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People from all over Iran crowd around the mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini. An old man from the north of the country tells me that in the elections he will do as the former supreme leader would have wished: “Imam Khomeini, hallowed be his name, told us to vote for those who help the oppressed people, because these oppressed people are the backbone of our society, we must elect those who do not want to be dependent on the West or the East”. The old man travelled here for free, like thousands and thousands of other people, because the Iranian Taxi Administration Organisation provided 500 taxis, buses and minibuses to transport people from all over Iran to the mausoleum dedicated to Ayatollah Khomeini.
Iranians flock here in large numbers throughout the year, not just on the Ayatollah’s commemoration or birthday, as his tomb is a place of pilgrimage, since Khomeini is considered an imam, a saint, on the same bloodline as the 7th of the 12 imams, the descendants of the Prophet Mohammad, according to Shiite belief. Shiites, not just Iranians, call Khomeini Imam, mainly because they believe he fits a description made in a 799 prophecy by Imam Musa al-Jafar – “A man will come from Qom who will call the people to the right path, and they will gather around him like pieces of iron, impossible for the wind to follow, united by the power of God”.
It’s summer, it’s terribly hot, the air seems still, there’s no gust of wind. At the edge of the crowd gathered around the tomb are machines that sprinkle water to cool the mass of people huddled under the burning sun. Not infrequently, women faint with excitement or heat exhaustion under the black chad that covers them from head to toe. After the midday prayer, people sit wherever they can and unpack their food. From place to place, rice sizzles in pots on portable cooking machines. Large carpets are spread out under the trees, where the whole family gathers for a meal. From place to place there are mobile stalls selling tea.
For several days now, TV stations have been showing, amid the election ads, documentaries about the life of Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1989 announcement of the supreme leader’s death. Ayatollah Khomeini’s ideas are also more present in the election campaign. Every time Khomeini is commemorated, photo exhibitions, concerts, religious gatherings and conferences are held throughout Iran and abroad.
Khomeini became the most powerful Shia religious leader of the time, at a time when the Iranian clerical class had been marginalised and increasingly deprived of political influence under the secular wave unleashed by Shaikh Reza Pahlavi. In addition, the Pahlavi regime was proving increasingly tyrannical and was overusing the services of the Savak secret police, notorious for its cruel methods of torture. Khomeini thus found the perfect arena to get involved in politics. His attacks in public speeches and at Friday services quickly made him enemy number one of the Pahlavi regime and earned him long spells in Shah’s prisons.
Although those close to the monarch consistently called for Khomeini’s execution, Reza Pahlavi refused, convinced that it would turn Khomeini into a martyr, so he chose to send him into exile. Khomeini took refuge first in Iraq, then in Turkey and France. His exile lasted a total of 14 years, during which time his popularity soared, not only in Iran. Audio cassettes of his speeches about the Islamic purification of Iran and the overthrow of the corrupt and tyrannical monarchical regime were smuggled into all Iranian bazaars.
As early as 1978, the country was in chaos, with almost daily demonstrations in which the population demanded democracy, respect for religion and keeping oil revenues in the country. A year later, around Tehran airport, millions of people were eagerly awaiting Ayatollah Khomeini’s return from exile. On the plane full of foreign journalists bringing him back from France, asked how he felt, Khomeini replied, “Nothing”. A famous answer that even now creates fierce controversy and extensive analysis. Khomeini had already achieved the status of a living legend. The night he arrived in Iran, word spread like wildfire that his face had appeared on the moon.
The Iranian political scene was then home to all kinds of political parties, from the communist Tudeh Party and the mujahedin to pro-Western liberals. But it soon became clear who was going to rule with an iron fist. Khomeini was rapidly gaining more and more political supporters, and any opposition was simply eliminated. Even those close to the Ayatollah accused him of removing his opponents without batting an eyelid.
Khomeini calls for a referendum in 1979 that changes the monarchical regime to an Islamic republic and creates the unique institution of a supreme religious leader. Khomeini sees his dream fulfilled and consolidates it. Paradoxically, the Iraqi invasion of 1980, which triggered the eight-year war, only strengthened the new Iranian regime, even though Saddam Hussein enjoyed the support of most Western and Arab powers. The rationale was that the new Islamic republic was a threat, especially as Khomeini was promoting its export as a model of governance throughout the Islamic world.
Khomeini put into practice his theory that governance was to be the responsibility of those who knew Sharia – Islamic law – best, i.e. the mullahs and specialists in Islamic jurisprudence, on the principle that only theocracy could nullify corruption, injustice and deviations from ‘correct’ Islam. This is also the reason why Khomeini developed, for the first time in Islamic theology, the concept of velayat-e fariq, the supreme leader, a kind of guardian of all social and political affairs, the one who supervises every action internally or externally of the other authorities in Iran. At the same time, Iranians can now directly elect their president and parliament because Khomeini believed that ordinary people should have a say.
“The laws of society must strictly follow the law of God, the Shariah, which answers all human needs and provides instructions and rules for every area of life.”
Khomeini said. He was convinced that only theocracy could prevent corruption, oppression of the weak, injustice and deviations from Islam, but he also accepted a partial democracy, achieved through direct popular consultation.
The man who was to change history and the world forever was born on 24 September 1902 in the city of Khomein in Iran. His family is considered to be blood descendants of the Prophet Mohammed in the line of the 7th of the 12 Imams, according to the Shiite faith. The
Most of the men in the family were religiously educated and Khomeini’s father was a mullah – a Muslim cleric. As a child, Khomeini was orphaned and taken into the care of relatives. From an early age he studied religion at various madrassas – Islamic schools. In 1921, Khomeini moved to the holy city of Qom, one of the most important Shiite centres in the world. There he studied sharia – Islamic law, firq – Islamic law, as well as the then unusual study of Greek philosophy and developed a taste for poetry. At a time when Sufi mysticism was considered by many to be heresy, Khomeini is deepening it. As a professor at Qom, he teaches political philosophy, Islamic history and ethics.
Opinions about Khomeini differ widely, but the consensus is that he was extraordinarily charismatic. There are people who describe him as cold, very austere, even cruel, and others who say he was a warm and kind man. In an interview for Radio Romania, Abdulaziz Sacheddina, a professor of Islamic studies and former adviser to the US State Department, told me that Khomeni, whose student he was for a time, was gentle and polite, listened to what even the most ignorant student had to say, and was very modest, frugal and disdained greed and rich food. Sachedina told me that in his old age Khomeini had come to eat only one piece of cheese and bread a day.
Khomeini’s grandchildren are all involved in public life and, paradoxically, many are supporters of Western-style democracy. Indeed, one of them, Hussein Khomeini, is an opponent
of the idea of Islamic governance and has said that “Iran is a dictatorship of the clerics”. He is famous for his statement on Al Arabiya TV: “Iranians need freedom, and if they can only get it through American intervention, they will accept it! I, for one, as an Iranian would do so” – a statement that earned him house arrest in Qom.
A granddaughter of Khomeini is married to former liberal president Mohammad Khatami. Another of the ayatollah’s liberal nephews was barred from running for parliament because he was deemed “insufficiently committed to Khomeini’s ideas and the Islamic revolution”.
Author: Carmen Gavrilă
GSPI does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of GSPI, its staff, or its trustees.
