…What followed was an extraordinarily candid 20-minute speech by the student, later identified as national math Olympiad winner Mahmoud Vahidnia, in which he publicly and explicitly criticized Khamenei for the government’s conduct in the unrest that followed Iran’s June 12 elections.

Vahidnia, a first-year student of mathematics at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University, spoke without notes.  He criticized the violence against protesters during the election. He said Khamenei lived in a bubble, unaware of the sentiments against his rule. He critiqued what he described as Iran’s “cycle of power” in which entrenched elites in institutions such as the Guardian Council and Assembly of Experts exert what he described as a stranglehold over the nation’s political life.

…He said he had never seen anyone publicly criticize Khamenei in the media.

“I think if they let criticism against you get published, then simple problems are not overplayed and will not lead to schism and division and hatred,” he said, according to reformist websites which recounted the exchange, but also Khamenei’s own website (in Farsi).

“When a simple criticism cannot find an environment to be expressed, then gradually it gets tainted with ill intentions,” he said.

Sporadic applause punctuated his speech. A live broadcast of the event on television was shut down.