News - Middle East: Six candidates were approved by the Constitutional Council, a 12-member election supervisory body, on Saturday to run in Iran’s upcoming presidential election slated for June 28.

Among those on the list is Alireza Zakani, Mayor of Tehran and former senior lawmaker.

Zakani, who was in the 2021 presidential race, withdrew in the final stages in favor of Ebrahim Raeisi, the eventual winner.

He was one of the most vocal and powerful voices in the presidential debates.

Zakani was born in 1966 in Tehran into a religious family.

His father, Haj Hossein Zakani, was a well-known athlete from Shahr Ray, a city in the southern part of the capital and one of the oldest in the world.

His father was an international wrestling referee and a close friend of Iran’s legendary wrestler Gholamreza Takhti.

His paternal ancestors were from Zayegan and Lalan, mountain villages north of Tehran, and his maternal grandfather was from Tabriz in the northwest of the country.

Following in his father's footsteps, Zakani was passionate about wrestling in his youth.

During his student days, he got involved in the youth movement against the Pahlavi regime, participating in marches and demonstrations across Tehran.

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution and during the imposed war, Zakani participated on the battlefield as a member of the Irregular Warfare Headquarters units led by Mostafa Chamran.

He served in units including the 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division and the 10th Seyyed al-Shohda Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Forces.