Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf

Ghalibaf was born on 23 August 1961 in the province of Razavi Khorasan to an Iranian Kurdish father Hossein Ghalibaf and an ethnic Persian mother Kheirolnessa Boujmehrani in Torqabeh, near Mashhad, somewhat reflecting the diverse make up of the border province.[10][11][12]

Ghalibaf during Iran–Iraq War

At the age of 19, he was one of the commanders of the defense forces during the Iran–Iraq War. Shortly afterwards he was named commander of the Rasulollah division. By the time he was twenty-two, he was already commander of the Nasr Troops. After the war he was selected as Deputy Commander of the Resistance Force and Basij Troops under General Afshar. Ghalibaf received the degree of Major General in 1996 after he had completed a master's degree in geopolitics. In 1998, when Mohsen Rezaei retired and Yahya Rahim Safavi took over as IRGC's new commander-in-chief, he was named Commander of Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Ghalibaf became one of the senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in later years.[13] In 1984, he was appointed head of the Khatam al-Anbia Construction Headquarters, which is the engineering arm of the IRGC. Under his management, the headquarters launched a 165-kilometer railway connecting Mashhad to Sarakhs.[14]

As commander of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force during the 1999 student protests, Ghalibaf was one of the 24 IRGC commanders who sent a threatening letter to the reformist president Mohammad Khatami stating that if the protests were allowed to continue, they would take matters into their own hands.[13]

Following the 1999 protests, he was appointed as chief of the Iranian Police Forces by the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, to succeed General Hedayat Lotfian who was removed from his office during the violence. After becoming chief of police, Ghalibaf initiated some reforms in the forces, including dropping all lawsuits against newspapers, modernization of police equipment and the Police 110 project, which aimed to make the police more accessible to the general public.[3]

On 5 April 2005, Ghalibaf submitted his resignation from the military positions (including the police forces) due to his intention to run for the presidency of Iran.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf

When Ghalibaf lost the 2005 election, he was proposed as Mayor of Tehran along with Mohammad Aliabadi and Mohammad-Ali Najafi. On 4 September 2005, he was elected as the next Mayor by the City Council of Tehran to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who left the office after being elected president.[13] He received 8 out of 15 votes of the council. He was reelected for a second term on 2007 after receiving 12 votes with no opponent.

According to Bloomberg, he has used his position as mayor "to foster a reputation as a politician who gets things done."[15] Ghalibaf seek for reelection as Mayor of Tehran as the Conservative's choice in the 2013 local elections. His rivals were Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, Masoumeh Ebtekar, Ali Nikzad and Mohsen Mehralizadeh. He was elected as Mayor for another term on 8 September 2013 after defeating Hashemi in a runoff with 51.6% of the votes.[16][17]

Ghalibaf is regarded the spiritual leader behind Progress and Justice Population of Islamic Iran[4] and Iranian Islamic Freedom Party.[23] He is a member of the political alliance Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces.[24]

Ghalibaf married Zahra Sadat Moshir in 1982 when he was twenty two years old. Moshir (born 1968) joined her husband as an adviser and head of Women's affairs in the Municipality of Tehran.[25][26]

• World Mayor: 8th place (2008)[27]
• Sustainable Transport Award: 2nd place (2011)[28]

• "FT Interview: Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf". Financial Times. 8 January 2008.
• Siamdoust, Nahid (18 March 2008). "A Rival for Iran's Ahmadinejad". TIME.
• Stockman, Farah (22 December 2008). "Iran election raises hope for change". The Boston Globe.
• Aspden, Rachel (8 January 2009). "Conservative in a leather jacket". New Statesman. UK.
• Mohammad Bagher Ghalibad on Ponishare