Iran: Rezaei taps Imam's granddaughter as advisor

Presstv.ir

Iranian presidential hopeful Mohsen Rezaei has selected one of the granddaughters of the late Imam Khomeini as his campaign advisor on women's issues.

Leili Boroujerdi, a child of the Imam's eldest daughter Zahra Mostafavi, was appointed on Tuesday as Rezaei's advisor on women's issues, a statement issued by the hopeful's camp revealed Tuesday.

"With regards to your outstanding experience, I wish to use your guidance on issues pertinent to women," reads the statement.

Law graduate Leili Boroujerdi is currently the head of the Expediency Council's special committee on youth and women.

Rezaei, a Principlist critic of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies, has previously indicated that if elected, he would appoint a female to fill in the critical post of foreign minister.

“I will appoint a woman as my foreign minister to challenge [US Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton,” he told reporters on Monday.

After months of leaving his bid for presidency in a haze of ambiguity, Secretary of Iran's Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaie on Wednesday announced his bid for the presidency.

Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also feeling the heat, as his main rival, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and the country's ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi have declared they are willing to face Ahmadinejad head-on.

Iran's presidential elections are scheduled to take place on June 12. It will be the tenth presidential vote to take place since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 ended the reign of the pro-US monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

MT/AA