Do we like Masoud Pezeshkian?
Our score: 4 out of 10. Real stands against hardliners on the hijab law and apologies at home, but he fronts a state that is executing protest detainees and he brands critics of the crackdown figures.
Pezeshkian has been president of Iran since July 2024, and the job is a lot smaller than the title. Iran's real levers sit with the Supreme Leader and the security establishment. By early 2025 his agenda was stalling: parliament impeached his economy minister, his vice president Javad Zarif resigned under pressure, and hardliners rejected the talks with the US he had hoped would ease the economy.
The hijab law is where he looks best. After the law was held up in December 2024, he voiced reservations that its wording was unclear and agencies weren't ready. In March 2025 he said he could not enforce it because it “creates problems for people”. It has stayed dormant since, which is a real act in Iran, though the law itself is still on the books and he did not get it repealed.
The January 2026 protests are the hard part. Iran International's editorial board estimates at least 36,500 people were killed in the crackdown on 8 and 9 January, while the government's own list names 2,986. In February he apologised to “all those affected” and said the government was ashamed before the people, though he did not directly acknowledge the security forces' role. By August he was calling those citing higher figures “traitors” and “cowards”, calling the events a “riot”, and blaming Trump for arming protesters.
On the harm check, the executions loom over everything. The UN rights chief said Iran had executed at least 56 people on national security charges since 19 March, 27 of them in protest-linked cases, including 20-year-old Arvin Kheirkhah. The opposition group NCRI told Fox News it counted 1,051 executions in the first nine months of his presidency; it is an opposition source, so treat the number with care. It's unclear how much say he has over any of this, and we found nothing from him about LGBTQ+ people either way, so we can't score that in his favour.
The war has produced his messiest moments. In March 2026 he used a televised address to say “I apologise… to the neighbouring countries that were attacked by Iran”. Hardline lawmakers called it “weak, unprofessional, and unacceptable” and “humiliating”, and the line was walked back in later reporting. In his October UN interview he defended Iran's strikes on US bases and blamed US and Israeli attacks and sanctions for the damage.
On the nice side of the ledger, he said in February that his presidential salary is about $1,000 a month and admitted wage earners once had more buying power. That's a candid thing to say while the rial slides. Resignation rumours keep flaring too, and his office called the June report “false”, with the source being an opposition outlet and no independent confirmation we could find.