Hardliners turn on Ahmadinejad for watching women dancers

[meegbear]

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who flaunts his ideological fervour, has been accused of undermining Iran's Islamic revolution after television footage appeared to show him watching a female song and dance show.

The famously austere Mr Ahmadinejad has been criticised by his own allies after attending the lavish opening ceremony of the Asian games in Qatar, a sporting competition involving 13,000 athletes from 39 countries. The ceremony featured Indian and Egyptian dancers and female vocalists. Many were not wearing veils.

Women are forbidden to sing and dance before a male audience under Iran's Islamic legal code. Officials are expected to excuse themselves from such engagements when abroad but TV pictures showed Mr Ahmadinejad sitting with President Bashar Assad of Syria and Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, during last Friday's ceremony in Doha.

Religious fundamentalists, usually Mr Ahmadinejad's keenest supporters, are asking why he attended a ceremony that violated his own government's strict interpretation of Shia Islam.

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1964075,00.html

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Many were not wearing veils!?1!! You naughty naughty boy you.

[shain from kane]

1. You can't fault someone for being curious.

[Target_For_Exterm]

2. If you're a Mullah you can (and do)

[Dhampir Kampf]

3. It shows how different our cultures are.

To think that our society could ever flourish in the Middle East, is insane.

It just can't with their own version of the religious right controlling the country.

At least here, the religious right doesn't run the Government out right; it may have influence, but we aren't run by them.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Does it?

Seems to me every know and then some US politician gets in hot water because he went to see a performance of women dancing without any shirts on.

[Dhampir Kampf]

5. To compare...

A woman without a veil, to a woman without a shirt, is absurd.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. So says the American.

[Cleita]

9. I don't seen any difference in this and the brouhaha the right

wing fundamentalist Christians had over Clinton and Monica.

"How do I tell the children what a blow job is? Boohoohoohoo!"

Such a big deal over nothing that probably helped Gore lose the election and gave us six years of death and devastation at the hands of Bush.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Whackadoodles

All of them, no matter what country they're in or what religion they belong to. Religious nuttery is the greatest current danger to civilization.

[AngryAmish]

8. This is very interesting

Ahmadinejad got the job because he was popular with the ruling clerics (who hold the real power in Iran - or so they thought). Ahmadinejad may be becoming more popular and they want to take him down a few pegs -- see they are already cutting his term by a year.

Interesting time in Iran. The Ayatollahs are not popular so a strong nationalistic leader (who also is wildly antisemitic like the rest of the country) who stands up for Iranian pride may overthrow the theocracy. Hmmmm....