Mohammad-Ali Abtahi

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Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Ali Abtahi (Persian: محمدعلی ابطحی) (born January 27, 1958 in Mashhad) is an Iranian (Persian) theologian, scholar and chairman of Institute for Interreligious Dialogue. He is a former vice president of Iran and a close associate of former President Mohammad Khatami.

He has served first as President Khatami's chief of staff, then his Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and finally his advisor. He was the first cabinet member in Iran to write a weblog or have an Orkut account during his membership in the cabinet.

Abtahi is a member of the central council of Association of Combatant Clerics (Majma'e Rowhaniyoon-e Mobarez), the political party which both Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi (the previous Speaker of Majlis of Iran) belong to.

Abtahi was the Iranian Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs from September 2, 2001 to October 12, 2004. He had resigned from his post three times after the Iranian Majlis election of 2004, because of "differences in political viewpoints with the paliament's majority", and finally, on October 12, 2004, his resignation was accepted by President Khatami. He was followed by Majead Ansari, a previous representative of Tehran to the Parliament and a member of the same party (Combatant Clerics Society).

Before his vice presidency, Abtahi was the Iranian president Mohammad Khatami's Chief of Staff from July 10, 1997 to September 1, 2001. Before that, he had 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.

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

Mohammad Ali Abtahi 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.

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