Abolhassan Banisadr

Abolhassan Banisadr was the first president of the Islamic Republic, elected in January 1980 with 76% of the vote. An economist and political thinker who had been close to Khomeini in exile, he had previously served as a member of the Assembly of Experts for the Constitution in 1979, where he was the second-highest vote-getter in Tehran Province. He quickly came into conflict with the clerical establishment and the Islamic Republican Party. He was impeached by parliament in June 1981 and fled to France, where he lived in exile until his death in 2021.