Ali Motahhari was born in
Tehran. His father was noted Islamic scholar
Morteza Motahhari. Motahhari is a brother-in-law of the former Speaker of the Parliament
Ali Larijani, and a harsh critic of
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He criticized Ahmadinejad for his "self-centered" policies saying: "It is unprecedented and inappropriate that a president simply says I do not accept this law and will not execute it. This is a sign of despotism." In 2020, he suggested that the Islamic Republic was to partially blame for the
Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement, saying "We have scared the Arabs and pushed them towards Israel. An example of this is
storming the Saudi embassy and setting it ablaze. The policy of making Iran the enemy has been fruitful. This needs to be remedied." This was a highly unusual response contrasted to that of other Iranian politicians. On April 6, 2021, Motahari sparked controversy after he said in a podcast that European men were "not aroused and women are resorting to African men." == Electoral history ==