Board Chairman of Iranian NGO for Supporting Science. An advisor with the presidential office’s Center for Innovation and Technology Collaborations who is connected to various nano drug and nanotechnology companies, charities, funds, and investment firms as well as the Raymon Petro Refinery and Mostafa Science and Technology Bonyad.
This institute’s founding board had high-profile individuals such as Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi (former intelligence minister and former attorney general) and Baqer Larijani (former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani’s brother). This organization was created “to help the academic development of the country.” Mohsen Rafiqdoust is its former board chairman. Some of the individuals connected to this institution include Ebrahim Haj Ebrahimi, Ali Beitollahi, Saeed Sarkar, Mehdi Safarinia, Saber Mirzaei, Seyyed Mahmoud Reza Sajjadi, and Seyyed Javad Sadatinejad.
This publishing house is one of the entities audited by the supreme leader’s accounting firm, Mofid Rahbar. It was a private organization that had its assets seized by the government following the 1979 Revolution.
Mohsen Rafiqdoust is one of its trustees, along with Ali Larijani (former Majles Speaker), Mohammad Saeedikia (former BM director and current head of the BM board of trustees), Hossein Mozaffar (former education minister), and Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Mousavi (who in 2007 was nominated for GC membership by the late Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi).
Meysam Nili Ahmadabadi, who is the owner and managing editor of the hardline Raja News, is a member of Amir Kabir Publishing House’s board of directors.
The oldest available public records for Medad Nour show that in 2006 Hassan Rofougaran, the founder of the Bic pen factory in Iran, was the board chairman of this company and Hedayat Qotbi Alamoli, the former CEO of Behnan Gandom Novin (BTS), was its CEO.19 Amir Hossein Rafiqdoust was vice chairman and Yasser was a board member.
The company’s current board members are Mohsen Rafiqdoust (board chairman), his son Yasser (vice chairman), and his son Amir Hossein (CEO).
Mohammad Hossein Sheikh ol-Eslami is also on the board of Medad Nour. Sheikh ol-Eslami is the CEO of a trade company called Noutrika Tose’e Tejarat Kian, which “imports any and all parts and equipment needed by the Iranian film industry including censors, cameras, lenses, lighting and sound engineering equipment, any equipment needed by studios and managing movie theaters.” This company also has Habibollah Tavasoli’s (see above) son Mohammad Hassan as vice chairman.
At least one source claims Medad Nour is the producer of Lyra pencils in Iran.
Not much information is available about this general contracting company, which was established on May 17, 1972, but Mohsen Rafiqdoust is its board chairman and his brother Morteza Rafiqdoust is also on the board of directors. There are no public records available for this company prior to 2018.
Dolatabad Trade, Construction and Technical Co. has another notable board member: Habibollah Tavasoli (vice chairman). Tavasoli is the CEO of Iran Ensheab, the top manufacturer of water meters in the country.
Mohsen Rafiqdoust is a trustee along with Ebrahim Asgarian Damavandi (see above), Ali Naqi Khamoushi (see above), Manouchehr Mottaki (former foreign minister), Seyyed Mahmoud Chavoshi, and cleric Mostafa Foumani al-Haeri (former MP and Iranian envoy to the UAE).
Several of the institution’s current board members are former or current ambassadors and diplomats, including Mohammad Khazaei (former UN envoy), Seyyed Baqer Sakhaei (former envoy to Qatar and Tunisia), and Seyyed Javad Rasouli Mahalati (former envoy to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Philippines and current envoy to Bulgaria).
Seyyed Baqer Sakhaei’s son Ehsan Sakhaei was named in the Bank Mellat corruption case.17 During the trial it emerged that one of Sakhaei Jr.’s companies, which was involved in Iran’s oil swap deals, had paid back only 19 million dollars of a 25.3 million dollar loan to Bank Mellat after seven years and now owed the bank not only the remaining 6 million dollars of principal but 15 million dollars in interest as well. Ehsan Sakhaei, who is the son-in-law of Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, was not charged or prosecuted in connection with the Bank Mellat case.
According to its website, Darul Huda was established to promote Shiism in Africa and to “culturally counter the satanic plots and ominous inroads of the enemies of God and colonialist countries that want to convert Africa with over 1 billion population, 50% of whom are Muslim, to Christianity.”
The highlighted activities and achievements of this bonyad are listed as:
1. Finding target countries and conducting studies to determine the best strategies to employ in said countries.
2. Visiting with the Sources of Emulation (i.e., grand ayatollahs) to inform them of the bonyad’s intended mission, whereafter the ayatollahs agreed to use 50 percent of the religious donations (taxes) they recieve on missionary work in Africa.
3. Opening several seminaries in Tanzania as well as Islamic education centers in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Rwanda.
4. Building mosques and Islamic centers in Tanzania and Uganda.
5. Organizing missionary trips to Africa during which missionaries engaged in debates with the leaders of different religions in African media and ultimately succeeded in converting many of these religious leaders to Islam.
6. Holding celebrations in Africa on the occasion of various Islamic holidays.
Translating and preparing Islamic books and brochures in “languages that are usable in Africa.”
Board member since inception of Iran’s National Family Bonyad.
Sayyah is an academic who seems to be teaching a range of topics including Islamic ethics, Islamic history, and Quranic tafsir (explication) at Sharif University’s Center for Islamic Sciences and Humanities.
She is also one of the founding members of the Clean Cyberspace Association (FAMP), an organization connected to the Khamenei family that is actively involved in efforts to push for more internet censorship in Iran.
Sayyah once received a commendation from the first International Hejab and Chastity Conference in 2012.
Board Member since inception of Iran’s National Family Values Bonyad. Mohammad Hossein Rezai served as the director of the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization for nearly two decades. He has close ties to reformist figures like Abdollah Nouri, and Isfahan Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Taheri (d. 2013) and his family.
Rezaei is also connected to the business networks of several Islamic Republic heavy hitters previously mapped by Tehran Bureau, including the Khamenei family through Imam Sadeq Charity and Welfare Bonyad, Rahmat-e Vase’eh Bonyad, National Association of Charities Constructing Mosques; Qalibaf Network through Imam Reza Charity; and Bourbour Network through Shajareh Mavadat Sadat and the Family Values Bonyad.
Mohammad Hossein Rezaei is also the vice chairman of the board and a founding member of the newly established Isfahan-based Nasim Airline.
Board Chairman and Founding Member of Iran’s National Family Values Bonyad. Aberoumand is an IRGC commander who is currently serving as Majles Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf’s assistant for “services and progress.” Abreoumand has previously served as commander of the IRGC’s Imam Hossein University, deputy commander of the IRGC Soft War HQ, chief of the Joint Staff of the IRGC, deputy logistics commander of the Khatam HQ, and deputy logistics commander of the IRGC ground forces, among other positions.