The bravest man in Iran is a… mathlete

The bravest person in all of Iran may likely be a college-aged mathlete.

On Wednesday, October 28, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei held a press conference with some of the country’s elite students on national television. He held a question-and-answer session with an assembled group of pre-approved honors students. He asked the students if they had any questions they wanted to ask them.

One student raised his hand. Mahmoud Vahidnia (pictured) is a first-year mathematics major at prestigous Sharif University and the former winner of the International Math Olympics. Vahidnia’s question put him at significant personal risk. He replied, “Yes, I have some words with you.” For the next 20 minutes, Vahidnia criticized propaganda in newspapers regarding the election, political repression, official censorship and the inability of the people to criticize the government.

Vahidnia was reportedly taken into custody by security officials after the event. Vahidnia’s questions were sharp. Translated from the Iranian:

“Why can’t anyone criticize you in this country, isn’t that ignorant? Do you think that you make no mistakes? Why have they made an idol out of you that is so unreachable and that nobody can challenge? I have never read an article about your performance in any newspaper because you have shut down all the media that is against you in the country. Why does national TV show all the events untruthfully? For example all the events after the election. Why do you support them [national TV shows], when everyone knows they are lying? Since the president of national TV is directly selected by you, then you are responsible for all this.”

Television cameras shut off several minutes into Vahidnia’s critique. The section that was aired was captured by the BBC’s Iranian-language service, and is shown below.

Following the conclusion of Vahidnia’s 20 minute complaint, Khameini attempted damage control:

According to Khamenei’s website, the Iranian leader reacted by saying that he welcomes criticism and knows that there is a lot of it.

And Khamenei too is not always happy with state television programming. “Don’t assume that because I appoint the head of state television, they bring all their programs to me for approval,” the Iranian leader said.

According to Saneed Sohrabpour, dean of Sharif University, Vahidnia “had the Supreme Leader’s permission to speak out.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that Vahidnia is currently free and that talk of detention is unfounded.

Two thoughts:

1. For all the talk of Iran being a repressive, authoritarian country — which is true — the fact that television cameras did not cut immediately after Vahidnia started speaking is quite interesting.
2. Apparently, the Iranian word for “balls the size of grapefruits” is Vahidnia.