After Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad was elected president of Iran last June some western critics questioned his sanity and intelligence. Others dismissed him as a puppet of fundamentalist clergy.

But Iran is a land of surprises. Mr Ahmadi-Nejad came to power as a fundamentalist committed to restoring the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution, but his order this week for sports authorities to lift the ban on women watching top football matches has turned Iranian politics upside down and brought him into conflict with fundamentalist allies. It suggests the president is a more shrewd and ambitious politician than anyone had realised.