Iran hypes student who slammed Prez

London, Nov. 6: A college math student has become an unlikely hero to many in Iran for daring to criticise the country’s most powerful man to his face.

Mr Mahmoud Vahidnia has received an outpouring of support from government opponents for the challenge — unprecedented in a country where insulting Supreme Leader Khamenei is a crime punishable by prison.

The young student has suffered no repercussions from the confrontation at a question-and-answer session between Supreme Leader Khamenei and students at Tehran’s Sharif Technical University.

Iran’s clerical leadership appears to be touting the incident as a sign of its tolerance. Details of the encounter were reported on the state news agency IRNA and in newspaper, Keyhan. Supreme Leader Kham-enei’s official website mentioned the incident.

The session began with a speech in which Supreme Leader Khamenei told the students the “biggest crime” was to question the results of the June 12 presidential election that returned Mr Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

After the speech, Mr Vahidnia raised his hand, then for 20 minutes criticised the Iranian leader over the crackdown on postelection protests.

Mr Vahidnia said, “I don’t know why in this country it’s not allowed to make any kind of criticism of you,” said the student.

“In the past three to five years that I have been reading newspapers, I have seen no criticism of you, not even by the Assembly of Experts, whose duty is to criticise and supervise the performance of the leader,” he said.

Supreme Leader Khame-nei countered, “We welcome criticism. We never said not to criticise us. ... There’s plenty of criticism that I receive.”