Zahra Rahnavard

Zahra Rahnavard ( _fa. زهرا رهنورد) was the chancellor of Al-zahra University in Tehran, Iran, from September 23, 1998 to 2006, and a Political Adviser to the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

She was the first Iranian woman appointed as a chancellor of a university since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. She was nominated to this post by former Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Mostafa Moin.

After the election of the hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 and the purging of reformist officials from the government, Rahnavard was removed or resigned from her position as the chancellor of Al-zahra University in 2006, replaced by Dr. Mahboubeh Mobasheri.

Rahnavard earned her bachelor and master's degrees in Art from University of Tehran. She has also got master's and PhD degrees from Islamic Azad University in Political science.

Author of 15 books, Rahnavard is also known as a writer in Iran. She is the wife of Mir-Hossein Mousavi (the last Prime Minister of Iran) and has three daughters.