Ezzatollah Zarghami

Ezzatollah Zarghami (; born 26 February 1959) is an Iranian conservative politician and former minister of Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts. He is a former military officer. Zarghami was Deputy of Minister in Culture and Islamic Ministry as well as Defence Ministry before holding office as the head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting from 2004 to 2014.

Early life Zarghami was born into a religious family in 1959. Despite his father never purchasing a television, Zarghami became a cinephile. While in high school, he was the classmate of Hassan Tehrani-Moghaddam, who is widely regarded as the father of Iran's domestic ballistic missile program: Tehrani-Moghaddam was killed in 2011. At the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Zarghami was a 20-year-old student in the civil engineering program at Amirkabir University. He took part in the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran, which ultimately lad to the severing of US-Iranian diplomatic relations. He eventually joined the newly formed IRGC as a radio anchor during the Iran-Iraq War.

Career For part of the Iran–Iraq War, Zarghami was in charge of teams tasked with the domestic production of missiles, a necessity due to many countries' refusal to sell weapons to Iran. As per Executive Order 13628, Zarghami was sanctioned by the US under the category "Entities Designated as Human Rights Abusers or Limiting Free Expression" in February 2013.

He was also criticized for allegedly trying to prevent Iranian President Hassan Rouhani from appearing on his network for a scheduled interview in February 2014. The allegations stemmed from Rouhani and Zarghami's disagreement over whom the interviewer for Rouhani's televised address on his first 100 days in office would be, resulting in an hour delay of the program. Zarghami who was speculated as a potential candidate since late 2014, denied the possibility of his own candidacy in November 2015.

2021 election Zarghami announced his candidacy for the 2021 presidential election during an interview with Arman Newspaper, stating that "I have come to the conclusion that elections, in general, are a pain in the neck". Many speculate that Zarghami sides with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking to abolish the position of presidency in Iran in favor of a more heavily parliamentary system. However, his nomination was rejected by the Guardian Council.

Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Zarghami was introduced to the parliament by Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi on August 11, 1400, as the Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts proposed by the 13th government.

Many experts believe that Zarghami's media background and her mastery of cyberspace, along with her extensive contacts with government institutions, could lead to a serious change in the field of tourism and the recognition of Iran's historical heritage worldwide.