Tehran, May 01: Iran's hardline President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad is coming under heavy fire at home -- and it's not
because of the worsening international standoff over the
Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
Last week the President revealed his seldom-seen softer
side by ordering an end to a decades-old ban on women entering
stadiums for major sporting events, including football
matches.
But this directive has not gone down well among religious
right-wingers eager to maintain the male-female segregation
ushered in by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Furthermore,
some members of Iran's left are also sceptical.
"It would have been better if you had avoided a hasty
announcement and consulted," fumed the hardline Jomhuri Eslami
newspaper, which usually praises Ahmadinejad as a champion of
revolutionary values.
Allowing the fairer sex into stadiums has "emboldened
those loose elements that cruise streets and parks of Tehran",
it said, evoking fears that Islamic Iran may experience some
kind of 'summer of love'.
Ahmadinejad announced a week ago that despite
reservations, "experience has proven that when women and
families are allowed into stadiums, ethics and chastity will
prevail".
But the hardline Kayhan newspaper was also working up
a sweat. It voiced astonishment that the austere President
could even think of letting women into such an "awfully
unethical and corrupt environment".
Bureau Report
