Reception and legacy of Muhammad Khatami

Last updated

Iranian president Mohammad Khatami's two terms as president were criticized by conservatives, reformers, and opposition groups for various policies and viewpoints.

Contents

Governance

Mohammad Khatami is a strong advocate of "Islamic republic" or an original Iranian form of administration. In a speech on 11 October 2009, he warned that oppression of his allies and reformists will lead to emergence of those who are against Islamic republic constitution. He said "unfortunately we are witnessing the emergence of nuclei that negate the very basis of the Islamic republic." [1] Khatami however respects the opinion of people strongly and yet believes that the optimum form of government differ for each nation and cannot be copied from the west.

Khatami has been always respectful of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei and has often indirectly criticized his remarks during his presidential terms. In many controversial issues such as Iranian parliamentary election in 2004 and Iranian presidential election in 2009, Khatami did not stand strongly against the position of the supreme leader. Supreme leader of Iran appointed Ahmad Jannati and Mohammad Yazdi, two of the most well known fundamentalists to head the judiciary system and Guardian Council of Iran. Khatami has been always a critic of IRIB, Judiciary system and Guardian Council. The organizations run under the supervision of Iran's supreme leader.

Khatami came under attack from philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush, who accused him of failing to push for reforms since his May 1997 election. "The peaceful and democratic uprising of the Iranian people against religious dictatorship in May 1997 was a sweet experience," Soroush said in a letter addressed to Khatami. "But your failure to keep the vote and your wasting of opportunities put an end to it and disappointed the nation. Now, failures have turned into unrest." [2]

President Khatami responded to Iranian Shirin Ebadi's Nobel Peace Prize by waiting several days and then tempering his congratulations by saying "The Nobel prize for peace is not that important, as it is usually bestowed on political considerations." [3]

Accusations of foreign agency

Khatami has been accused of being a "foreign agent" multiple times.

In a lengthy 2008 report published by the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), it was claimed that Khatami participated in the meeting because they wanted to "transform Khatami into an Islamic version of Mikhail Gorbachev” and he was executor of the plot to "replace religious rule with secularism". [4] In 2009, Kayhan claimed that Khatami was invited to attend the meeting in 2006 again. [5]

In the 2009 Iran poll protests trials, Khatami was accused by Kian Tajbakhsh of working with the Open Society Foundations to foment a velvet revolution in Iran. [6] Tajbakhsh told the court that Khatami had met Soros in New York City, [7] where Mohammad Javad Zarif was also present. [8] Later, Kayhan reported that they met twice: first time in the Trump International Hotel, New York on 14 September 2006 and the second time at the 38th session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January, 2007. [5] Hossein Shariatmadari has also written in the editorial on 29 December 2010 that Khatami was executing the plans prescribed by Gene Sharp and Richard Rorty. [9]

Khatami has denied the claims, calling them "lies". [7] Soros has also strongly denied the allegations. [8] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammad Khatami</span> President of Iran from 1997 to 2005

Mohammad Khatami is an Iranian reformist politician who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to 1992. Later, he was critical of the government of subsequent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President of Iran</span> Head of government of Iran

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the supreme leader. The first election was held in 1980 and was won by Abulhassan Banisadr. Masoud Pezeshkian currently serves as the president of Iran, after being elected in the 2024 Iranian presidential election and being officially endorsed by the supreme leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Khamenei</span> Supreme Leader of Iran since 1989

Ali Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Khamenei is a marja', a title given to the highest level of religious cleric in Twelver Shi'sm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iranian reformists</span> Progressive political faction in Iran

The Reformists are a political faction in Iran. Iran's "reform era" is sometimes said to have lasted from 1997 to 2005—the length of President Mohammad Khatami's two terms in office. The Council for Coordinating the Reforms Front is the main umbrella organization and coalition within the movement; however, there are reformist groups not aligned with the council, such as the Reformists Front. Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist, was elected president following the 2024 Iranian presidential election, and was subsequently approved by the Supreme Leader on the 28th of July, having been inaugurated two days afterwards in Tehran.

The Iranian student protests of July 1999 were, before the 2009 Iranian election protests, the most widespread and violent public protests to occur in Iran since the early years of the Iranian Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 Iranian presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Iran 17 June 2005, with a second round run-off on 24 June. Mohammad Khatami, the outgoing president of Iran, stepped down on 2 August 2005, after serving his maximum two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic republic's constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdollah Nouri</span> Iranian cleric and politician

Abdollah Noori is an Iranian cleric and reformist politician. Despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," he became the most senior Islamic politician to be sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution, when he was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent in 1999. He has been called the "bête noire" of Islamic conservatives in Iran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mehdi Karroubi</span> Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician

Mehdi Karroubi is an Iranian Shia cleric and reformist politician leading the National Trust Party. Following 2009–2010 Iranian election protests, Karroubi was put under house arrest in February 2011. As of 2021, he is still confined to his house.

Special Clerical Court, or Special Court for Clerics is a special Iranian judicial system for prosecuting crimes, both ordinary and political, committed by Islamic clerics and scholars. The Special Clerical Court can defrock and disbar Islamic jurists, give sentences of imprisonment, corporal punishment, execution, etc. The court functions independently of the regular Iranian judicial framework, with its own security and prison systems, "generally secret and confidential" cases, proceedings and procedures, and is accountable only to the Supreme Leader of Iran,. The most senior Islamic politician to be prosecuted and sentenced to prison since the Iranian Revolution was Abdollah Nouri who was sentenced to five years in prison for political and religious dissent by the court in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdolkarim Soroush</span> Iranian philosopher

Abdolkarim SoroushPersian pronunciation:[æbdolkæriːmsoruːʃ]), born Hossein Haj Faraj Dabbagh, is an Iranian Islamic thinker, reformer, Rumi scholar, public intellectual, and a former professor of philosophy at the University of Tehran. He is among the most influential figures in the religious intellectual movement of Iran. Soroush is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. He was also affiliated with other institutions, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the Leiden-based International Institute as a visiting professor for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM) and the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin. He was named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people in 2005, and by Prospect magazine as one of the most influential intellectuals in the world in 2008. Soroush's ideas, founded on relativism, prompted both supporters and critics to compare his role in reforming Islam to that of Martin Luther in reforming Christianity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1997 Iranian presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Iran on 23 May 1997, which resulted in an unpredicted win for the reformist candidate Mohammad Khatami. The election was notable not only for the lopsided majority of the winner - 70% - but for the high turnout. 80% of those eligible to vote did so, compared to 50% in the previous presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hadi Khamenei</span> Iranian Islamic cleric and politician

Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Hadi Khamenei is an Iranian reformist politician, mujtahid and linguist. He is a key member of the reformist Association of Combatant Clerics, and a former deputy of the Majlis of Iran representing a district in Tehran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ansar-e Hezbollah</span> Political party in Iran

Ansar-e Hezbollah is a conservative paramilitary organization in Iran. According to the Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, it is a "semi-official quasi-clandestine organization of a paramilitary character that performs vigilante duties".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sadeq Larijani</span> Iranian Ayatollah (b. 1963)

Sadeq Ardeshir Larijani, better known as Amoli Larijani, is an Iranian scholar, conservative politician, and current chairman of Expediency Discernment Council. He is the former and fifth Chief Justice of the judicial system of Iran after the 1979 revolution.

Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran, announced his candidacy for the 2009 Iranian presidential election on 8 February 2009. Khatami later pulled out of the race.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mir-Hossein Mousavi 2009 presidential campaign</span> Political campaign in Iran

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh served as the last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, before the position was abolished in the 1989 constitutional review. In the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution, Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, moved to the United States. They returned shortly after the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Mousavi later ran for office in the 2009 Iranian presidential election, but lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei</span> Iranian politician and former intelligence officer (born 1960)

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei is an Iranian conservative politician and former intelligence officer. As a senior Cabinet member in the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he served as Chief of Staff from 2009 to 2013, and served as the fourth first vice president of Iran for one week in 2009 until his resignation was ordered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hassan Rouhani</span> President of Iran from 2013 to 2021

Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric. He served as a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts from 1999 to 2024. He was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2013, and also was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021. Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity, he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three, UK, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shia mujtahid, and economic trade negotiator.

The Statement of 14 Political Activists is an open letter signed by 14 political activists inside Iran, aimed at People of Iran, calling Ali Khamenei to resign his post of Supreme Leader after 20-year tenure. It was published online on tenth anniversary of controversial 2009 Iranian presidential election. One week after first letter, they published another letter asking for abolition of Islamic republic and establishment of a democratic secular government.

References

  1. ↑ "آفتاب - خاتمی: دلمان برای ایران می‌سوزد". Archived from the original on 14 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2009.
  2. ↑ "Abdolkarim Soroush :: عبدالکريم سروش". www.drsoroush.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "EBADI RETURNED TRIUMPHANTLY, AS KHATAMI INSULTED IRANIANS". www.iran-press-service.com. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  4. ↑ Amir Taheri (19 December 2008), "Why Ahmadinejad Fears Khatami", Asharq Al Awsat , retrieved 15 December 2015
  5. 1 2 Akbar Torbat (2 July 2013), "The Unexpected Results of Presidential Elections in Iran", Antiwar.com , retrieved 15 December 2015
  6. ↑ Al-Marashi, Ibrahim (2010). "17, Televising the "Velvet Revolution": Show Trials in the Aftermath of Iran's Tenth Presidential Election". In Kamalipour, Yahya R. (ed.). Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age: The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p.  183-186. ISBN   978-1-4422-0417-1.
  7. 1 2 Zahra Hosseinian (26 August 2009), "Iran's Khamenei says protests planned before vote", Reuters , retrieved 15 December 2015
  8. 1 2 "Khatami slams trial confessions", The Himalayan Times , 26 August 2009, retrieved 15 December 2015
  9. ↑ Ali Afshari (11 January 2011), "Khatami at a Dead End", Rooz Online , retrieved 15 December 2015
  10. ↑ "A Daily Roundup of News from Iran", Aswat, 30 September 2009, archived from the original on 6 April 2010, retrieved 15 December 2015

See also

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.