Iran's Energy Crisis.

Ahmadi-Nejad is also blamed for the worst energy crisis Iran is now facing. In one of the coldest winters Iranians is experiencing in recent memory, the government is failing to provide natural gas to tens of thousands of people across the country, leaving some for days or even weeks with no heat. In Tehran, rolling blackouts every night for a month have left people without electricity and heat for hours at a time.

The heating crisis in this oil-exporting nation is adding to Iranians' increasing awareness of the contrast between their growing influence abroad and its frailty at home. From fundamentalists to reformists, people are talking more loudly about the need for a more pragmatic approach, one which tones down the anti-Western rhetoric and focuses more on improving management of the country and restoring Iran's economic health.

The mounting domestic challenges, the most serious of which is a grinding period of stagflation, with inflation growing and the economy weakening, have deepened tensions between Ahmadi-Nejad and the religious establishment he ultimately answers to. And they have helped spur a collective rethinking of his stewardship as Iran prepares to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution this month.

There are clear signs, however, that the government is not interested in hearing other voices and is geared instead towards maintaining power by silencing its critics. Apart from having disqualified about 70% of all reform candidates for the parliamentary elections, the government recently shut down Iran's most important feminist magazine, which had been published for 16 years. The authorities arrested 10 students after a protest at Tehran University over poor conditions in their dormitory. In the icy winter, women have been arrested for not wearing proper Islamic clothing. Hats over head scarves and boots over pants can bring trouble.

Morad Saghafi, a philosopher and writer in Tehran, says of the government: "Their harsh reaction to everything shows they feel very vulnerable". In recent weeks, even Khamenei changed his tone regarding the president, offering rare public criticism while reasserting his own standing as the steward of Iran's foreign and nuclear policies". Before warning critics not to go overboard, Khamenei said: "The present government, similar to any other government, has certain shortcomings which should be mentioned sympathetically".

Sa'id Laylaz, an economist who was briefly a deputy minister in the former reform government, says: "The supreme leader realises this economy, this country, does not work anymore. He is trying to reconstruct it from within". An un-named adviser to Khamenei was recently quoted by the local press as saying "there is a consensus" on the need for better management.

Ahmadi-Nejad backers, however, say the president does not have to alter his course as long as the mood for change stops with the elite and that the troubles so far have not undermined his support among the pious poor. He continues to be popular, they say, seen as a man of principle and good intention, though that may be wearing thin.

South of Tehran near the Imam Khomeini International Airport, in a neighbourhood called Robat Karim, people have been without gas for days and continue to suffer cuts in power at midday and at night. Robat Karim is a conservative are, wary of foreigners and supportive of the president. But with streets which have not been cleared of snow, and the cold nights, nerves have frayed.

Iran's natural gas shortage became a crisis when Turkmenistan, to the north, cut off supplies in December over a pricing dispute. As a result, Iran stopped pumping gas to Turkey, compelling Ankara to ask for additional supplies from Russia.

Ahmadi-Nejad comes from a generation which fought in the eight-year war with Iraq, and which has since moved to roll back Iran to a time when revolutionary ideology defined the state. Kaveh Bayat, a historian, says the desire to export the revolution has returned, adding: "The idea that you have to export the revolution or you will cease to exist is another deeply ingrained element - it was dormant during [the presidential terms of] Rafsanjani and Khatami, but it is awake again. We tried to forget it, but it is back".

Iran remains a country defined by individuals, not institutions. Nearly everyone seems to recognise that one of the biggest problems is the nature of the political system - divided as it is among multiple factions, each striving for access to power. It is not one devised to build compromise, and the internal fighting can send confused messages to the outside world.

There are two main view in Iran about where this is leading. One is that Ahmadi-Nejad and the supremacist camp he represents needed to come to power to see that ideology cannot be a successful guide to running a modern state like Iran. The economic hardships, according to this view, will ultimately moderate or marginalise them. The other view is that Ahmadi-ejad and his ideologically driven allies will not give up power and will not be driven from power. The historian Bayat says: "We have a social structure in place for the emergence of fascism. Like Europe in the 1920s, we have a dissatisfied proletariat looking for radical and extreme solutions".