The Iranian Revolution ••• 375Sayyid Ruhollah Musaui Khomeini
A
yatollah Khomeini (1902-1989), leader of the 1979 Iranian revolution, was
born the youngest of six children in a small village, Khomein, in central
Iran. Khomeini received a religious education in the Shi'i tradition, which em¬
phasizes the historical wrongs done to the Shi'i community against a backdrop
of an ongoing struggle between good and evil. After elementary school, he
received a strictly religious education, much of it in Iran's holy city of Qom. In¬
telligent, disciplined, and hardworking, he was a recognized mujtahid (learned
interpreter of Muslim law) by the 1930s. Deferential to the country's clerical
leadership, Khomeini did not become politically active until the 1940s.
Khomeini's understanding of Islam underpinned his belief in the per¬
fectibility of man and his institutions and the enlightened leader's duty to push
the Muslim umma toward moral and social perfection. This belief brought him
into conflict with the corrupt and secular Pahlavi shahs, but he was also critical
of Iran's largely passive clerical establishment. During World War II, having
achieved seniority within the Shi'i hierarchy, he became more vocal in his op¬
position. He declared that "government can only be legitimate when it accepts
the rule of God and the rule of God means the implementation of the Shari'a."
Thus, when Muhammad Reza Shah implemented secular reforms in 1963 that
included women's suffrage and land redistribution, the disapproving mollahs
found in the Ayatollah (a title meaning "sign of God") Khomeini their militant
leader. When Khomeini refused to dampen his opposition, he was arrested and
exiled in 1964, eventually settling in Paris.
Not only did exile fail to extinguish Khomeini's opposition to the Pahlavi
regime, but it allowed him to direct the revolution from a safe haven, free of the
shah's dictatorial reach. In this effort he demonstrated a high degree of shrewd¬
ness and organizational ability. Never doubting that he would eventually pre¬
vail, Khomeini refined his notion of an Islamic state, at the core of which
would be a powerful Muslim guide or Vilayat i Faqih. Upon achieving power in
1979, he strove to put his idealistic theory into practice.
Inevitably, Khomeini found that he had to make compromises in his ideal
Islamic state and society, as evidenced in Iran's poor human rights record fol¬
lowing the establishment of the Islamic republic. Initially, Muslim rule took on
a vengeful form in Khomeini's Iran. On the other hand, he genuinely sought
the well-being of the Iranian masses, particularly the poor. Their economic
condition has improved since 1979.
Khomeini's hatred of the United States, which he called the "Great Satan,"
was an extension of his dislike of the shah's dictatorship. Muhammad Reza
Shah relied heavily on American support. The US not only heavily armed the
Pahlavi regime but helped organize some of the most repressive agencies of
the government, such as SAVAK, the notorious secret police.