Photo from Agence France Press
Khatami Attracts Iranian Women
By Scheherezade Faramarzi
December 21, 1998
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- When 17-year-old Maryam Omi found President Mohammad
Khatami standing next to her at a recent book fair, she broke into tears.
``I felt I was under a tremendous force ... an attraction,'' she said.
Omi is not alone in her feelings. In Iran, not only Leonardo DiCaprio
and Iranian movie actors are gaining a big female following.
``I simply adore him,'' said Golnaz Sajadi, 20, a university student.
``He's so bright and clean, and attractive.''
The attraction is tempered by Khatami's role as a Shiite Muslim cleric,
however. As Sarah Taqani, another student, put it: ``I just want to kiss
him -- like a father.''
And it's not only the hearts of women that Khatami has captured, but
also the minds of women and men alike, particularly the young -- some of
whom even carry his photo in their wallets.
Indeed, Khatami's election victory -- he won 20 million votes to 10
million for a hard-line rival in May 1997 -- was built on youth and women.
Perhaps what appeals to many about the 53-year-old Khatami is how different
he is -- in looks and ideas -- from the more severe demeanor of most Iranian
clerics.
What sets him apart are his pleasant smile and fastidious grooming --
his trimmed graying beard, the well pressed clerical robe carefully matched
with flowing cloak, his well-shined shoes.
Khatami's sister-in-law, Zahra Eshraqi, says Khatami is so obsessed
with tidiness that he nags TV camera crews not to wrinkle his robe when
they put a microphone on him.
Eshraqi calls Khatami's looks cozy. ``His face is pleasant to look at.
It's close to the heart.''
It helps Khatami's popularity, too, that he says what many Iranians
have long wanted to hear, promising freedom and civil rights.
As the head of the National Library, Khatami spent six years studying
and lecturing about a different kind of Islam -- which reconciles Islamic
law and tradition with individual freedom, and with Western ideas like
the rule of law.
He has published two books. ``Fear of the Wave'' examines Shiite reformers
who sought to reinterpret Islamic law according to their own times. ``From
the World of the City to the City of the World'' is a long rumination on
Western political thought.
``He knows how to speak well when he travels abroad. He makes us proud
of him,'' said Taqani, the university student.
