Mir-Hossein Mousavi - Retirement From Politics

Retirement From Politics

When Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Republic died in 1989, Mousavi was no longer welcome in the regime. It was the start of 20 years of an almost total absence from public life for Mousavi, though he did sit on two high-level regime councils. He was almost totally absent from public life, which many considered as a sign of his disapproval of the established regime.

In 1989, Ali Khamenei named him as a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, his membership of which still continues. Mousavi has been a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution since 1996. He was also the political adviser of president Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989–1997) and senior adviser of president Khatami (1997–2005).

During these years, he partly retired from politics and returned to architecture and teaching, becoming President of the Iranian Academy of Arts, one of the four academies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The main building of the Academy is designed by him. At the same time he developeed his passion for painting and writing poetry. He was a professor at Shahid Beheshti University and later joined the Academic staff of Tarbiat Modares University. His main field is architecture, and buildings such as Kanoon-e Tohid in Tehran, Beynolharamein Bazaar in Shiraz, Haft-e-tir Martyr's tomb in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra, and Salman mosque in the presidential residence are examples of his work. In recent years he has been more active in painting and has participated in many exhibitions.