Mahmoud Vahidnia

Who is Mahmoud Vahidnia?

Mahmoud Vahidnia is an Iranian student. He is a second year student in the Department of Mathematics at Sharif University of Technology.

Vahidnia got significant media attention for his face to face criticism of Iran's supreme leader on October 28, 2009 during a meeting between Ali Khamenei and students. During this meeting, Khamenei was challenged by Vahidnia in what was called "an unusual encounter". The event was being broadcast by Iranian state-run TV. That made the authorities stop airing the programme.

On October 28, 2009, during the annual meeting of Tehran intellectual elites with the Supreme Leader, in Tehran University, Vahidinia spoke for 20 minutes without interruptions, critiquing the status of ignorant idol in a golden cage of the Supreme ayatollah Khamenei. Some time before, Khamenei had announced that « Contestation of the 12 June vote is the worse crime possible ». The Iranian state-run TV stopped the broadcasting, but the audience's cellphones managed to record the full speech. Mahmoud asked : « I want to ask you something: why does nobody in this country dare to criticize you? Do you think that you never make mistakes? Isn't this ignorance? You have been changed into a kind of inaccessible idol that nobody can criticize. I don't understand why everybody is forbidden to criticize your choices. ».