Hassan Rouhani

Hassan Rouhani (, Standard Persian pronunciation: ; born Hassan Fereydoun ; 12 November 1948) is an Iranian Islamist politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021.

He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric.

Hassan Rouhani (born Hassan Fereydoun) was born on 12 November 1948 in Sorkheh, near Semnan, in a religious Persian family.

Born in 1954, she is not politically active.

Rouhani started religious studies in 1960.

First at Semnan Seminary before moving on to the Qom Seminary in 1961.

He attended classes taught by prominent scholars of that time including Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad, Morteza Haeri Yazdi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Soltani, Mohammad Fazel Lankarani, and Mohammad Shahabadi.

Asadollah Fereydoun is reported to have been politically active against Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and arrested first in 1962, and then more than twenty times before the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

In addition, he studied modern courses, and was admitted to the University of Tehran in 1969, and obtained a BA degree in Judicial Law in 1972.

In 1973, Rouhani entered military service in the city of Nishapur.

Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005.

In the latter capacity, he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three, UK, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shia mujtahid (a senior cleric), and economic trade negotiator.

He was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2021, and also was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021.

Rouhani continued his studies at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, and graduated in 1995 with an MPhil degree in Law with his thesis entitled The Islamic legislative power with reference to the Iranian experience and a PhD degree in Constitutional Law in 1999 for a thesis titled The Flexibility of Shariah (Islamic Law) with reference to the Iranian experience.

Rouhani's Caledonian research was initially supervised by Iranian lawyer and scholar Sayed Hassan Amin and later by Islamic law scholar Mahdi Zahraa.

The website of the Center for Strategic Research, a think-tank headed by Rouhani, misattributed his doctorate to Glasgow University rather than Glasgow Caledonian University and confusion ensued as a result on whether he was a graduate of either university, especially as he was known during his student years by his birth name "Hassan Fereydoun".

He has been a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts since 1999.

Glasgow Caledonian University carried out an internal investigation to confirm Rouhani's alumnus status and after confirming it, it published Rouhani's theses abstracts and a video showing him being capped, as Scottish academic tradition provides, during the university's 1999 graduation ceremony.

His father, Haj Asadollah Fereydoun (died 2011), had a spice shop in Sorkheh and his mother lived in Semnan until her death in 2015 with her daughters and sons-in-law.

On 7 May 2013, Rouhani registered for the presidential election that was held on 14 June 2013.

He campaigned on promises to restore the economy, improve rocky relations with Western nations, and prepare a "civil rights charter" if elected.

He also expressed official support for upholding the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.

He was elected as President of Iran on 15 June, defeating Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and four other candidates; he took office on 3 August 2013.

In 2013, Time magazine named him in its list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Rouhani is frequently described as a centrist and reformist.

In domestic policy, he encourages personal freedom, free access to information, and has improved women's rights by appointing female foreign ministry spokespeople.

He has also improved Iran's diplomatic relations with other countries through exchanging conciliatory letters.

Allegations regarding Rouhani's plagiarism were first raised in 2013 when it was claimed that he had probably "lifted" sentences from a book by Afghan author Mohammad Hashim Kamali.

Glasgow Caledonian University, Rouhani's graduation school, argued that the sentences were both cited properly.

Rouhani won re-election in the 2017 election with 23,636,652 votes (57.1%).

He became the third Iranian President, after Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to win a presidential victory as an incumbent with an increased electoral mandate.

Although Rouhani originally had the support of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his second term, their relationship soured as Khamenei criticized Rouhani for presumably being too soft in negotiations with the West over the Iran nuclear agreement.

After his second term, Rouhani was not appointed to any senior role by Khamenei and did not meet with him again until 2021.

The issue was raised again amid 2017 Iranian presidential election when a student campaign claimed that they had for the first time investigated Rouhani's whole thesis using plagiarism detection tool iThenticate and that chapters one through four of Rouhani's thesis had been plagiarized at least 39%, 43%, 40% and 82%, respectively.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Kalantari, a member of the Assembly of Experts, Shiraz University faculty member and one of the alleged victims, said that "major segments" of Chapter 4 of Rouhani's thesis had been translated from his book without being referenced.

Reformist Sadegh Zibakalam accused Rouhani's rival of politicizing the case right before the elections.

Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, head of Iranian Parliament's Commission on Education and Research, said that he had found major plagiarisms in chapter 4 of Rouhani's thesis and that the case would be investigated in Education and Research Commission.

50 student-run organizations as well as Shiraz University faculty professors asked Ali Akbar Kalantari to prosecute the case in separate letters.

Rouhani married his cousin, Sahebeh Erabi (Rouhani), who is six years younger, when he was around 20 years old and has four children (one son and three daughters).

Rouhani's wife changed her last name from "Еrabi" to "Rouhani" some time after marriage.