Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami سید محمد خاتمی | |
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| 5th President of Iran | |
| In office August 3, 1997 – August 2, 2005 | |
| Vice President | Hassan Habibi (1997–2001) Mohammad Reza Aref (2001–2005) |
| Preceded by | Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani |
| Succeeded by | Mahmoud Ahmadinejad |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 29, 1943 Ardakan, Iran |
| Political party | Militant Clerics League |
Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (Persian : سید محمد خاتمی), born on 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. He is also officially titled حجت الاسلام والمسلمین, Hojjat-ol-Eslām wa-l-Moslemīn, an honorific title given to middle-ranking mujtahid Shia clerics.
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
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.
As President, according to the Iranian political system, Khatami was outranked by the Supreme Leader, and had no legal authority over many key state institutions such as the armed forces (the police, the army, the revolutionary guards, etc.), the state radio and television, the judiciary, the prisons, etc. (See Politics of Iran).
Khatami presented the so called "twin bills" to the parliament during his term in office, 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. The bills were approved by the parliament but were eventually vetoed by the Guardian Council.
Cabinet
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. [1] 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. 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.
Khatami has met with many influential figures, including Pope John Paul II, Koichiro Matsuura, Jacques Chirac, Johannes Rau, Vladimir Putin, Abdulaziz Bouteflika and Hugo Chávez.
Israel
After the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, the Iranian government rebuffed Israel's offer of assistance. On April 8 2005, 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. Katsav himself is in origin an Iranian Jew, and from a part of Iran close to Khatami's home - he stated that they had spoken about their home province. That would make this incident the first political contact between Iran and Israel since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979.[2] [3] However, after he returned to Iran, Khatami was subject to harsh criticism from conservatives for having 'recognised' Israel by speaking to its president. Subsequently, the country's state-run media reported that Khatami strongly denied shaking hands and chatting with Katsav[4]
Reforms
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 powerful conservatives within the Iranian political establishment.
During his two terms in office, Khatami was able to introduce some reforms to the Iranian political system, however all in all, he is widely considered to have lost the power struggle with his opponents. The root cause for his failures is widely considered to be the limited powers of the President in the Iranian political system. As President, Khatami had little or no authority over many key state institutions such as the judiciary, the state radio and television, the armed forces including the police, the military, etc. (See Politics of Iran).
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.
- 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.
- Iran student riots, July 1999. This was 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
- 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 accused of insulting Islamic values during one of his speeches. The death sentence was reversed after widespread protests by students and reformist parties. Dr. Aghajari was released after a brief stay 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.
Despite the fact that President Khatami was supportive of democratic reforms, Defenders of Human Rights Center which is Iran's main human rights organization, did not succeed in official registration and its qualification was not approved after three years of sending requests.[5]
Reform within the Islamic framework
Khatami's desire to not make extra-Islamic reforms made people question the purpose of his presidency. He has received criticism inside and outside the Islamic Republic and it is not known how a mullah can bring freedom.
At Tehran University, his former supporters chanted, " No more lies! No more lies! No more lies! No more lies! No more lies!" Many of them had gotten physically beaten by security forces before the meeting. According to Khatami,"[T]he reforms should come from within the regime. I consider the Islamic Republic to be a great achievement of the most popular revolution in my lifetime." Many of his supporter misunderstood this idea.[1] With regard to those that were disillusioned with the epic of 23 May 1997, Khatami denounced the protesters because of "their envy" and that they "created obstacles," referring to people like Akbar Mohammadi.[1]
According to Azar Nafisi, "Khatami is a symptom and not the cause of change in Iran," [6].
"Only one problem exists. Khatami is neither a reformer nor a democrat. It is true that Khatami beat three other candidates to win the presidency in 1997. But he emerged to victory only after the mullahs disqualified 234 other challengers whom they felt too reformist or too liberal. Khatami has not retracted his 1980 writings in the Iranian daily Keyhan in which he insisted that government was only for the clergy."http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-rubin031802.shtml
"[Khatami] refused, for example, to back off a previous comparison between the American leader and Osama bin Laden.[7]Video clip of speech
Governor Mitt Romney and others have pointed out what they perceive as the duplicity of Mohammad Khatami who used his "reformist" platform as a ploy. Mitt Romney said,
Khatami relaxed freedom of speech laws giving democracy reformers a false sense of security only to engage in one of the largest crackdowns in the country’s history...[W]e will never make progress in the region if we deal with wolves in sheep’s clothing.[2].
Khatami and Iran's 2004 parliamentary election
In February 2004 Parliament elections, the Council of Guardians banned thousands[citation needed] 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[citation needed] 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 [8] [9]. 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
Khatami married Zohreh Sadeghi, daughter of a famous professor of religious law, in 1974 (at the age of 31). They have two daughters and one son: Leila (born 1975), Narges (born 1982), and Emad (born 1988).
Khatami's father, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khatami, was a high ranking cleric and the Khateeb (the one who delivers the sermon for Friday prayers)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.[10]
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 appoints Khatami as a member of the Alliance of Civilizations.
- On September 28 2005, Khatami retires, after 29 years of service in the government. [11]
- On November 14 2005, Khatami urges all religious leaders to fight for the abolishment of atomic and chemical weapons. [12] [13]
- 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. [14]
- On February 15 2006, during a press interview Khatami announces the formal registration 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 states that "The holocaust is a historical fact." However, he adds that Israel has "made a bad use of this historic fact with the persecution of the Palestinian people." [15]
- On September 7 2006, during a visit to Washington, Khatami calls for dialogue between the United States and Iran.[3]
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 A Night with: 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.
- [16] Mohammad Ali Abtahi's weblog report of the evening
- [17] BBC News: The Man with the Chocolate Robe
- [18] Photo report of the ceremony
- [19]Chelcheragh Magazine website's report on the event
- [20] A blogger's report: Tears at the night with The Man with the Chocolate Robe
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 [title roughly translated from Persian] (احیاگر حقیقت دین)
Books in English
- Islam, Liberty and Development[citation needed]
Books in Arabic
- A Study of Religion, Islam and Time [title roughly translated from Arabic] (مطالعات فی الدین و الاسلام و العصر)
- City of Politics [title 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.
Further reading
- Clawson, Patrick. Eternal Iran. 2005. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 Palgrave Macmillan Publishers
References and notes
- ^ a b Iranian President Khatami Clashes with Reformist Students at Tehran University MEMRI TV
- ^ ROMNEY DENOUNCES KHATAMI VISIT TO HARVARD The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 5 September 2006
- ^ "Iran's Khatami calls for US talks". BBC News. 2006-09-08. Retrieved 2006-09-08.
See also
- List of national leaders
- Iranian presidential election, 1997
- Iranian presidential election, 2001
- Politics of Iran
- 2nd of Khordad Movement
- Modern Islamic philosophy
- Liberal movements within Islam
External links
- Official website of Mohammad Khatami
- Biography in I.R.I.B. Archive
- Biography in Encyclopedia Britannica
- Web site of the International Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations
- UNESCO: Dialogue among civilizations speech by HE Mr. Mohammad Khatami
- Biography (in Persian)
- Khatami; from the presidency of Islamic Center in Hamburg to the presidency of Islamic Republic of Iran
- CNN: Transcript of Interview with Iranian President Mohammad Khatami
- Iran's ex-leader sees new Islam
- Notice: Conservative cleric, Ahmad Khatami and reformer cleric Mohammad Khatami
- ISNA (Iranian Students' News Agency) reports about Mohammad Khatami (in Persian)
- An unofficial weblog about the news related to Mohammad Khatami on Blogger (in English)
- Address of H.E Seyed Mohammad Khatami at the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Sept 2, 2006
- Iran Media Resources
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