Religion Shi'a Islam | Name Hamid Katouzian Role Iranian Politician | |
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Profession Mechanical and Biomechanical Engineering Education Case Western Reserve University Party Islamic Society of Engineers | ||
Hamid-Reza Katouzian (Persian: حمیدرضا کاتوزیان), also known as Hamid Katoozian, born on 23 October 1959 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian politician and academic. 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.
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Personal 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 and Master's studies, he attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. He completed his PhD in 1993 and continued his work as a post doctoral researcher at Case Western till 1995, when he relocated to Iran. As of 2016 Katouzian is an associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, specializing in Biomechanics at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran.
Katouzian is married and has two sons.
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.