At 63, the 'ayatollah' Raisi is considered an ultraconservative and a self-proclaimed supporter of law and order. Presenting himself as a defender of the underprivileged classes and the fight against corruption, Raisi was elected on June 18, 2021, in the first round of a presidential election marked by record abstention and the absence of major opponents. He succeeded the moderate Hassan Rohani, who defeated him in the 2017 presidential election and could no longer run for re-election after two consecutive terms. Raisi was strengthened by the legislative elections held in March and mid-May of this year, the first national elections since the protest movement that shook Iran in late 2022, following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained and beaten to death by the Guardians of the Revolution, for disrespecting the strict dress code of the Islamic Republic, because despite wearing the 'hijab' (Islamic veil) covering her head, it revealed a lock of her hair. In view of the electoral result, the Iranian President congratulated himself on "yet another historic defeat inflicted on Iran's enemies, after the riots" of 2022. The parliament, which will take office on May 27, will be largely controlled by the conservative and ultra-conservative sectors that support his government. In recent months, Raisi has assumed himself as a staunch opponent of Israel, the declared enemy of the Islamic Republic, supporting the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas since the beginning of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. This is how he justified the unprecedented attack launched by Iran against Israel on April 13 of this year, using 350 'drones' (unmanned aircraft) and missiles, most of which were intercepted, with the help of the United States and several other allied countries of Tel Aviv. Raisi is on the United States blacklist of Iranian officials sanctioned for "complicity in serious human rights violations", accusations that Tehran authorities have rejected, calling them null and void of consequences. Born in November 1960 in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran, Ebrahim Raisi has spent the last three decades rising through the ranks of the judiciary, after being appointed prosecutor of Karaj, near Tehran, at just 20 years old, following the victory of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He then became Tehran's attorney general, between 1989 and 1994, and then deputy director of the Judicial Authority, between 2004 and 2014, when he was appointed Attorney General of the country. In 2016, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei put him in charge of the powerful charitable foundation Astan-é Qods Razavi, which manages the mausoleum of Imam-Reza in Mashhad, as well as a vast portfolio of industrial and real estate assets. Three years later, he became director of the Judicial Authority. Uncharismatic and always wearing the black turban of a "seyyed" (descendant of Muhammad), Raisi, with his white beard and discreet glasses, studied religion and Islamic jurisprudence with the 'ayatollah' Khamenei. Married to Jamileh Alamolhoda, a professor of Educational Sciences at Shahid-Behechti University in Tehran, with whom he has two college-educated daughters, Raisi is the son-in-law of Ahmad Alamolhoda, imam of prayers and provincial representative of the supreme leader in Mashhad, Iran's second largest city. Undoubtedly aware that he would have to try to unite an Iranian society divided on the issue of individual freedoms, he promised during the 2021 election campaign to be the defender of "freedom of expression" and "fundamental rights of all Iranian citizens", but instead, his government has since intensified the repression against activists, women and critics of the regime. Read Also: Whereabouts of Iran's president still uncertain. What happens if he dies? (Portuguese version)