Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed on Sunday after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in Iran’s mountainous northwest.
Raisi, 63, was declared dead today by Iranian media, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian; Governor of East Azerbaijan Province Malek Rahmati, Tabriz’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Ali Alehashem, as well as a pilot, co-pilot, crew chief, head of security and another bodyguard.
Grainy images released by IRNA showed what the state news agency described as the crash site.
Soldiers speaking in the local Azerbaijani language said: “There it is, we found it.”
But who exactly is President Raisi’s wife, Jamileh Alamolhoda? Below, read everything you need to know about the woman who once claimed that it is an act of violence for women to work and study.
Jamileh Alamolhoda, wife of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, addresses journalists during the first international Khorsheed Media Festival in the northeastern city of Mashhad, on September 30, 2023
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed on Sunday after a helicopter carrying him and other officials crashed in Iran’s mountainous northwest.
Who is Jamileh Alamolhoda, wife of President Raisi?
Born in Iran’s second most populous city, Mashhad, in 1965, Jamileh Alamolhoda received her doctorate in philosophy of education from Shahid Beheshti University.
She married Ebrahim Raisi at the age of 18, and the couple had two daughters together.
In 2001, she joined the faculty of the Department of Leadership and Educational Development at Shahid Beheshti University.
Beyond her exploits in Iran, she has proven to be a controversial figure around the world for her outspoken views on the role of women in society.
In an interview with Venezuelan state television in June 2023, Ms Alamolhoda claimed that governments abuse women sexually or in the workplace in the name of freedom.
Speaking to her husband for the national TV channel teleSUR at the time, she said that women’s rights organizations placed too much emphasis on cases of domestic violence, while claiming that “organized violence outside the family is much more important.”
‘We want women to remain women. Why should we be like men? Why should we study, work or live like men? This is a form of violence,” she said per Iran International.
Jamileh Alamolhoda attends the first International Khorsheed Media Festival in the northeastern city of Mashhad, on October 30, 2023.
A few months later, in September, she further fanned the flames by saying that prison sentences in Iran for women who choose not to wear a hijab were “out of respect for women.”
The Iranian president’s wife spoke after the country’s parliament passed a controversial bill that would increase prison sentences and fines for women and girls who violate the country’s strict dress code.
At the time the bill was passed, anyone who did not comply with the law risked a prison sentence of ten days to two months or a fine of between 5,000 and 500,000 rials ($0.10-$10.14 at the exchange rate on the black market).
She continued by comparing such a law to the introduction of dress codes in the workplace, adding: “You have dress codes everywhere, even here in university settings, in schools and everywhere else.
“And I have to tell you that the hijab was a tradition, a religiously mandated tradition, that was widely accepted. And now it has been turned into law for years. And breaking the law, trampling any law, brings, as in any country, its own set of punishments,” she said.
When asked in an ABC interview what she thinks should happen to women who choose not to wear, Jamileh replied: “It’s out of respect for women.”
‘It’s normal in every country. There may be disagreements and positions regarding dress codes. It comes down to their tastes, how they want to live their lives and their social rights.”
In November 2023, Jamileh Alamolhoda sparked further controversy for her choice of words in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, urging her to seek a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In November 2023, she sparked further controversy for her choice of words in a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, urging her to seek a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
She wrote: ‘Dear Mrs Macron! Please, as a kind and self-sacrificing woman representing the women, mothers and daughters of France, ask your husband not to be an accomplice in the murder of helpless Palestinian children and women.
“I wish you a reward from God for your humanitarian efforts.”
She wrote the letter without knowing that Brigitte had accompanied the French president on a visit to Israel to express support for his government.