No offense to anyone, but Iran’s shamelessly showboating president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is among the homeliest men I have ever seen–sort of the Middle East’s version of the comic book character “Sad Sack.”
But that might be my western bias showing. As we all know, notions of physical beauty are hardly universal, prompting the question to those in the know: Is Iran’s Pres. Ahmadinejad considered homely by Middle Eastern standards, or is the Persian equivalent of the “Tom Selleck of Tehran”?
I think I’m semi-qualified, as I am a honky who has lived in Beirut for 6 years. The Middle East is full of men and women who would be considered conventionally beautiful, by Western standards, and by comparison, Ahmadinejad doesn’t come off so well. I think Lebanese standards of beauty, especially for females, is similar to Western standards.
I must be weird, I think he’s quite physically attractive, especially when he’s smiling. He’s got a big nose, but I dig that.
http://www.webislam.com/imagenes/articulos/Mahmoud%20Ahmadinejad%20j.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/06/26/wiran26.jpg
http://www.thewhitepapers.com/mahmoud%20ahmadinejad.jpg
Looks like an avergae looking dude to me.
I don’t think he’s unattractive at all. Nice smile, pretty eyes. His nose is bigger then I’m used to, but not horrendous by any means. I like his wrinkles - they’re the smile shaped wrinkles, not the scowley ones.
USA, whitebread born and bred.
I don’t think he’s homely at all, I’d consider him average to pleasant in appearance. I agree that he has a very nice smile.
Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe these don’t show his best features…
http://iran.worldcupblog.org/upload/ahmadinejad_2.jpg
http://partisantimes.typepad.com/partisan_times/images/ahmadinejad.jpg
http://bestoftheblogs.com/uploaded_images/Ahmadinejad-717037.jpg
I also find him rather good looking, though I don’t love his clothing choices.
Just for a little reality-checking, if Ahmadinejad is so good looking, per so many posters, how would you rate this guy?
http://www.filmkultura.hu/2002/orokmozgo/images/evf020731/evfordulo02.jpg
agree Jesus Christ, put on a tie.
I happen to have excellent taste in men, and I think he’s hot.
He reminds me of Lewis Grizzard, personally.
Not my type at all. Too pale, too washed out, too blond and too blah. I can understand why he’s considered handsome, but I’m just not into him.
Give me a swarthy manly-man.
Or that twinkling eye and great smile.
I like men that look like they have a little mileage on them. Plus, I rarely like blondes. But, of course, every rule was made to be broken!
If I may ask, what’s your curiosity here? Why does it matter to you whether people think Ahmadinejad is cute or not? I mean, everyone’s idea of attractive is highly individual. I, for one, never understood all the women swooning over John Edwards during the last Presidential campaign myself. I didn’t find him attractive personally, but I could acknowledge that other people did. Perhaps I prefer dark and swarthy over blondish all-American, so what?
Straight American-born, Indian-background male checking in – Ahmadenijad is, in my view, average-to-reasonably-good looking although he occasionally flashes a very goofy grin – certainly not homely. Robert Redford is a damn handsome man – several categories higher than the Iranian president. George W. Bush is somewhere between the two.
Redford has for decades been tossed around as the Definitively Handsome American Male, so he’s a good reference point with Americans. Here’s a couple of unflattering photos of GW Bush:
http://www.texaschapbookpress.com/magellanslog4/bushneuman.jpg
http://blog.nrwspd.de/archives/img/bush_whatmeworry_blog.jpg
**lisacurl[/b[ “swarthy” is a decidedly un-PC term, I hear. Nowhere in this thread have I objected to anyone finding Ahmadenijad handsome, and stated my position clearly in the OP. If he makes your knees buckle, goody for you!
It must have been the joke photo of him that you posted that made me think you had some sort of agenda.
I had not realized that swarthy had untoward connotations. I will look into this.
Maybe I’m being whooshed, but you realize that wearing a tie would be a problem for him politically. Many Muslims view a necktie as a symbol of Western degeneracy and not-a-real-man-ness.
I’m pleased that we’re able to have this conversation. In 2001 someone started a thread rhapsodizing about how handsome Osama Bin Ladin is and it didn’t turn out well.
If we leave out all politics, I think Ahmadinejad is nice looking, Hamid Karzai is a little bit more so, OBL is alright looking but nothing special. Zawahiri, though, is very unattractive.
I though Odai Hussein was very nice looking, and I knew perfectly well that he was a horrible man who was bad from head to foot. Qusai, though, was nothing to look at.
Bush is pleasant looking. Sometimes he looks real nice, and other times he looks like one kind of animal or other, which is probably true of most people.
Redford used to be smoking hot, but now he just looks old.
As far as getting the Middle Eastern point of view, I don’t think we have enough posters from the Middle East here to get a representative sample.
I don’t follow the reasoning of Ahmadinejad’s not wearing a tie. He wears western clothing, and workman’s clothing, to boot. If he wanted to make points for dressing eastern, he would not wear the clothes he wears. Is that a Member’s Only jacket?
Many Muslims disapprove of neckties, specifically. They don’t disapprove of the other articles of clothing. It’s as simple as that.
