Khatami's Visit to St. Andrews
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami will visit the University of St Andrews in Scotland to deliver a keynote lecture, open the new Institute of Iranian Studies, and receive an honorary degree of Doctorate of Laws.
It is believed that St Andrews beat off stiff competition from several other UK universities to ensure Khatami's visit. "He is the ideal person to open the institute given his combination of academic and political experience. It is the first time a former Iranian president has visited Britain and the biggest visit since the Shah in 1972" says Dr Ali Ansari, head of the new department which will possess the largest collection of Iranian-related texts in Europe.
Meanwhile, some student organisations such as the NUS have tried to setup protests and gather signature for petitions condemning Khatami's Scottish visit, mostly pointing to the imprisonment of students that took place during Khatami's presidency following the student riots of 18th of Tir. Fox News and Sunday Times also news and articles opposing the decision of St Andrews University to host Iran's former president.
However, University of St Andrews Students' Association fully back the decision of the University of St Andrews to award Mohammad Khatami an honorary Doctorate of Laws. This has been announced officially in their Statement (The Students' Association Stance re: Recent National and International News Items Regarding HE Mohammad Khatami). Their decision was made what they call an"informed discussion and debate with senior academics and authorities on the matter".
The world of politics and academia are both divided on the issue of Khatami's visit to a high profile university. While some academics describe Khatami as the "cleric with blood on his hands", the principal of St. Andrews University is determined to support the Iranian visitor:
"...the man with whom the West needs to engage if we are to pursue a more constructive and peaceful relationship with Iran. He has climbed out of the Iranian trench and is walking across no-man's land towards us. The bestowal of an honorary degree is intended to convey encouragement by the university for that desire for dialogue and mutual understanding. The degree denotes that the university is grasping his outstretched hand."
next month ??
- it's Octobet 31st.. today!
(at October 31, 2006 01:16 AM)
He deserves the invitation and the honour. he's probably the best thing that happened to iran since the revolution, and i'm being realistic.
(at October 31, 2006 04:39 PM)
St Andrews? wow what a posh invitation!
Will they also teach him how to play golf? he'll be good at playing with his own balls lol
(at October 31, 2006 08:56 PM)
be barekat-e regym-e jomhoori-e eslami ma hatta savaad-e khoondan-e do kalame englisi ham nadarim
mordeshoor-e khatami o har chi akhoond-e bebaran
(at November 1, 2006 10:28 AM)
No Mullah is worth getting excited about. Lets not forget that the reform movement is dead and it took with it dozens of newspapers, freethinkers and students.
This is the same one that has blood of hundreds of Iranian students on his hand, including the current NUS honorary vice president Ahmad Batebi who is still in jail.
I think next on his tour is hell, where he is planning to stay.
(at November 1, 2006 10:05 PM)
I totally disagree with Khashayar and some others like Masoud Zabeti. Blaming Khatami for the atrocities of the government (as a whole) is neither fair nor fruitful. His own deputy was assassinated and two of his ministers were beaten up by government terrorists in broad daylight. Aside from that, it diverts attention from the real criminals and problems in our country.
Even though we were left with no major practical change, I do appreciate the shift he created in the mindset of people, which is essential for a long-term sustainable democratic change in our society. You cannot deny that people's demands, expectations, and understanding of their own rights nowadays is far greater than what it was before 1997.
Still some people choose to see things in black and white.
(at November 2, 2006 08:53 AM)
Khashayar, what an appalling way of thinking. Do you know what you remind me of? You remind me of Khalkhali.
After the monarch government of Iran was overthrown by revolutionarists in winter 1979, the revolutionary court accused *every single person* of the Shah's government of sharing the King's atrocities and crimes, and ordered the execution of all of them.
The list of accused included all MPs, ministers, government employees and so forth including for example Dr. Parsa who was the education minister (vazir-e Amoozesh & parvaresh).
They executed all of them, guilty and innocent together, just because they saw everything as white and black. There was absolutely no justice in what the revolutionary court and Khalkhali did. It was an act of absolute barbarism derived by blind hatred. Those barbaric executions - which were seen as a revenge at the time - are haunting and will continue to haunt the current government forever.
Now you're following exactly the same footsteps, hating Khatami just because he was part of the government. And you don't care what he did and what he thought, you just hate them all.
I've had serious problems and hate the current Iranian government, and am living in exile. But I do not enjoy seeing the same black and white vision and barbaric way of thinking being repeated in our generation.
(at November 2, 2006 12:39 PM)
i'm trying to be unbiased and think who else could have received the honor of opening the center for iranian studies at st andrews?
soroush, maybe? but he's mostly a philosopher, and moreover never happened to represent the country or bother himself with politics that much.
What about bazargaan? a man who spent his whole life promoting peaceful change within the system, both during the shah and after the revolution. unfortunately he's not among us anymore.
And masoud rajavi? no f*cking way lol
reza pahlavi? hmm does he count at all? my younger brother (21 yeard old) is more qualified than reza pahlavi, for my bro spent more time in iran than the ex-prince.
ok let's talk about more serious options again:
dehkhoda: dead, ferdowsi: dead, zarrinkoob: dead
hossein nasr: a good candidate. ehsan yarshater: another good one. I would have gone for one of these two. Both are reknown iranologists with strong academic background and international recognition. but neither nasr nor yarshater have had any interest in politics.
(at November 2, 2006 05:07 PM)
What did Khatami achieved exactly that you are defending him?!
Fake hope to the people in the regime. A hope that still stays in hearts of the fool like those who defend Khatami.
While hundreds of students were putting their lives in danger, for a better Iran, Khatami did nothing, and even said "We should do whatever that has to be done in order to save this regime".
Now go and defend him all you will, you remind me of the general idiots who tell their friends "Oh, women are free in Iran, actually".
(at November 3, 2006 12:03 PM)
Khashayar veleshoon kon, ina hanooz omid daran be in akhoonda!
(at November 3, 2006 02:30 PM)
I dont particularly like khatami, he couldn't achieve most of the goals he promised. he talked too much and that was what he was good at.
I also don't hate him, because there's no reason to hate him. he was a president with very limited power and couldn't control the police, the prisons, the courts, nothing...
so if you thought khatami was going to change things all on his own, you were naive and simple (like I was). I think his first term in the office proved how limited his scope of influence was.
I'm looking forward to seeing a day without akhoondz ruling my country. but I'm not waiting for any saviour either.
(at November 3, 2006 07:26 PM)
guys, instead of shouting at each other on love or hate for a molla, pull up your sleeves and do something for the country. why can't you leave hatred and agression behind and see what you can realistically achieve? learn a bit from gandhi and mandella
(at November 3, 2006 07:52 PM)
Khatami was like an amir kabir of modern times, trying desperately to move towards enlightenment in an Iranian dark age, and he was stopped. he was just lucky he wasn't killed like A.K.!
(at November 4, 2006 12:53 PM)
Khatami is a bright man but unfortunately being bright is not enough for Iranian politicians at this time.
In fact pro-peace politicians are the first ones who leave the political scene when things tend to get a bit violant. If you're pro-peace you cannot fight, and if you fight for your right you're not pro-peace anymore!
(at November 6, 2006 08:56 AM)
We Iranians need a shift in the way we perceive politics. As long as we expect someone (khatami, bush, etc) to come to power and solve all our problems, we will remain in the current miserable situation.
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