Hadi Khamenei

Hadi Khamenei
Hadi Khamenei in the Congress of Reformists.
Member of the Parliament of Iran
In office 26 May 2000 – 28 May 2004
Constituency	Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr
Majority	1,223,884 (41.77%)
In office 28 May 1980 – 28 May 1992
Constituency	Mashhad and Kalat
Majority	252,814 (53.5%)
Personal details
Born	Hadi Khamenei 1947 (age 69–70) Mashhad, Iran
Nationality	Iranian
Political party	Association of Combatant Clerics Assembly of the Forces of Imam's Line
Relatives	Ali Khamenei (brother)
Occupation	Cleric, Politician, Journalist
Religion	Islam

Hojatoleslam Hadi Khamenei (born 1947) is an influential Iranian reformist politician, mojtahed and linguist. He is a key member of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics, and a former deputy of the Majlis of Iran representing a district in Tehran.

Khamenei is the younger brother of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with whom he disagrees and from whom he is now estranged.

Born to an Iranian Azerbaijani father and an ethnic Persian mother from Yazd, Hadi Khamenei grew up in the 1950s, one of eight siblings, spending his free time raising birds and playing sports. He says that his father did not force him into religious studies.

Hadi Khamenei became a leading reformer in the 1990s, putting him at odds with his older brother, whose official position he criticized as having too much power. Hadi Khamenei was an important adviser to reformist President Mohammad Khatami. He was a deputy minister in the 1980s.

Aside from Association of Combatant Clerics, Hadi Khamenei is Secretary-general of the Assembly of the Forces of Imam's Line.

"The political right in this country say that the supreme leader is above the law, that he can change the law, that he can decree anything he feels is right. Those powers can cause a dictatorship," he told American author Robin Wright in a 2000 interview in Tehran. Khamenei argues that the Guardian Council's vetting of candidates threatens Iranian democracy. He believes that some reformist candidates are wrongly kept from running. In 1998, the Guardian Council rejected Hadi Khamenei's candidacy for a seat in the Assembly of Experts, allegedly for having "insufficient theological qualifications."