Zahra Rahnavard

Zahra Rahnavard (; born Zohreh Kazemi; 19 August 1945) is an Iranian university professor, artist and politician. Rahnavard was put under house arrest from February 2011 to May 2018. According to Foreign Policy magazine, she was one of the world's most important thinkers. She is the wife of former Iran Prime Minister Mir Hussein Musavi. In part of her work, she told that men should respect laws of Islamic head coverings the same way women do. She also works for women's rights in the middle east.

Early life
Rahnavard was born in Boroojerd, Iran. Her father, Haj-Fathali, was a Sh'ia Muslim and against Communism. After hearing of a gathering of Sh'ia religious leaders in Iran, Haj-Fathali moved the family to Khomein, Markazi Province where Zahra was raised.

Zahra Rahnavard earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in art and architecture from the University of Tehran. She also has master's and PhD degrees from Islamic Azad University in Political science.

Career
Rahnavard was one of the people who tried to stop the Shah from being leader of Iran. In the last years of the Shah, Rahnavard was close to Ali Shariati. Shariati was a Islamist leader who was against the kind of government that stops freedom.

Rahnavard was a Chancellor at Alzahra University in Tehran from 1998 to 2006. She was also Political Adviser to the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.  Rahnavard was the first Iranian woman appointed as a chancellor of a university since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Former Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Moin nominated her for the job as chancellor.

After the election of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005. government officials who wanted to reform the government were. Rahnavard was removed (or resigned) from her position as the Chancellor of Al-zahra University in 2006. She was replaced by Mahboubeh Mobasheri.

In 2009, she was an active member of her husband Mir-Hossein Mousavi's campaign. when Mousavi entered the 2009 presidential election. Now she is a member of The Green Path of Hope and is one of the leaders of opposition.

Rahnavard is also the author of 15 books.

Personal life
Rahnavard is the wife of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi is the former Prime Minister of Iran. They had three daughters: Kokab, Narges, and Zahra. She and Mousavi married on September 18, 1969. They are now under house arrest.

References

Category:1945 births
Category:Living people
Category:Iranian Muslims
Category:Iranian politicians