Brumberg, in his book Reinventing Khomeini: The Struggle for
Reform in Iran, commented, “Such vacillating hardly fit the
image of the ‘True Believer’ that Khomeini’s disciples associated
with the Imam, leader of the Muslim community. How could the
‘Shadow of God’ admit that he had ‘made a mistake’?”^48
It mattered little, in terms of his popularity. Iranians still held
him in awe. From his vantage point as Iran’s guiding light,
Khomeini deferred hands-on problem solving to subordinates.
For the struggling new republic, this resulted in near calamity.
While there is wisdom in delegating authority, in this situation it
posed a dilemma of strangling proportions. Since his underlings
did not always agree among themselves as to specific steps to take,
the effectiveness of the new government was seriously impaired.
Policies turned especially murky when faced with the realities
of the economy. Radical leaders brought industries, banks, and
insurance firms under the control of the state. However, many
within the new government argued that a measure of free enter-
prise would be necessary in order for the system to work. Their
disagreement went unresolved. When Khomeini died in 1989,
confusion remained in the regime’s economic strategies.
He was an unquestioned hero to the underprivileged,
nonetheless. Historian Nikki R. Keddie, in his book Roots of
Revolutionpublished shortly after Khomeini came to power,
observed that the ayatollah “continually associates himself with
the needs of the poor or ‘dispossessed’ and has taken steps to
implement this identification, which adds to his popularity.”^49
That popularity remained hardly diminished at his death,
judging from the millions of distraught Iranians who would
throng to Tehran for his funeral.
Journalist and author Mohamed Heikal, in his 1981 work Iran:
The Untold Story, provided a quaint glimpse of the home life of
Iran’s new leader:It is still Khadijah [Khomeini’s wife] who cooks the Ayatollah’s
food for him. His routine is regular and his menu simple. He
wakes at about 5 a.m. for the dawn prayer, then goes back to70 AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI
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