ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates that Khatami has endeavoured to reconcile these issues in his construction of Iranian national identity by dealing with the implications of the West on daily life while maintaining independence and 'authenticity'. It shows that not only do the pillars indicate a resistance to external others, namely the Islamic world and the West, but in relation to internal others, namely the Islamist discourse of national identity and the Iranism of the Pahlavi regime. Thus Khatami national identity is constructed in relation to both internal and external forces. Nevertheless, the Islamist-Iranian discourse is also hegemonic because it claims cultural, political and moral leadership; despite it being more inclusive than the Islamist discourse. Nonetheless, the question that be raised in this context is whether in fact the exclusivity of the Islamist-Iranian discourse of national identity is due to the limits on political development in the context of the Islamic Republic and therefore it is forced to subscribe to certain values.
