Letters To The President

Iran 2008 As President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads motorcade creeps through the teeming streets of Qom Shrine thousands of people jam handwritten letters into the hands of his handlers Hearing their President deliver a speech is a thrill but more promising to these men and women is the hope that their letters expressing pleas for loans medical attention housing and jobs will be answered Since his 2005 election on a populist man of the people platform Ahmadinejad has encouraged Iranians to send him such letters according to a staff member he has received about 10 million of them and has been able to respond to nearly 76 percent In one letter a 16yearold boy says his family has no money and goes to bed hungry every night According to the staff member the boy will be helped As other letters are read the worker says that In Islam charity is a necessity