The kiss that brought immorality debate to a head

Scores of Iranian women have been arrested over the past few weeks for improper dress, known as "bad hijab", and even the country's President has found himself on the wrong end of the conservatives' wrath.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came under fire from his own support base of hardline traditionalists after he was photographed publicly kissing the hand of his first grade teacher.

Some hardliners were infuriated by the gesture even though the woman was wearing a headscarf, a thick black coat and gloves to cover her hands.

One newspaper accused the President of "indecency", arguing that the act of kissing his teacher's hand was contrary to sharia law which theoretically forbids a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related.

"This type of indecency progressively has grave consequences, like violating religious and sacred values," seethed the hardline daily Hizbollah on its front page.

"The Muslim Iranian people have no recollection of such acts contrary to sharia law during Islamic rule."

Mr Ahmadinejad's faux pas occurred during a ceremony on Tuesday to mark National Teachers Day. According to reports from Iran's official news agencies, the President was "surprised" to discover that one of the delegates at the ceremony was none other than Najmeh Gholi Pour, Mr Ahmadinejad's first-grade teacher.

Mrs Gholi Pour, who was wearing a long coat and a headscarf, then climbed on to the stage with the help of a walking stick to receive a gift from the President, who stooped to kiss her gloved hands before embracing her with both arms.

It is unlikely that Mr Ahmadinejad calculated that kissing his teacher's hand would cause such an uproar in the conservative press particularly as Mrs Gholi Pour was also wearing gloves.

Criticism of the President from newspapers such as Hizbollah (which has no link to the Lebanese Hizbollah) is surprising because most of Mr Ahmadinejad's political support comes from the more conservative and orthodox sections of society.

Meanwhile in many of Iran's major cities, police and members of the basij revolutionary militia have begun targeting women's dress with renewed vigour.

The annual crackdown on improper dress, which usually coincides with the beginning of summer, has been greeted with alarm by some who say far more people have been targeted this year than usual. Some reports have even suggested that men wearing ties or too much hair gel have been stopped by police.

Commentators critical of Mr Ahmadinejad suggest that the crackdown is part of an initiative by the President to win back support from the conservative sections of society where his popularity has been rapidly falling because of his failure to bring about much-needed economic reforms.

"Ahmadinejad is losing his popularity and he's trying to keep a number of different groups happy," says one dissident commentator. "By introducing a particularly intense crackdown this year on hijab he's hoping to win back support from the hardline conservatives. The kiss was an attempt to win over teachers who are becoming increasingly critical of him. He's getting a bit desperate."

Iran's blogging community, one of the few places where Iranians can publicly criticise the government, has been particularly vocal in condemning the latest crackdown.

"I wear hijab because of force and that force has been even more visible the past week," wrote one blogger. "Force will never allow me to make a religious choice of my own free will. It's a ridiculous notion."