Iran President Ahmadinejad's raises eyebrows with behavior at Chavez funeral

Ahmadinejad flouted Shiite Islamic traditions while attending the state funeral in Caracas of the late President Hugo Chavez, a close ally of the Iranian president. At the globally televised services in Caracas on Friday, a visibly weeping Ahmadinejad  hugged Chavez’s grieving elderly mother, Elena Frias de Chavez. Iran’s Shiite clerics hold that it is forbidden for a man to touch  a female who is not a close relative, such as a wife, daughter or sister. Ahmadinejad also bowed before and kissed Chavez’s flag-draped coffin, which had a large crucifix as its backdrop. The images of a sobbing Ahmadinejad embracing Chavez’s mother were broadcast on satellite TV and were posted on various  social media sites in Iran. To outsiders, the  president’s behavior may seem like a normal  act  of compassion or protocol. But Ahmadinejad’s enemies are unlikely to view it that way. The images raised a lot of eyebrows here. The website of an  anti-Ahmadinejad politician prominently displayed photos of the president at the funeral. Several clerics reportedly assailed the president’s behavior. But many people interviewed at random near Tehran University seemed to back Ahmadinejad’s action, labeling it a rebuke  of the hard-line clerical establishment.