Deft Demagoguery in Iran

TEHRAN -- The world may be focused on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declamations on the Holocaust and Iran's nuclear "rights," but as spring and its heat spread through this traffic-clogged city, the popular buzz is about the president's unlikely pronouncements on the rights of women. Having campaigned on a platform of restoring Islamic morality and won the endorsement of the country's most reactionary clerics, Ahmadinejad abruptly announced a couple of weeks ago that it was time to allow women to attend soccer matches. What's more, it would not be the business of his government to enforce dress restrictions. "Certain prejudices against women have nothing to do with Islam," the newly minted social liberal declared.

Mullahs were outraged: A couple issued fatwas that Ahmadinejad studiedly ignored. Liberals, closeted in their parlors since their exclusion from the political system, quietly gloated. After just nine months in office, they pointed out, the president had been forced to acknowledge Iran's dominant political reality: a population fed up with the strictures, corruption and economic failure of Islamic rule.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is allowing women to go to soccer matches like this one that pitted Iran against Taiwan in February. (By Hasan Sarbakhshian -- Associated Press) Father and Tiger » Eugene Robinson | In an age when "African American" and "father" are often paired with "absent," Earl Woods provided an inspiring counterexample. Kinsley: Constitutional Cafeteria Cole: How Not to Fight Terrorism Editorial: An Opportunity on Oil OPINIONS SECTION: Toles, Editorials