Family name:  Al-Shahristani
First name:     Hussain
Date of birth:  1942
Place of birth:  Karbala, Iraq
Marital status:  Married
Education:     

• BSc (Eng) and DIC from Imperial College, London in Chemical Engineering, 1965

• MSc in 1967 and PhD in 1970 in Nuclear Science, University of Toronto, Canada

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, 1970

Political activities:      

• Political prisoner, 1979–91

• First Deputy Chairman of Iraqi National Assembly, 2005

• Member of Iraqi Parliament, United Iraqi Alliance 2006
   

Scientific activities:    

• Scientific Researcher, Atomic Research Centre, 1970–73

• Teacher at Mosul University, 1973

• Assistant Professor at Baghdad University, 1974

• Head of Radioisotope Production Department, 1975–77

• Head of Nuclear Chemistry Department, 1977–79

• Adviser to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Organization, 1979

• Adviser to the International Technical Research Centre, London, 1998–2002

• Head of Iraqi National Academy of Sciences, 2003

• Chief Scientific Advisor to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission

• Visiting Professor at Surrey University, UK, 2002–04

• Professor at Baghdad University, 2004
   

Social activities:          

• Head of Gulf War Victims Organization, 1991–95

• Head of Iraqi Refugees Relief Committee, 1995–2003

• Member of International Board of Refugees in Iran, 1998–2002

• Head of Political Prisoners Union in Iraq, 2003

• Minister of Oil, May 2006 to date
   

Profile:
 

Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani is the current Iraqi Minister of Oil. The Shiite is a former nuclear scientist who was imprisoned in Abu Ghraib during the Saddam Hussein regime, and subjected to torture for using his powerful government position to make and distribute pamphlets urging Iraq's Shiite soldiers to abandon the army and fight against their fellow soldiers and officers.

An independent member of the United Iraqi Alliance, he was previously the deputy speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly under the Iraqi Transitional Government and was considered for the post of Prime Minister in the current government.

He was appointed Minister of Oil in May 2006 after the Islamic Virtue Party, which is also Shia and previously held the oil portfolio, had withdrawn from the government coalition. By August, however, he was under pressure as the fuel crisis had worsened under his tenure.

The Oil Minister since May 2006, Hussein al-Shahristani is a prominent Shi'ite close to Grand Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani who is the highest religious authority for Iraq's Ja'fari Shi'ites. Shahristani, a nuclear physicist, took up this post from Hashem al-Hashimi of the Shi'ite Islamist group al-Fadhila al-Islamiya which is headed by Ayatullah Muhammad al-Ya'qoubi.

 

News