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Seyyed Mohammad Khatami (, 1943 in Ardakan city of Yazd province, is an Iran ian 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 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 . He is also a member and the Chairman of the Central Council of the Militant Clerics Society . PRESIDENCY Cabinet 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 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. {Link without Title} 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 '' needed for: expanding this section/fixing grammar/improving the text/adding citations '' Khatami is known by most as the first Iranian reformist president after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. 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 political establishment of Iran. During his two terms in office, he was able to bring some serious changes and reforms to the political system of the country, 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, (See Politics Of Iran ) Khatami had no or little power over many powerful establishments of the state including the Judiciary, the Police, the Military, etc. According to a famous statement made by himself, his government survived an average of one national crisis per 9 days during his term. Highlights of important crises (related to his domestic reform plans) during his presidency include:
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 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 ), 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 (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. {Link without Title} 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 ]]
THE MAN WITH THE CHOCOLATE ROBE a popular Iranian actress which was a presenter of the event, and Baran Kowsari [right , during Chelcheragh 's "A Night with The Man With The Chocolate Robe "]] On December 22 2005, a few months after the end of Khatami's presidency, the monthly magazine 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.
QUOTES BY MOHAMMAD KHATAMI On secularism
On western civilization
On the Dialogue Among Civilizations and Political ethics
On Saddam and the Death Penalty
On Shirin Ebadi and Nobel Peace Prize
On the Controversy Of Danish Cartoons Of Prophet Mohammad
On Pope John Paul II
PUBLICATIONS Khatami has written a number of books in Persian, Arabic and English: Books in Persian :
Books in English:
Books in Arabic:
A full list of his publications is available at his official personal web site (see below). AWARDS AND HONORS
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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