A Very Unpopular Populist (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)

Tehran,

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was born in the village of Arādān near Garmsar, the son of a blacksmith, his family moved to Tehran when he was one year old. He entered Iran University of Science & Technology (IUST) as an undergraduate student of civil engineering in 1976.

 

He continued his studies in the same university, entering the Master of Science program for civil engineering in 1986, the same time he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (see below), and finally received his Ph.D in traffic & transportation engineering and planning.

 

Sounds like the making for a well rounded, grounded and capable leader right? Think again!  Iran has purportedly just re'"elected in a landslide" this modern-day fascist, the latest member of my "Style Despots & Divas" list. Fair warning, this will not be a veiled report!

 

President Ahmadinejad and his family live in a little house in Narmak, Eastern Tehran. He has 3 children, 2 sons and 1 daughter. His daughter and 1 of sons are studying Engineering/Electronics, and the other son is high school student. His wife is a teacher and researcher.

 

 

His style, the bad suits, the cheap Windbreaker, the shoddy shoes, the unstylish haircut, his small ancestral home, and 1977 Peugeot 504, are all part of a style he proudly maintains well into his presidency, is a signal to the working class that he is still one of them. Many Iranians may aspire to wear European designers, and often do, but Abmadinejad, president of the republic, knows his clothes send a message directly to those neighborhoods he most counts on for support--neighborhoods where the Basij [or Revolutionary Guard recruits] are recruited, neighborhoods where there still are knife fights and the laats roam the streets if they’re not persuaded to join the Basij, and neighborhoods where you can still buy your suit, if you really need one, from the kot-shalvaiy.

 

As my other Style Despots, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fancies himself to be the ultimate dictator of personal style for "his" people, as such a clothing police roam the streets of city and village alike searching for and punishing any dress deemed inappropriate ... What's Acceptable?  as is so often the case under stylish male dictators, women bear and wear the brunt of these "leaders" despotic style.

 

Latest views

Marked as favourite