Handshake Kills Iranian Presidential Campaign

U.S. presidential candidates can commit a variety of sins and still keep their campaigns going (see Bill Clinton, 1992), but in Iran, all it takes is a handshake to kill a campaign:

Iran's reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, has suffered a blow to his political standing by being pictured apparently shaking hands with women in breach of Islamic convention.

The image, taken during a visit to the Italian city of Udine in May, triggered outrage among fundamentalists after being posted on conservative websites and YouTube. It showed Mr Khatami being greeted by a small group of women, none of whom wore Islamic head-covering, and appearing to shake the hand of one.

Mr Khatami, a mid-ranking cleric, dismissed the photo as a fake and insisted he had not shaken hands with any of the women who had approached him after he made a speech.

However, allies say he has been deeply wounded by the criticism, which they say has been calculated to damage his image as the reformist standard-bearer. His sensitivity has prompted some commentators to question his appetite to head the reformists' attempt to make an electoral comeback in next year's parliamentary election. The former president has attempted to deflect the attacks by announcing that he will not stand in the 2009 presidential election, despite his popularity among liberal-minded voters.

"That was a message to the right wing, the government and the regime saying, please don't try to destroy me - I don't want to disturb you any more," said Saeed Leylaz, a pro-reformist analyst.

He's lucky they didn't chop his hand off in the public square. They're known for that kind of stuff over there.