Grand
Âyatollâh (
Persian: آیتالله سید علی حسینی خامنهای ''Āyatollāh Seyyed `Alī Ḥoseynī Khāmene'ī'') (born
17 July 1939), also known as 'Seyyed Ali Khamene'i',
[http://www.leader.ir/langs/EN/index.php?p=bio] is the current
Supreme Leader of
Iran and was the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989.
Early Life
Born to an
Iranian Azeri[1] family in
Mashhad,
[2] Ali Khamenei began religious studies before completing elementary education.
He is second eldest of eight children. Two of his brothers are also clerics. His younger brother,
Hadi Khamenei, is a notable newspaper editor and cleric.
[3]
He attended the seminary classes of ''"Sat'h"'' and ''"Kharej"'' in the ''
hawza'' of Mashhad, under his mentors such as Haj Sheikh Hashem Qazvini, and Ayatollah Milani, and then went to
Najaf in 1957.
[http://www.iranchamber.com/history/akhamenei/ali_khamenei.php] After a short stay he left Najaf to Mashhad, and in 1958 he settled in
Qom. Khamenei attended the classes of
Ayatollahs
Husain Borujerdi and
Ruhollah Khomeini. Later, he was involved in the Islamic activities of 1963 which led to his arrest in the city of
Birjand, in Southern Khorasan Province. After a short period he was released and continued his life by teaching in religious schools of Mashhad and holding Nahaj-ul-Balagheh lesson sessions in different mosques.
Ali Khamenei was not a ''
marja'' when he was elected the
Supreme Leader of Iran.
[4] Since the
Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran required the Supreme Leader to be a ''marja'', a new amendment to the constitution to allow a cleric of his then-status to be elected as the Supreme Leader was required. Since this had not been put to a referendum yet, the
Assembly of Experts internally titled him a temporary office holder until the new constitution became effective. The choice of Khamenei, who was soon after addressed as
Ayatollah but whose ''marja'iyat'' was not recognized at the time, is said to be a political one.
[http://www.iranian.com/Opinion/Jan98/Behrooz/] In 1994, after the death of Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Ali Araki, the
Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom declared Khamenei a new ''marja''. However, four of the Iran's dissident Grand Ayatollahs declined to recognize Khamenei as a ''marja''.
[ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/khamenei.htm] Nevertheless, a cleric only needs acceptance of a few Grand Ayatollahs, to be recognized as ''marja''.
[5] Khamenei refused the offer of ''marja'iyat'' for Iran, as he explained, due to other heavy responsibilities, but agreeing to be the ''marja'' for the Shi'as outside of Iran. His acceptance of ''marja'iyat'' for Shi'as outside Iran does not have traditional precedence in Shi'ism. ''Marja'iyat'' can be, and in modern times it increasingly is, transitional.
Theoretically, the Islamic republic system (vilayat-i faqih, leadership of the supreme jurisprudent) is said to be legitimate when a Grand Ayatollah who is recognized as a ''marja'' serves as the faqih (jurisprudent). Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Shirazi, who was under house-arrest at the time for his opposition to Grand Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, did not accept Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a ''marja''. According to "Human Rights in Iran" (2001) by
Pace University's Reza Afshari, Shirazi was "indignant" over recognition of Khamenei as the Supreme Leader and a ''marja''. Shirazi (who died in late 2001) apparently favored a committee of Grand Ayatollahs to lead the country. Other ''marjas'' who questioned the legitimacy of Khamenei's ''marja'yat'' were dissident clerics:
Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, Grand Ayatollah
Hassan Tabatabai-Qomi and Grand Ayatollah
Yasubedin Rastegari.
Political life and Presidency
Khamenei was a key figure in the
Islamic revolution in Iran and a close confidant of
Ayatollah Khomeini. Khomeini appointed Khamenei to the post of Tehran's Friday Prayer Leader in the autumn of 1979, after the resignation of
Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri from the post. Also he went to battlefield as a representative of defense commission of the parliament. In June
1981, Khamenei narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb, concealed in a tape recorder at a
press conference, exploded beside him. He was permanently injured, but the event helped affirm his reputation as a "living
martyr" among his followers.
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|
| Ali Khamenei | 16,003,242 | '95.02%' |
| Ali Akbar Parvaresh | 342,600 | '2.03%' |
| Hassan Ghafourifard | 78,559 | '0.47%' |
| Reza Zavare'i | 62,133 | '0.37%' |
| ''Blank or invalid votes'' | ''356,266'' | '2.12%' |
| Total | 16,841,800 |
|---|
In
1981, after the assassination of
Mohammad Ali Rajai, Ayatollah Khamenei was elected
President of Iran by a landslide vote in the
Iranian presidential election, October 1981 and became the first cleric to serve in the office. Ayatollah Khomeini had originally wanted to keep clerics out of the presidency, but this view was compromised. Many saw Khamenei's presidency as a sign that Islamic modernists were being isolated by the Supreme Leader and that the Islamic revolution was embracing more fully the concept of
Vilayat-e Faqih or Guardianship of the Jurists.
He was re-elected to a second term in
1985, capturing 85.66% of total votes.
[6] As a close ally of Khomeini, he rarely clashed with the
Supreme Leader during his term in office, unlike Iran's first president,
Abolhassan Banisadr.
Supreme Leader (Velāyat-e faqih)
Main articles: Supreme Leader of Iran
Seyyed Ali Khamene'i was preceded by
Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of
Islamic Revolution in
Iran. When Khomeini died, Khamenei was elected as the new Supreme Leader by the
Assembly of Experts on
June 4,
1989.
Initially, a council of three members, "
Ali Meshkini,
Mousavi Ardabili and Khamenei", was proposed for Leadership. After rejection of a Leadership Council by the assembly, and lack of votes for Grand Ayatollah
Mohammad Reza Golpaygani, Khamenei became the Supreme Leader by two third of the votes.
[7]
Electing an Islamic leader superior to all national and lawful organs is called
Velayat e Faqih, first stated by
Ayatollah Naraqi and expanded and revised by
Ayatollah Khomeini. In this kind of leadership every decision is lawful only after approval of the supreme leader (
Vali e Faqih, ولی فقیه in Persian). According to this theory, even democratic acts like national election of presidents (which happens every four years in Iran) are lawful only when the Supreme Leader signs his approval.
Domestic policy
Khamenei is widely regarded as the figurehead of the country's conservative establishment.
[8] He has been under the influence of
Navvab Safavi and
Ruhollah Khomeini among aothers.
Ali Khamenei has been supportive of science progress in Iran. He was among the first Islamic clerics to allow
stem cell research and
therapeutic cloning.
[9] In 2004, Ayatollah Khamenei said that the country's progress is dependent on investment in the field of science and technology. He also said that attaching a high status to scholars and scientists in society would help talents to flourish and science and technology to become domesticated, thus ensuring the country's progress and development.
[10]
In 2007, Khamenei requested that government officials speed up Iran's move towards economic privatization. Its last move towards such a goal was in 2004, when Article 44 of the constitution was overturned. Article 44 had decreed that Iran's core
infrastructure should remain state-run. Khamenei also suggested that ownership rights should be protected in courts set up by the Justice Ministry; the hope was that this new protection would give a measure of security to and encourage private investment.
[11]
Additionally, Khamenei has stated that he believes in the importance of nuclear technology for civilian purposes because "oil and gas reserves cannot last forever."
[12]
In 2000, Ali Khamenei sent a letter to Iranian parliament and vetoed revision of Iranian press law. He wrote: "The present press law has succeeded to a point to prevent this big plague. The (proposed) bill is not legitimate and in the interests of the system and the revolution."
[13] His use of "extra-legislative power" has been criticized widely by reformists and opposition groups. In reaction to the letter, some Parliament members voiced outrage and threatened to resign.
[14] Kayhan and Jomhuri-Eslami are two newspapers that are published under the management of Mr. Khamenei.
In late 1996, following a Fatwa by Ayatollah Khamenei stating that music education corrupts the minds of young children, many music schools were closed and music instruction to children under the age of 16 was banned by public establishments (although private instruction continued).
[15] Khamenei stated: "The promotion of music [both traditional and Western]in schools is contrary to the goals and teachings of Islam, regardless of age and level of study".
[16]
In July 2007, Ali Khamenei criticized Iranain women's rights activists and ''Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women'' (CEDAW): "In our country ... some activist women, and some men, have been trying to play with Islamic rules in order to match international conventions related to women," Khamenei said. "This is wrong."
[17] However he is positive on reinterpreting Islamic law in a way that it is more favorable for women - but not by following Western conventions.
[18] Khamenei made these comments two day after an Iranian women's right activist
Delaram Ali was sentenced to 34 months of jail and 10 lashes by Iran's judiciary.
[19] Iranian judiciary works under the responsibility of the supreme leader and is independent from the government.
Ali Khamenei claims that "Today,
homosexuality is a major problem in the western world. They [western nations] however ignore it. But the reality is that homosexuality has become a serious challenge, pain and unsolvable problem for the intellectuals in the west."
[20] Ali Khamanei, however did not mention any names of western intellectuals.
In 2007, Iranian police which acts under the control of Supreme leader, launched a "Public Security Plan": The police arrested dozens of "thugs" to increase public security. The arrested "thugs" are sometimes beaten on camera in front of neighborhood inhabitants, or forced to wear hanging watering cans used for lavatory ablutions around their necks.
[21] During the first three months of the campaign against women not adhering fully to the strict Islamic dress code, in Tehran alone 62,785 women were stopped by police, and of these 1,837 were arrested. In the first three months, police arrested in the capital more than 8,000 young "criminals" who have offended public morals.
Islamic Republic has not yet allowed a single
Sunni mosque to be build in
Tehran. Although President
Mohammad Khatami promised during election times to build a Sunni mosque in Tehran, he refused to do that after taking the office. After he won the elections, he was reminded of his promise but he said that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not agreed to the proposal.
[22]
Ali Khamenei and Iran's elections
In February
2004 Parliament elections, the
Council of Guardians, a council of twelve members, half of whom are appointed by Khamenei, disqualified thousands of candidates, including many of the reformist members of the parliament and all the candidates of the
Islamic Iran Participation Front party from running. It did not allow 80 members of the 6th Iranian parliament (including the deputy speaker) to run in the election. The conservatives won about 70% of the seats. The parliamentary election held on February 20, 2004 in Iran was a key turning point in that country's political evolution. The election marked the conclusive end of the campaign for political and social reform initiated by
Mohammad Khatami after he was elected president in a landslide vote in May 1997.
[23]
The
Council of Guardians did not let
Ebrahim Yazdi or
Hooshang Amirahmadi (among others) run in the 2005 presidential election.
Human rights
Khamenei has said that
human rights are a fundamental principle underlying Islamic teachings, including the rights to live, to be free, to benefit from justice and to welfare. He has criticised Western human rights advocates for hypocrisy by economically oppressing people in
Third World countries and supporting despots and dictators.
[24]
He usually states that the American administration has committed many crimes and is therefore not authorized to judge human rights in Iran.
[25]
In a visit with
Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, Khamenei praised Mesbah’s books and thoughts as being original, very useful, solid and correct. He also stated that the Islamic world needs these ideas today more than any time in the past.
[26] Mesbah Yazdi advocates a return to the values of the
1979 Iranian revolution and is a prominent opponent of the
Reformist movement in Iran.
Foreign policy
After the
September 11, 2001 attacks, he condemned the act and the attackers and called for a condemnation of terrorist activities all over the world, whether in the United States, Palestine, the Balkans, or elsewhere.
[27] Candlelight vigils in Iran for the victims of the 9/11 attacks were commonplace during the next several nights.
On
June 4,
2006, Khamenei said that Iran would disrupt energy shipments from the
Persian Gulf region should the country come under attack from the US, insisting that Tehran will not give up its right to produce nuclear fuel.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has strongly condemned the suicide terrorist attacks in
New York and
Washington in 2001. "Mass killings of human beings are catastrophic acts which are condemned" he said "wherever they may happen and whoever the perpetrators and the victims may be".
[28]
Israel-Palestine
In
2001 Khamenei famously remarked that "this cancerous tumor of a state [Israel] should be removed from the region." On the same occasion he proposed that "
Palestinian refugees should return and
Muslims,
Christians and
Jews could choose a
government for themselves, excluding
immigrant Jews."
[29]
In
2005 Khamenei responded to
President Ahmadinejad's alleged remark that
Israel should be "
wiped off the map" by saying that "the
Islamic Republic has never threatened and will never threaten any country."
[30]
Moreover Khamenei's main advisor in foreign policy,
Ali Akbar Velayati, refused to take part in Holocaust conference. In contrast to Ahmadinejad's remarks, Velayati said that Holocaust was a genocide and a historical reality.
[31]
Nuclear weapons
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a
fatwa saying the production, stockpiling and use of
nuclear weapons was forbidden under Islam. The fatwa was cited in an official statement by the Iranian government at an August 2005 meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in
Vienna.
[32]
Personal Life
Khamenei has four sons and 2 daughters,
Mojtaba,
Mostafa,
Massoud,
Maysam,
Boshra, and
Hoda. According to
Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel, he leads a modest household.
[33]
Government posts
Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei has held many government posts
★ 1979 - Founded the
Islamic Republic Party, along with like-minded clerics such as
Mohammad Beheshti,
Mohammad Javad Bahonar,
Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili, and
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
★ 1980 - Secretary of Defense.
★ 1980 - Supervisor of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guards.
★ 1980 - Leader of the Friday Congregational Prayer.
★ 1980 - The Tehran Representative in the
Consultative Assembly.
★ 1981 - Ayatollah Khomeini's Representative in the High Security Council.
★ 1982 - Elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran after assassination of
Muahmmad Ali Raja’i, and was re-elected to a second term in 1985.
★ 1982 - chairman of the High Council of Revolution Culture Affairs.
★ 1988 - President of the
Expediency Council.
★ 1989 - Chairman of the Constitution Revisal Committee.
★ 1989 - Ayatollah Khamenei became the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran by choice of the Council of Experts, after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.
Representatives
Ayatollah Khamenei has numerous representatives in different organizations (army, judiciary system, universities etc.) and cities. Here are his ''most notable'' representatives:
★
Abdolhossein Moezi (Representative in
London)
★
Hossein Shariatmadari (His representative at
Kayhan)
★
Ahmad Jannati (Head of
Guardian Council)
★
Ahmad Khatami (Tehran's
Friday prayer Imam)
★
Mohammad Yazdi (member of Guardian council and former head of
Judiciary system)
★
Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (head of Judiciary system)
★
Rahim Safavi (commander of
Revolutionary Guards)
★
Ali Larijani (former head of
IRIB, current member of
Supreme National Security Council)
★
Ahmad Reza Radan Tehran's police chief awho was in charge of 2007 moralization campaign
★
Gholamreza Rezvani appointed several times as a member of Guardian Council.
People charged for criticizing Ali Khamenei
According to Iranian law insulting the leader is a crime and is punishable. In practice, even a simple direct criticism of Ali Khamenei is not tolerated by the Islamic Republic Judiciary system and journalists and writers avoid criticizing the leader openly in publications inside the country. Here is a list of some writers, journalists and politicians who were charged for "insulting Ali Khamenei":
★
Ahmad Zeidabadi [34]
★
Abdollah Nouri [35]
★
Mojtaba Saminejad [36]
★ Arash Sigarchi
[37]
Books and articles
★
Human Rights in Islam thesis
See also
★
List of national leaders
★
List of Grand Ayatollahs
★
History of principle-ism in Iran
References
1. http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=53543
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HF08Ak02.html
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FI28Ak01.html
2. ''Eternal Iran'', Patrick Clawson, 2005, ISBN 1-4039-6276-6, p.5.
3. Robin Wright, ''The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran'', Alfred A. Knopf, 2000
4. [1]
5. http://www.m-narjes.org/maaref/ahkam/tafkik/ahkam8.htm
6. http://www.khatami-museum.ir/jomhoori.htm
7. [2] [3]
8. [4]
9. [5]
Science over ethics? Channel 4, 8 Mar 2006
10. [6]
11. [7]
[8]
[9]
12. [10]
Iran says will not halt uranium enrichment, Reuters 18 February 2007
13. [11]
14. [12]
15. [13]
16. [14]
17. Iran's supreme leader signals limited flexibility on women's rights
18. Iran Leader Signals Flexibility on Women
19. [15]
20. Official website of Iranian leader
21. [16]
22. [17]
23. [18]
24. Human Rights in Islam, ''Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting'', 1997-01-31, accessed on 2007-01-08
25. [19]
26. Khamenei visits Mesbah Yazdi (in Persian)
27. [20]
28. [21]
29. Iran leader urges destruction of 'cancerous' Israel Reuters
30. The US can learn from this example of mutual respect Abbas Edalat
31. [22]
32. Statement about a Fatwa Against the Production, Stockpiling and use of Nuclear Weapons
Iran MPs oblige government to revise IAEA cooperation, Reuters, 27 Dec 2006
33. [23]
34. [24]
35. [25]
36. [26]
37. [27]
External links
★
The e-office of the Supreme Leader of Iran
★
The official website of Ayatollah Khamenei
★
BBC News' profile on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
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