His position could cause tension with Iran. Since the Iran-Iraq war, the two countries have had a gentlemen's agreement to maintain similar quotas within Opec.
They stick it out through the Iran-Iraq war and the birth of two children, leaving for good a decade ago when Ms Nafisi received a fellowship from Johns Hopkins University.
Among recent conflicts, only the Iran-Iraq war - featuring trench warfare and gas, and claiming up to a million lives between 1980 and 1988 - can even be usefully compared.