Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī 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 scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

. He served as the fifth 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...

 from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture

Minister of culture

A culture minister is a Cabinet position in some governments responsible for protecting the national heritage of a country and promoting cultural expression....

 in both the 1980s and 1990s. He is currently one of the leaders of the Iranian Green Movement, and an outspoken critic of the President Ahmadinejad's government.

Hitherto little known, Khatami attracted global attention during his first election to the presidency when he captured almost 70% of the vote.