Profile of Iran's President Ahmadi-Nejad/ Financial Times/UK

[TexasLawyer]

Man of the people scores own goal with ayatollahs
By Gareth Smyth in Tehran

Published: April 27 2006 18:00 | Last updated: April 27 2006 18:00

Soon after Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad was elected president of Iran last June some western critics questioned his sanity and intelligence. Others dismissed him as a puppet of fundamentalist clergy.

But Iran is a land of surprises. Mr Ahmadi-Nejad came to power as a fundamentalist committed to restore the ideals of the 1979 islamic revolution, but his order this week for sports authorities to lift the ban on women attending top football matches has upturned Iranian politics bringing him into conflict with fundamentalist allies.

It suggests the president is a more shrewd and ambitious politician than anyone had realised.

The decision about football could be “ground-breaking, pivotal to the future of the hard-line political and religious camps,” said one Iranian analyst yesterday.

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http://news.ft.com/cms/s/363b72ca-d603-11da-8b3a-0000779e2340.html