanjani was arrested for 7 times from 1960 until 1979 and was in jail for four years and 5 months in total in the crime of clandestine activities against Pahlavi regime.

• Rafsanjani was one of the 28 founders of Traditional right-wing Combatant Clergy Association and also one of the members of the central committee of Islamic Republican Party at the first years of the revolution.

• In 1979, only a month after the Iranian Revolution Rafsanjani was shot in his stomach. He was not seriously injured — and neither was his wife, who jumped in front to shield him from the attack.

• In February 1994, in the next assassination attempt, Rafsanjani was fired by the gun by a lone gunman who was speaking to mark the 15th anniversary of the revolution. Unhurt and unshaken, Rafsanjani calmed a crowd of thousands and continued his speech.