Ahmadinejad should open a nightclub, Iranian lawmaker says By the CNN Wire Staff updated 2:19 PM EDT, Mon May 21, 2012 STORY HIGHLIGHTS In parliament, hard-line lawmaker says Iranian president's stand on dress code is too lax Ahmadinejad critic says such laxity is to blame for women wearing provocative clothing Code requires women to cover their hair and bodies But many push the envelope with tight clothes and head scarves that barely cover hair (CNN) -- A hard-line Iranian lawmaker has mockingly suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad open up a nightclub, according to Iran's Fars News Agency. Lawmaker Ali Motaheri took the sarcastic poke at Ahmadinejad during a speech to parliament where he said the president's soft stance on Iran's Islamic dress code was ... Continue reading →

Vahid Salemi/Associated Press Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Iran's top choice to replace Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as next Shiite leader, left, with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran in 2005. NAJAF, Iraq — As the top spiritual leader in the Shiite Muslim world, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has instructed his followers on what to eat and how to wash, how to marry and to bury their dead. As a temporal guide, he has championed Iraqi democracy, insisting on direct elections from the earliest days of the occupation, and warned against Iranian-style clerical rule. Frail at 81, he still greets visitors each morning at his home on a narrow and sooty side street here, only steps from the glimmering gold dome of the Imam Ali Shrine. But ... Continue reading →

(CNN) -- An Iranian rapper is facing death threats and has a $100,000 bounty on his head for a song that some say insults an Islamic Shiite imam. Shahin Najafi, who sings in Farsi and lives in Germany, told the German website Qantara that the song "Naghi" is not about a religious figure but about the state of society in Iran. "The story with 'Naghi' was just a pretext," Najafi said in an interview with Qantara, which the German Foreign Office funds to promote dialogue with the Islamic world. "For me it is more of an excuse to talk about completely different things. I criticize Iranian society in the song. It seems as though people are just concentrating on the word 'imam,' " Najafi is ... Continue reading →

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