Mohammad Ali Abtahi
Encyclopedia
Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi is an Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

ian theologian, scholar, pro-democracy activist and chairman of the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue
Institute for Interreligious Dialogue
Institute for Interreligious Dialogue is a non-governmental organization devoted to dialog among religions throughout the world.The institute was founded in 2000, following the efforts by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami for promoting dialogs among cultures and civilizations...

. He is a former Vice President of Iran
Vice President of Iran
Vice President of Iran is defined by article 124 of the Iranian constitution, as anyone appointed by the President to lead an organization related to Presidential affairs. , there are 12 Vice Presidents in Iran...

 and a close associate of former President Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

. Abtahi is a member of the central council of Association of Combatant Clerics (Majma'e Rowhaniyoon-e Mobarez), the political grouping to which both Khatami and the 2009 presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi
Mehdi Karroubi
Mehdi Karroubi is an influential Iranian reformist politician, democracy activist, mojtahed, and chairman of the National Trust Party. He was Chairman of the parliament from 1989 to 1992 and 2000 to 2004, and a presidential candidate in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.He is a founding...

 (the previous Speaker of Majlis of Iran
Majlis of Iran
The National Consultative Assembly of Iran , also called The Iranian Parliament or People's House, is the national legislative body of Iran...

) belong.

Vice President

Abtahi served in various governmental posts, including the President of Iranian Radio, Vice Minister of International Affairs in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and IRIB's representative in Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

. In 1997, President of Iran
President of Iran
The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...

 Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

 chose Abtahi as his first chief of staff. Abtahi held the position from July 10, 1997, to September 1, 2001.

On September 2, 2001, Abtahi was elevated to the post of the Iranian Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. He was the first cabinet member in Iran to write a weblog or have an Orkut
Orkut
Orkut is a social networking website that is owned and operated by Google Inc. The service is designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships...

 account during his membership in the cabinet. He resigned from his post three times after the Iranian Majlis election of 2004, because of "differences in political viewpoints with the parliament's majority", and finally, on October 12, 2004, his resignation was accepted by President Khatami. He was followed by Majead Ansari
Majead Ansari
Majead Ansari , also spelled Majid Ansari is an Iranian politician and cleric....

, a previous representative of Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

 to the Parliament and a fellow member of the Combatant Clerics Society party.

Daily Show Appearance

Seyyed Abtahi appeared on the Daily Show in 2009. He was a guest of Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

. Abtahi is often called the "blogging mullah" along with Mehdi Karroubi
Mehdi Karroubi
Mehdi Karroubi is an influential Iranian reformist politician, democracy activist, mojtahed, and chairman of the National Trust Party. He was Chairman of the parliament from 1989 to 1992 and 2000 to 2004, and a presidential candidate in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.He is a founding...

 who is referred to as the iron "shaykh of reforms" Seyyed Abtahi is active in the blogosphere and is the first member of an Iranian cabinet to keep a personal blog.

Arrests and confession

Abtahi's father, Ayatollah
Ayatollah
Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...

 Seyyed Hassan Abtahi is the author of several controversial books about Imam Mahdi. Seyyed Hassan's ultra-conservative religious and political views are very different from Mohammad Ali's, who is a liberal cleric. Seyyed Hassan was arrested recently for "suspicious organised activities". Mohammad Ali discussed this in a post to his blog titled Why don't I write about my father and brother's arrest?

Mohammad Ali Abtahi was himself arrested on June 16, 2009 during the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections and subsequent protests
2009 Iranian election protests
Protests following the 2009 Iranian presidential election against the disputed victory of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in major cities in Iran and around the world starting June 13, 2009...

. He reportedly made a videotaped confession following his arrest,
in which he stated that the opposition's claims of a stolen election were false, and that opposition leaders had conspired in advance to misrepresent the vote. According to the statement, former presidents, Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

 and Rafsanjani had taken an oath not to abandon each other in their support for former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a Reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election...

 as they prepared to stage a Velvet Revolution
Velvet Revolution
The Velvet Revolution or Gentle Revolution was a non-violent revolution in Czechoslovakia that took place from November 17 – December 29, 1989...

 in order to avenge their defeat in Iranian presidential election, 2005
Iranian presidential election, 2005
Iran's ninth presidential election took place in two rounds, the first on June 17, 2005, the run-off on June 24. Mohammad Khatami, the previous President of Iran, stepped down on August 2, 2005, after serving his maximum two consecutive four-year terms according to the Islamic Republic's constitution...

. According to human rights groups, similar confessions by Iranian political prisoners are almost always obtained under duress.

In response members of his and other arrested reformists gathered at his home issued a statement denouncing his confession, saying “not only do we not accept the confession, we also know that Abtahi said these things due to a long period of imprisonment for the purpose of obtaining a confession.” In a court hearing, his wife Fahimeh Mousavinejad, dismissed her husband’s confession as false and "not at all in Mr. Abtahi’s style. ... As his family, we know the way he expresses himself. Many people have read his blog. The sentences he was using were not his own”.

Abtahi's photos from the trial show signs of probable torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 use during his imprisonment.

Following Abtahi's record as the first Iranian cabinet member to blog while in office, on August 26, 2009, he also became the first known Iranian prisoner to blog while still at prison. A few days after that prison blog entry, however, his website was suddenly taken offline.

In November 2009 he was sentenced to six years in jail for the alleged intention to topple the government.

Personal

Mohammad Ali Abtahi was born in Mashhad
Mashhad
Mashhad , is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is also the only major Iranian city with an Arabic name. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Its...

. He is married to Fahimeh Mousavinezhad (daughter of one of his professors) and has three daughters, named Fa’ezeh, Fatemeh, and Farideh. He is also the nephew of Abdolkarim Hasheminezhad.

See also

  • Hassan Rowhani
    Hassan Rowhani
    Hassan Rowhani is an Iranian politician and cleric, and as of March 2007, a member of the Supreme National Security Council. Rowhani's membership in the council is as one of the two representatives of the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran...

  • Mehdi Karroubi
    Mehdi Karroubi
    Mehdi Karroubi is an influential Iranian reformist politician, democracy activist, mojtahed, and chairman of the National Trust Party. He was Chairman of the parliament from 1989 to 1992 and 2000 to 2004, and a presidential candidate in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections.He is a founding...

  • Mohammad Khatami
    Mohammad Khatami
    Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

  • Faezeh Hashemi
    Faezeh Hashemi
    Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani is an Iranian journalist, women rights activist, former member of Iranian parliament, and daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani....

  • Gholamhossein Karbaschi
    Gholamhossein Karbaschi
    Gholamhossein Karbaschi is an Iranian politician who was the Mayor of Tehran from 1989 until 1998. He is considered politically reformist and is a close ally of former president Mohammad Khatami...

  • Ataollah Mohajerani

External links

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