An Iranian architect and painter A self-effacing architect and painter, Mir Hossein Moussavi served as prime minister from 1981 to 1989 during the Iraq-Iran war. He was praised for his deft handling of the Iranian economy during the bitter eight-year war with Iraq. He has dedicated much of his time in the past two decades to the arts. He ran a state-owned newspaper and was briefly foreign minister then prime minister from 1981-89. Since 1999 his main official job has been head of the state-owned Art Centre. Being a painter with 180 works over 40 years and 11 exhibitions Moussavi hopes to see a moderate Iran. Mir Hossein Moussavi was born in Khameneh village, north-west Iran. He studied architecture in Iran.