Tehran's 'man of action' mayor keeps his eye on national office

Iran's Mayor Mohammed Baqr Qalibaf has tried to boost city services while showing himself at ease on the world stage.

from the April 5, 2007 edition

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In the next presidential race, Qalibaf may not be pigeonholed as a conservative candidate, relative to hard-liners in the field.

"People are impressed with Qalibaf; politically, he is moving more into the Khatami and Rafsanjani camp and portraying himself as a centrist," says Professor Semati.

Qalibaf's politics remain unclear, though past signs point to a growing pragmatism. Qalibaf was one of 24 signatories of a letter, sent to Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei in 1999, calling for a harsh crackdown on widespread student demonstrations.

But when student demonstrations erupted again in 2003, under his watch as police chief, "they dealt with that completely differently," says a Western envoy. "It was well-managed."

Also well-tuned is Qalibaf's embrace of a Swiss model – first tested in earthquake-prone Istanbul – to create teams of trained neighborhood emergency volunteers to provide the initial help and then to work with professional first-responders.

"Tehran is really something special – it is so huge, it needs greater capacity for preparedness," says Fabrizio Poretti, head of the Swiss Disaster Relief Reduction program in Iran.

The mayor's office plans to train between 50 and 100 volunteers in each of 370 districts of Tehran. Under Swiss guidance, a three-month pilot training program is to begin next month. Recognizing that 80 percent of survivors in earthquakes – according to Swiss figures regarding the 1999 Turkish earthquake – are rescued by locals who dig people out, each district has a shipping container full of uniforms and emergency supplies, such as generators and small jackhammers.

Qalibaf's office has ordered 100 of the containers and is signing up volunteers.

"I am surprised they have moved so quickly," says Mr. Poretti, noting that the program started from scratch in Tehran last summer. "They are very fast, very good, and very motivated. In the past year, they have been very willing to work."

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