Guest Blogger Candice Carbonell

With all the on again off again drama going on between the United States and Iran, Guest Blogger Candice Carbonell thinks it's important for everyone to know a little somethin' somethin' about Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  So she sent us a little cheat sheet on his background (just enough to get by at a cocktail party):

Appointed mayor of Tehran, Iran in the spring of 2003, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took his first step into the political scene.  Once he was appointed mayor of the country’s capital, Ahmadinejad made abrupt changes, restricting many of the reforms that were previously made by moderates who had run Tehran before him.  The new mayor put religious emphasis back into the daily lives of people and re-established a separation of men and women in public facilities. 

In 2005, Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran by win of popular vote.  Although no money was spent on his campaign, he was backed by many powerful conservatives who used their networks in order to gain more supporters.

Ahmadinejad is a strong advocate of Iran’s nuclear program.  His adamancy on refusing to back down on Tehran’s decision to resume uranium conversion (ie., nuclear power) has scared many other nations, including the United States and Britain, and has gained threats from both countries if he decides not to back down, which has, so far, been the case. 

On the contrary, since being elected Ahmadinejad has loosened the prior restraints he had on his country’s citizens and granted small leniencies to moderates.  This includes lifting the Islamic dress code that Iranian women had to obey, and by allowing women to attend major sporting events for the first time since 1979.