Mohammad Khatami

Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (Persian : سید محمد خاتمی), born September 29, 1943 in Ardakan city of Yazd province, is an Iranian intellectual, philosopher and political figure. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 2, 2005 and was succeeded by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Khatami was elected president on May 23, 1997 and was re-elected on June 8, 2001 for a second term. Khatami won largely due to the female and youth vote, who voted for him because he promised to improve the status of women and respond to the demands of the young generation in Iran.

The day of his election, the 2nd of Khordad, 1376 in the Iranian calendar, is regarded as the starting date of "reforms" in Iran. His followers or anybody who was following that current are therefore usually known as the "2nd of Khordad Movement".

Early career

Khatami has a bachelor's degree in Western philosophy from Isfahan University, but he left academia while studying for a master's degree in Educational Sciences at Tehran University, and instead went to Qom to complete his previous studies in Islamic sciences. He studied there for seven years and completed the courses to the highest level, Ijtihad. After that, he went to Germany to chair the Islamic Centre in Hamburg, where he stayed until the Iranian revolution.

Before serving as president, Khatami had been a representative in the parliament from 1980 to 1982, supervisor of the Kayhan Institute, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance (1982-1986, and then for a second term from 1989 to 24 May 1992 (when he resigned), the head of the National Library of Iran from 1992 to 1997, and a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.

He is also a member and chairman of the Central Council of the Militant Clerics League.

Presidency

Cabinet


OFFICE	NAME	TERM

President	Mohammad Khatami	1997–2005
First Vice President	Hassan Habibi	1997–2001
	Mohammad Reza Aref	2001–2005

Foreign Affairs	Kamal Kharrazi	1997–2005
Agricultural	Issa Kalantari	1997–2000
	Mahmoud Hojjati	2000–9999
Commerce	Mohammad Shariatmadar	1997–2005
ICT	Mohammad Reza Aref	1997–2000
	Ahmad Motamedi	2000–2005
Cooperatives	Morteza Haaji	1997–2001
	Ali Soufi	2001–2005
Culture	Attaollah Mohajerani	1997–2000
	Ahmad Masjed-Jamei	2000–2005
Defense	Ali Shamkhani	1997–2005
Economy	Hossein Namazi	1997–2001
	Tahmasb Mazaheri	2001–2004
	Safdar Hosseini	2004–2005
Education	Hossein Mozzafar	1997–2001
	Morteza Haaji	2001–2005
Power	Habibolah Bitaraf	1997–2005
Health	Mohammad Farhadi	1997–2001
	Masoud Pezeshkian	2001–2005
HUD	Ali Abdolalizadeh	1997–2005
Industrial	Gholamreza Shafei	1997–2001
	Eshaq Jahangiri	2001–2005
Intelligence	Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi	1997–1998
	Ali Younesi	1998–2005
Interior	Abdollah Nouri	1997–1998
	Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari	1998–2005
Justice	Mohammad Ismaeil Shooshtari	1997–2005
Labour	Hossein Kamali	1997–2001
	Safdar Hosseini	2001–2004
	Nasser Khaleghi	2004–2005
Petroleum	Bijan Namdar Zangeneh	1997–2005
Roads	Mahmoud Hojatti	1997–2000
	Rahman Dadman	2000
	Ahmad Khorram	2000–2004
	Mohammad Rahmati	2004–2005
Science	Mostafa Moeen	1997–2003
	Jafar Towfighi	2003–2005
Welfare	Mohammad Hossein Sharifzadegan	2004–2005

Khatami is regarded as Iran's first reformist president, since the focus of his campaign was on the rule of law, democracy and the inclusion of all Iranians in the political decision-making process. However, his policies of reform led to repeated clashes with the hardline and conservative Islamists in the Iranian government, who control powerful governmental organizations like the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed by the Supreme Leader. Khatami lost most of those clashes, and by the end of his presidency many of his followers had grown disillusioned with him.

Economic policy

Khatami's economic policies follow the previous government's commitment to industrialization. As for the macro-economic policies, Khatami continued the liberal policies that Rafsanjani had embarked on in the state's first five year economic development plan (1990-1995). Right-wing critics accuse President Khatami of neglecting the economy in favour of politics. ^* In April 10 2005 Khatami cited economic development, large-scale operations of the private sector in the country's economic arena and the 6-percent economic growth as among the achievements of his government. $5 billion had been allocated to the private sector for promoting the economy, adding that the value of contracts signed in this regard has reached $10 billion. A year into his first term as president of Iran, Mohammad Khatami admitted that the Iranian economy was chronically ill ... and it will continue to be so unless there is fundamental restructuring. His economic team has managed to address a number of economic shortcomings but many problems remained unresolved. The remaining difficulties can be attributed to the limited capability of his team, the structure of the economy and society, and also the power struggle.

Foreign policy

During Khatami's presidency, Iran's foreign policy had entered into a new phase; moving from confrontation to conciliation. Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami's worldview and his notion of foreign policy was different from his predecessors'. In Khatami's notion of foreign policy, there was no "clash of civilizations", he favours a "dialogue among civilizations". The detente policy of Khatami had created a congenial atmosphere for expanding relations with the world, and its relations with the major powers (Iran's) was improving. Relations with the US alone were still marred by mutual suspicion and distrust. During Khatami's two terms, Tehran was increasingly making efforts to play a greater role in the Persian Gulf region and beyond.

On April 8, Khatami sat near Iranian-born Israeli President Moshe Katsav during the funeral of Pope John Paul II because of alphabetical order. Later, Katsav claimed that he shook hands and spoke with Khatami. That would make this incident the first political contact between Iran and Israel since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979.[http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5668289&cKey=1112966485000 However, after he returned to Iran, the country's state-run media reported that Khatami strongly denied shaking hands and chatting with Katsav.^*

Khatami has met with many other influential figures, including Pope John Paul II, Koichiro Matsura, Jacques Chirac, Johannes Rau, Vladimir Putin, Abdulaziz Bouteflika and Hugo Chávez.

Domestic reforms

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Khatami is known by most as the first Iranian reformist president since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. After taking office in a landslide victory and having based his campaign on promises of implementing a more tolerant, democratic and open society and the rule of law, Khatami faced fierce opposition from the powerful conservatives within the Iranian political establishment. During his two terms in office, he was able to introduce some serious changes and reforms to the Iranian political system, however all in all, he is considered to have lost most of the battles with his opponents. The root cause for his failures was that as president, Khatami had no or little authority over many important state institutions such as the judiciary, the police, the military, etc. According to a famous statement made by Khatami, his government survived an average of one national crisis every nine days during his term of office. Highlights of important crises (related to his domestic reform plans) during his presidency include:

The serial murders of Iranian political dissidents by rogue elements in the Intelligence Ministry. This was a political earthquake in the Iranian intelligence community and it eventually led to one of the most important victories of Khatami's presidency.
The beating of two of his closest allies and key cabinet ministers (Ataollah Mohajerani and Abdollah Noori) by Islamist pressure groups after a Friday prayer in Tehran.
An unsuccessful attempt to impeach Khatami's culture minister (Ataollah Mohajerani) by the conservative-dominated 5th Majlis.
The impeachment of Khatami's interior minister (Abdollah Noori) by the 5th Majlis which led to Noori's removal from office.
Noori's trial and imprisonment on the grounds of insulting Islamic values.
The invasion of Tehran University dormitories by the police after a peaceful demonstration by the students. This led to the largest anti-regime street demonstrations in the history of the Islamic Republic. At the time, students were considered to be the most important supporters of Khatami's government.
The attempted assassination of Saeed Hajjarian, one of Khatami's closest allies and considered by many to be the mastermind strategist of the reform movement.
The judiciary's verdict resulting in the closure of over 20 reformist newspapers in one day. This was considered by many to be the starting point of the reform movement's demise and was described by some political activists as the silent coup d'état against Khatami's government
The failure of the "Twin Bills" (لوایح دوقلو in Persian). The bills were presented by Khatami to the 6th Majlis but after a long struggle they were eventually disapproved by the Guardian Council. These two pieces of proposed legislation would have introduced small but key changes to the national election laws of Iran and also presented a clear definition of the president's power to prevent constitutional violations by state institutions. Khatami himself described the "twin bills" as the key to the progress of reforms in Iran; this resulted in one of the major failures of Khatami's presidency.
The imprisonment of many prominent figures of the reform movement and some of Khatami's key allies during his presidency by the judiciary on the grounds of insulting Islamic values. Some of these individuals are: Dr. Mohsen Kadivar, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Mohsen Sazegara, Abbas Abdi, investigative journalists Akbar Ganji and Emadedin Baghi, etc.
The trial and death sentence of Dr. Hashem Aghajari, a university professor and political activist who had "insulted" core Islamic values during one of his speeches. The death sentence was reversed after widespread protests by students and reformist parties. Dr. Aghajari was freed after spending a short time in prison.

In September 2002 Khatami presented the so-called twin bills to Parliament. The twin bills addresses two issues: the first would curb the powers of the Council of Guardians, while the second would enhance presidential powers. The bills were rejected by Guardian council and Khatami withdrew them from the parliament eventually.

Khatami and Iran's 2004 parliamentary election

In February 2004 Parliament elections, the Council of Guardians banned thousands of candidates, including most of the reformist members of the parliament and all the candidates of the Islamic Iran Participation Front party from running. This led to a win by the conservatives of at least 70% of the seats. Approximately 60% of the eligible voting population participated in the elections.

Khatami recalled his strong opposition against holding an election his government saw as unfair and not free. He also narrated the story of his visit to the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, together with the Parliament's spokesman (considered the head of the legislature) and a list of conditions they had handed him before they could hold the elections. The list, he said, was then passed on to the Guardian Council, the legal supervisor and major obstacle to holding free and competitive elections in recent years. The weighty members of the Guardian Council are all appointed directly by the Supreme Leader and thus are considered as applying his will. "But," Khatami said, "the Guardian Council kept neither the Supreme Leader's nor its own word and we were faced with a situation in which we had to choose between holding the election or risking huge unrest [... and so damaging the regime." At this point a slogan was repeatedly chanted by the student protesters: "Jannati* is the nation's enemy." Khatami strangely replied, "If you are the nation, then we are the nation's enemy," and closed his speech.

Dialogue Among Civilizations

Mr. Khatami introduced the theory of Dialogue Among Civilizations as a response to Huntington's theory of Clash of Civilizations. After introducing the concept of his theory in several international societies (most importantly the U.N.) the theory gained a lot of international support. Consequently the United Nations proclaimed the year 2001 as the United Nations' Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations, as per Khatami's suggestion [http://www.unesco.org/dialogue2001/en/khatami.htm. Pleading for the moralization of politics, Khatami argued that “The political translation of dialogue among civilizations would consist in arguing that culture, morality and art must prevail on politics.” Khatami has become an international personality, and he has gained much fame among intellectuals all over the world.

Personal life and family

He got married to Zohreh Sadeghi, daughter of a famous professor of religious law, in 1974 (at the age of 31). They have two daughters and a son: Leila (born 1975), Narges (born 1981), and Emad (born 1989).

Khatami's father, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was a high ranking clergy and the Friday Prayers Imam in the city of Yazd in the early years of the Islamic Revolution.

Khatami's brother, Dr. Mohammad Reza Khatami was elected as Tehran's first member of parliament in the 6th term of Majlis, during which he served as deputy speaker of the parliament. He has also been serving as the secretary-general of Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party. Mohammad Reza is married to Zahra Eshraghi, granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini (founder of the Iranian Revolution).

Khatami's other brother, Ali Khatami, a former businessman with a master's degree in Industrial Engineering from Fort Lee, N.J., served as the President's Chief of Staff during President Khatami's second term in office, where he kept an unusually low profile.

Khatami's eldest sister, Fatemeh Khatami was elected as the first representative of the people of Ardakan (Khatami's hometown) in 1999 city council elections. Mohammad Khatami speaks several languages including Persian, Arabic, English and German.

Research field

Khatami's main research field is Political philosophy. One of Khatami's academic mentors was Javad Tabatabaei, a very influential Iranian political philosopher. Later on Khatami became a University lecturer at Tarbiat Modarres University where he taught Political philosophy. Khatami also published a book on political philosophy in 1999. The ground he covers is the same as that covered by Javad Tabatabaei: the Platonizing adaptation of Greek political philosophy by Farabi (d. 950), its synthesis of the "eternal wisdom" of Persian statecraft by Abu'l-Hasan Amiri (d. 991) and Mushkuya (miskawayh) Razi (d. 1030), the juristic theories of al-Mawardi and Ghazali, and Nizam al-Mulk's treatise on statecraft. He ends with a discussion of the revival of political philosophy in Safavid Isfahan in the second half of the 17th century.

Further, Khatami shares with Tabatabaei the curious idea of the "decline" of Muslim political thought beginning at the very outset, after Farabi.

Aristotle's Politics became available in Persian to Khatami's generation only in a translation by the late Hamid Enayat (d. 1982). Like Tabatabaei, Khatami brings in the sharply contrasting Aristotelian view of politics to highlight the shortcomings of Muslim political thought. Khatami's explanations of the decline in Muslim political thought in terms of the transition from political philosophy to royal policy (siyasat-i shahi) and its imputation to the prevalence of "forceful domination" (taghallub) in Islamic history carries little conviction.^*

In his "Letter for Tomorrow", he wrote: "This government is proud to announce that it heralded the era where the sanctity of power, has been turned into the legitimacy of critique and criticism of that power, which is in the trust of the people who have been delegated with power to function as representatives through franchise. So such power, once considered Divine Grace has now been reduced to an earthly power that can be criticized and evaluated by earthly beings. Instances show that although due to some traces of despotic mode of background we have not even been a fair critique of those in power, however, it is deemed upon the society, and the elite and the intellectuals in particular, not to remain indifferent at the dawn of democracy and allow freedom to be hijacked."

Post-presidential career

On September 2 2005, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Khatami as a member of the Alliance of Civilizations.

On September 28 2005, Khatami retires, after 29 years of service in the government. ^*

On November 14 2005, Khatami urged all religious leaders to fight for the abolishment of atomic and chemical weapons. [http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0511159935183141.htm

On January 30 2006, Khatami officially inaugurates the office of "International Center of Dialogue Among Civilizations". An NGO with offices in Iran and Europe that he will be heading, after his retirement from the government. ^*

On February 15 2006, During a press interview Khatami announces the formal registeration of the European office of his Institute for Dialogue among Civilizations in Geneva.

On February 28 2006, While attending a conference of the Alliance of Civilizations at Doha, Qatar, he stated that "The holocaust is a historical fact" however he added that Israel had "made a bad use of this historic fact with the persecution of the Palestinian people." ^*

The Man with the Chocolate Robe

On December 22 2005, a few months after the end of Khatami's presidency, the monthly magazine Chelcheragh with a group of young Iranian artists and activists organized a ceremony in honor of Mr. Khatami. The ceremony was held on Yalda night at Tehran's Bahman Farhangsara Hall. The ceremony, titled The Man with the Chocolate Robe by the organizers, was widely attended by teenagers and younger adults. One of the presenters and organizers of the ceremony was Pegah Ahangarani, a popular young Iranian actress. The event did not get a lot of advance publicity, but it drew a huge amount of attention afterwards. In addition to formal reports on the event by the BBC, IRNA, and other major news agencies, googling the term "مردی با عبای شکلاتی" ("The Man with the Chocolate Robe" in Persian) shows thousands of results of mainly young Iranians' weblogs mentioning the event. The significance of this event was that it was arguably the first time in the history of Iran that an event in such fashion was held in honor of a head of government. Some weblog reports of the evening described the general atmosphere of the event as "similar to a concert!", and some reported that "Khatami was treated like a pop star" among the youth and teenagers in attendance during the ceremony. Many bloggers also pointed out the disappoinment of many of his supporters because of his failure to carry out his plans for a more democratic, tolerant, and open society after his 8 years of presidency. The event itself, and the enormous amount of weblog and internet discussions that were sparked by it, are considered by many to be indicative of the strong feelings still evoked in Iran's youth by Mr. Khatami and the reform program he was associated with.

^* Mohammad Ali Abtahi's weblog report of the evening
^* BBC News: The Man with the Chocolate Robe
^* Photo report of the ceremony
^*Chelcheragh Magazine website's report on the event
^* A blogger's report: Tears at the night with The Man with the Chocolate Robe

Quotes by Mohammad Khatami

On secularism

Of course we may assume many general and non-historical meanings for secularism, but turning a subject that is in all its existence a historical matter into a non-historical matter is a blatant mistake. (Berlin Institute of Advanced Studies, Nov 2005)
Secularism is the experience of the Western culture and thought. Insisting on spreading it to places where the underlying intellectual background, and the political and social reasons for its appearance are lacking, is clearly a mistake, regardless of being desirable or not. (Berlin Institute of Advanced Studies, Nov 2005)

On western civilization

Without a doubt, we will succeed in moving forward, only if we have the capacity to reap the benefit of positive, scientific and social accomplishments of Western civilization. (Islamic summit 1997)
Liberalism is the world's religion. We do not have the right to insult liberalism. (after Malaysia conference on Islam and West, 2006)

On the Dialogue Among Civilizations and Political ethics

A basic change in political ethics is required for the realization of the proposaldialog among civilizations. (UNESCO 1999)
In order to understand the meaning of the phrase dialogue among civilizations as defined here, one has no choice but to closely pay attention to a number of points one of which is the relationship between a politician and an artist, and the other is the relationship between ethics and politics. (UNESCO 1999)

On Saddam and the Death Penalty

I don't like the death penalty, although if there is one case where there should be an execution, the fairest case would be for Saddam. But I would never wish for that. 18 December 2003

On Shirin Ebadi and Nobel Peace Prize

"Must I always send a message for everything," when asked why he had not responded to the award for Shirin Ebadi, the first Iranian Nobel Prize winner, four days after it was made. "The Nobel Peace Prize is not very important, the ones that count are the scientific and literary prizes," he added. However it seemed in those early remarks, Khatami was trying to reduce conservatives anger over Shirin Ebadi, who wore no Hijab while accepting the prize in the ceremony, because later Khatami in an interview reported by Iran press service.com (^*) on December 12, 2003 said: "The Nobel Prize is very important in all domains; it is obvious that every Iranian must be proud to know that another Iranian, especially an Iranian woman, got this Prize. This said, more important than the prize of the peace is peace itself. Our world is a world of war, a world of terror and violence, a world of illness and famine, a world of discrimination", he replied when observed that the welcome reserved to the laureate in Iran was "tepid". "Politic is always an important factor. She continues her work, a work that, I hope, she would be able to pursue freely in Iran. I also know that she had some problems"

On the Controversy of Danish Cartoons of Prophet Mohammad

Offending and insulting, is different from expressing an opinion that can be analyzed, argued on, and can eventually be accepted or rejected offending others is not acceptable ... But in addition to the west, we ourselves also have problems in this regard. Instead of logical criticism or debate, we only keep saying offensive things about liberalism, democracy and modernism. I had told some of our elders before, that the religion of the today's world is 'liberalism' and we have no right to make insults about it. We should not keep using phrases such as "the corrupt culture of the west" etc. in our words. As it's also said in the Holy Koran, "Do not insult the gods of others, otherwise you are indirectly insulting your God". February 15th, 2006, during a press interview in Tehran's airport upon his return from a cultural conference in Malaysia. ^*^*

On Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II was a seeker of truth, justice and peace. Pope John Paul II was a disciple of religious mysticism, philosophic deliberation and thought and artistic and poetic creativity, By emphasising his experience and teachings, (he) earnestly tried to utilise them in the path of the triumph of truth, justice and peace. It is hoped that the leadership of Catholic Christianity, by following the teachings of the Prophet Jesus, may peace be upon him, by interacting with justice seeking and peace loving political-religious leaders and by also following the ethical and humanitarian thinking of John Paul II, help the world towards a better and more just life. (Reported by AFP on April 3, 2005 in his condoling Message to Vatican)

Publications

Khatami has written a number of books in Persian, Arabic and English:

Books in Persian

Fear of the Wave (بیم موج in Persian)
From the World of the Polis to the Polis of the World (از دنیای شهر تا شهر دنیا)
Faith and Thought Trapped by Despotism (آیین و اندیشه در دام خودکامگی)
Democracy (مردم سالاری)
Dialogue Among Civilizations (گفتگوی تمدنها)
A Letter for Tomorrow (نامه ای برای فردا)
Islam, The Clergy, and The Islamic Revolution (اسلام، روحانیت و انقلاب اسلامی)
Political Development, Economic Development, and Security (توسعه سیاسی، توسعه اقتصادی و امنیت)
Women and the Youth (زنان و جوانان)
Political Parties and the Councils (احزاب و شوراها)
Reviver of the Truth of Religion roughly translated from Persian (احیاگر حقیقت دین)

Books in English

Islam, Liberty and Development

Books in Arabic

A Study of Religion, Islam and Time roughly translated from Arabic (مطالعات فی الدین و الاسلام و العصر)
City of Politics roughly translated from Arabic (مدینة السیاسة)

A full list of his publications is available at his official personal web site (see below).

Awards and honors

Gold medal from Greek University of Athens
The special medal of Spain's Congress of Deputies and Senate, Key to Madrid
Honorary PhD, Moscow University of International Relations
Honorary degree of doctorate in philosophy, The University of Moscow
Honorary PhD degree, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Honorary doctorate degree by the Delhi University
Honorary doctorate from Azerbaijan's Academy of Science
Degree of honor in political sciences, University of Lebanon
Pakistan's highest civilian honour
Plaque of honor and medal of distinction by the International Federation for Parent Education
Honorary doctorate from Sudan's Nilein University.

References

Clawson, Patrick. Eternal Iran. 2005. ISBN 1403962766 Palgrave Macmillan Publishers

External links

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