"Reformers" without bullet-proof cars! What next?!

Iran's Ahmadinejad opens fire at bullet-proof officials
AFP
Nov 17, 2005

Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned officials from buying foreign-made bullet-proof cars, warning that "aristocrats" have no place in regime institutions he is currently purging.

"We will not authorise the import of armoured cars, which cost between three and five billion rials (330,000 and 550,000 dollars) and are used by certain officials," he was quoted as saying in Thursday's papers.

"Aristocracy has no place in my government," said Ahmadinejad, who scored a shock election victory in June partly thanks to his austere lifestyle and vows to fight corruption.

A former member of the hardline Revolutionary Guards and mayor of Tehran, the president has embarked on a major purge of regime institutions seen as either corrupt or too moderate.

Ahmadinejad hit back at people attacking his purge, saying it was "only to be expected that an official who is the director of 15 companies and who earns 33,000 dollars a month criticises my government."