Considered a senior Reformist with a rich portfolio of top executive posts, Mohammad Ali Najafi has never been an ordinary politician in the Islamic Republic. During the years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the prominent mathematician and MIT graduate moved among the ruling elites, serving in the Cabinets of Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi as well as former Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. More recently, President Hassan Rouhani appointed Najafi as head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization.

In 2017, following a monthslong controversy and unprecedented pressure from rival hard-liners, Najafi was named Tehran's mayor by a Reformist-controlled city council. But he resigned seven months later for what he called "health reasons."

On May 28, Najafi sent shockwaves across Iran after confessing to killing his wife, Mitra Ostad, with a revolver inside her flat in northwest Tehran. The high-profile nature of the murder sparked a speedy investigation and legal proceedings in a judicial system widely known for its slow handling of criminal cases.

Unsurprisingly, many hard-liners leapt at the chance for a fresh wave of partisan attacks on this icon of the Reformist camp. Vatan Emrooz, an ultraconservative daily, described the murder as "a shot in the heart of the Reform movement." Like other hard-line media outlets, the paper offered detailed and comprehensive coverage of the incident, framing it as an example of moral decadence among Reformists.