Volume 45, Number 17 · November 5, 1998
Iran's Unlikely President
By Shaul Bakhash
Hope and Challenge: The Iranian President Speaks
by Mohammad Khatami, edited by Parviz Morewedge, by Kent P. Jackson, translated by Alidad Mafinezam
Binghamton, New York: Institute of Global Cultural Studies, 81 pp., $12.95
Bim-e Mowj [Fear of the Wave]
by Mohammad Khatami
Tehran: Sima-ye Javan, 205 pp., 5,700 rials
Az Donya-ye Shahr ta Shahr-e Donya: Sayri dar Andisheh-ye Siyasi-ye Gharb [From the World of the City to the City of the World: A Survey of Western Political Thought]
by Mohammad Khatami
Tehran: Nashr-e Nay, 293 pp., 8,500 rials
Mohammad Khatami became Iran's new president in May 1997, winning a surprising victory over a more traditional candidate favored by the clerical establishment. Khatami attracted voters with a campaign in which he emphasized the need to strengthen the rule of law and the institutions of civil society, and to protect the basic rights of Iranians. He said he would tolerate and even encourage open debate and a diversity of views, and address the aspirations of women and youth. If official figures are accurate, over 80 percent of the voters went to the polls-a figure unprecedented since the early years of the Islamic revolution. Khatami received nearly 70 percent of the vote.
Review, 6464 words
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