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Ahmadinejad under fire from hardliners
Publish Date: Thursday,17 June, 2010, at 12:50 PM Doha Time

AFP/Tehran
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came under fire from other hardliners 
yesterday for opposing a social crackdown targeting dress and behaviour, mainly 
of women. In a televised interview at the weekend, Ahmadinejad said that he was 
"strongly against such actions. It is impossible for such actions to be 
successful." 

A senior hardline cleric responded by accusing Ahmadinejad of undermining 
efforts to fight "corruption."  "The president in his interview did not 
appreciate the sacred wave which advocates veiling and chastity and he 
belittled it," Ahmed Khatami said in comments carried by the moderate Shargh 
newspaper yesterday. 

The head of parliament's clerical faction, Mohamed Taghi Rahbar, also 
interpreted Ahmadinejad's comments as a "green light to immodest dressing." 
"Those who voted for you were the fully veiled people. The badly veiled 
'greens' did not vote for you, so you'd better consider what pleases God is not 
pleasing a number of corrupt" people, Shargh quoted Rahbar as saying.  The 
Green Movement of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi won over Iran's urban 
youth by pledging more social freedom in last year's election. 

Iran's morality police have returned to the streets in recent weeks, 
confiscating cars whose male drivers are seen to be harassing women, local 
media have said, without clarifying what amounts to harassment.  The reports 
say the crackdown has become a major issue for Iran's predominantly young 
population, with police or hardline militiamen stopping cars with young men or 
women inside to question their relationship.  They say the Islamic dress code 
for women is also being more strictly enforced. 

But leading conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari noted Ahmadinejad's "interior 
ministry declared its preparedness for this initiative... and the president 
undermines his own work by such comments," Shargh reported.  "If the president 
insists on his stance, the parliament will s surely respond," warned Motahari, 
who is a vocal critic of Ahmadinejad

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