Politics Iran: Elections: Mir Hossein Mousava breaks with regime to advocate "personal freedoms"

Thomas Erebrink reports in WaPo (Apr7,2k9)

TEHRAN, April 6 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's main opponent in the upcoming presidential election said Monday that he wanted to increase freedoms for Iranians, in part by curbing the so-called morality police who enforce strict interpretations of Islamic laws, such as those requiring women to cover their hair in public.

Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, speaking at his first news conference since announcing his candidacy for president in the June election, attacked Ahmadinejad's government over its handling of the economy, the "extremism" of the president's rhetoric and the strictures that have been imposed on daily life and public discourse.

In the intraMuslim political dispute, there's no one contesting the regime's foreign policy and nuclear adventurism, policies which are "largely controlled by the country's unelected supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a National Security Council that includes dozens of political leaders."

-- Politicarp