Yatimov was born in what is now
Farkhor district in Tajikistan's southern
Khatlon province. In 1976, he graduated from the State Pedagogical Institute in
Kulob, Khatlon province, with a
specialist degree in Tajik language and literature. Following the graduation, he worked as a Tajik language teacher in secondary schools in Farkhor district. From 1977 to 1979, Yatimov served in the
Soviet army in
Kaunas,
Lithuania. After competing the mandatory military service, he returned to Farkhor and worked as a secondary school teacher until 1980. In 2001, Yatimov defended his dissertation, Foreign Policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Ideological Foundations, receiving an academic degree of
Candidate of Sciences. One year later, he defended another dissertation, Khomeini-ism and the Ideology of the Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the New System of International Relations, receiving a degree of
Doctor of Sciences. In 2003, Yatimov completed his second education, graduating from the
Tajik State National University with a degree in law. == Political career ==