From Iran: Women Veiling Badly

Taking time off from their “Facebook Espionage Division,” Iran is apparently going after an easier target:

Iran issues warning to 62,000 'badly veiled' women

Iranian police have issued warnings to 62,000 women who were "badly veiled" in the Shiite holy province of Qom as part of a clampdown on dress and behaviour, a newspaper said on Monday.

Around "62,000 women were warned for being badly veiled" in the province of Qom, Tehran Emrouz newspaper quoted provincial police chief Colonel Mehdi Khorasani as saying.

And who should happen to oppose the crackdown?

Iran is known particularly for summer-time crackdowns on improperly dressed women but the issue has sparked debate after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he "firmly" opposed the clampdown.

In a televised interview earlier this month, he said he was "firmly against such actions. It is impossible for such actions to be successful."

His remarks have drawn the wrath of fellow hardliners and several top clerics who have criticised him for opposing the police crackdown.

The thing is, granted that the hardliners were behind fixing the election for Ahmadinejad to win, that doesn't mean that those hardliners have to accept what he says. As long as Ahmadinejad tows the line, he has the backing he needs.

But it's not as if Ahmadinejad has a popular mandate to be president.

He needs to know what his place is.
Just as the people of Iran found out last summer.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Ahmadinejad.