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Iranian student hero for talking back to ayatollah
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 people opposed to the government for his challenge – unprecedented in a country where insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is a crime punishable by prison.
But Mr Vahidnia has so far had no repercussions from the confrontation at a question-and-answer session between Mr Khamenei and students at Tehran's Sharif Technical University.
In fact, Iran's clerical leadership appears now to be touting the incident as a sign of its tolerance – so much so that some Iranians are questioning whether the 20-minute exchange was staged by the government, although opposition commentators are convinced Mr Vahidnia was the real thing.
Some of those at the meeting on October 28 say Mr Khamenei appeared taken aback by the questioning and left early.
The session began with a speech in which Mr Khamenei told the students the "biggest crime" was to question the results of the June 12 presidential election that returned hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Mr Khamenei himself declared Mr Ahmadinejad the victor despite claims of widespread fraud and mass protests.
After the speech, Mr Vahidnia raised his hand, then for 20 minutes criticised the Iranian leader over the fierce crackdown on post-election protests, in which the opposition says 69 people were killed and thousands arrested.
In brief excerpts broadcast on state TV, the thin, bespectacled student was shown standing behind a podium, gesturing at times for emphasis.
"I don't know why in this country it's not allowed to make any kind of criticism of you," said the student.
Mr Khamenei countered, "We welcome criticism. We never said not to criticise us ... there's plenty of criticism that I receive."
During the face-to-face exchange, Mr Vahidnia also raised allegations of abuse of imprisoned protesters.
He also criticised state-run Iranian television and radio for their depiction of the protests as the work of troublemakers. "Do you think radio and television have portrayed the recent events accurately?" he asked.
The supreme leader countered that he had his own criticisms of state media, including failure to give enough coverage to the government's achievements.
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