President Mohammad Khatami
Hojjat ol-Eslam
Seyyed Mohammad Khatami ('''حجتالاسلام سید محمد خاتمی'''; born
October, 1943 in
Ardakan,
Yazd province) is the fifth and current
President of Iran. He has been president since
August 2, 1997, and his second term will end on
August 2, 2005. He is a member of the Central Council of
Militant Clerics Society.
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.
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 have 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 with [[Prince Charles (February 2004)]]
Before serving as a president, Khatami has 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
May 24, 1992, when he resigned), the head of the
National Library of Iran from 1992 to 1997, and a member of Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.
President Khatami and Israel's President Katsav sitting next each other during Pope John Paul II's funeral
Khatami has a
bachelor's degree in
Western philosophy from Isfahan University, but he left the academic education while he was studying for a
master's degree in
Educational Sciences at Tehran University and 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.
The
United Nations proclaimed the year 2001 as the United Nations'
Year of Dialogue of Civilizations, as per Khatami's suggestion.
In addition to his mother tongue
Persian, he also speaks
Arabic,
English and
German. He is married to Zohreh Sadeghi and has two daughers and a son: Leila (born 1975), Narges (born 1981), and Emad (born 1989).
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, who was born in Iran, 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://uk.news.yahoo.com/050408/325/ffxz7.html 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.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7443548/
See also
External links
Khatami, Mohammad
Khatami, Mohammad
Khatami, Mohammad
Khatami, Mohammad
Khatami, Mohammad
da:Mohammad Khatami
de:Mohammad Chatemi
es:Muhammad Jatami
fr:Mohammad Khatami
gl:Mohammad Khatami
he:מוחמד חתאמי
id:Mohammad Khatami
nl:Mohammad Khatami
pl:Mohammad Chatami
sv:Mohammad Khatami
zh:穆罕默德·哈塔米