Esfandiar Ekhtiyari

Esfandiar Ekhtiyari, He received his bachelor's degree, master's degree, and PhD degrees at the Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran from 1985 to 2001. His PhD degrees are in Textile Technology and in Management.

A current member of the Iranian Inventors' Association and Iranian Nanotechnology Association, Ekhtiyari has eight patents. He possesses a commercial pilot licence and an ultralight permit from the Iran Civil Aviation Organization as well.

Political career

Ekhtiyari won the reserved seat for the Zoroastrian minority in the 2008 Iranian legislative election and remained the incumbent Zoroastrian Member of Parliament until year of 2024.

+ Electoral history of Esfandiar Ekhtiyari Election Votes cast Votes for Ekhtiyari Percentage 2008 7,036 3,607 51.26% 2012 6,604 4,940 74.80% 2016 6,672 3,966 59.44%

In Iran's parliamentary committee system, Ekhtiyari was a member of the Education and Research Committee. and criticized a court decision that removed a Zoroastrian from the Yazd city council on grounds that a non-Muslim should not govern a majority-Muslim city. The decision was ultimately overturned by the Expediency Council. In 2019, Ekhtiyari wrote a public letter demanding that the government annul a new decree prohibiting non-Muslims from working at kindergartens with Muslim children, calling it an "inhumane and unethical decision". A "corrected" version of the directive was eventually published.

In 2015, Ekhtiyari strongly opposed a proposal to allow advertisements on the walls of schools, stating that "when students watch advertisements they will find no food for thought culture-wise and education-wise," and that schools should instead focus on creating a "happy environment" for students that will "enhance the character of the school children."

Ekhtiyari has criticized the Trump administration's 2018 unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.