Hamid Reza Katouzian

Hamid Reza Katouzian
Member of Parliament of Iran
In office
2 May 2004 – 5 March 2012
Constituency Tehran
Personal details
Born (1959-10-23) October 23, 1959
Tehran, Iran
Alma mater Case Western Reserve University
Profession Mechanical and Biomechanical Engineering
Religion Shi'a Islam

Hamid-Reza Katouzian (Persian: حمید رضا کاتوزیان‎‎), also known as Hamid Katoozian, born on 23 October 1959 in Tehran, Iran) is a former Iranian politician and a university professor. He was a Member of the Parliament of Iran; during his two terms he served as the vice-chairman of the Industry Committee, and Chairman of the Energy Committee.

Early life

Katouzian was born on 23 October 1959 in Tehran. He enrolled for a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the prestigious Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran. After completion of his undergraduate degree, he attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He completed his PhD in 1994 and continued his work as a post doctoral researcher at Case Western till 1996, when he relocated to Iran. As of 2015 Katouzian was a professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, specializing in Biomechanics at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran.

Katouzian is married to Saeedeh, who works for Iran's state broadcaster, IRIB. He has two sons, Mohammad - an Electrical Engineer and Amir, a Geotechnical Engineer who works in the United States.

Political career

A pro-democracy advocate, has continually defended freedom of speech and press. Katouzian is one of the major opponents and critics of president Ahmadinejad's policies and behaviors. He was the first politician who after 2009 election publicly stated that Ahmadinejad does not have the competence, character, and quality to be the president of Iran and must be evicted and dismissed. He supported Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Katouzian's emphasis and views on accountability, transparency, and human rights as major components of a good governance, was not tolerable for high rank authorities in Iran. He was elected as a member of the parliament in 2004 election from his home town Tehran as a conservative candidate after received 502,872 votes. He was later reelected in 2008 but did not seek re-election in 2012.

References

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