Saturday, November 21, 2009 Previous editions
Saturday, November 07, 2009
AN Iranian maths student has become an unlikely hero to some of his countrymen for daring to criticise the country’s most powerful man to his face.
Mahmoud Vahidnia has received support from government opponents for the challenge — unprecedented in a country where insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a crime punishable by prison.
But Vahidnia has so far suffered no repercussions from the confrontation at a question-and-answer session between Khamenei and students at Tehran’s Sharif Technical University. In fact, Iran’s clerical leadership appears to be touting the incident as a sign of its tolerance — so much so that some Iranians at first believed the 20-minute exchange was staged by the government, though opposition commentators are now convinced Vahidnia was the real thing.
Details of the encounter were reported on the state news agency IRNA and in a pro-government newspaper, Keyhan, which reported it under the headline, "The revolutionary leader’s fatherly response to critical youth."
Some of those at the October 28 forum say Khamenei appeared taken aback by the questioning and left the meeting early.
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