7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7
military officers urged her to resign, but she stubbornly
refused. The economic and political situation continued
to worsen, and on March 24, 1976, she was seized by air
force officers and held under house arrest for five years. In
1981 she was convicted of corrupt practices, but she was
paroled in the summer of that year and went into exile in
Spain. Pardoned in late 1983, she submitted her resigna-
tion as head of the Partido Justicialista, the Peronist party,
from her home in Madrid in 1985. In 2007 an Argentine
judge issued a warrant for her arrest on charges of allowing
the armed forces to commit human rights abuses during
her presidency.
Ruhollah Khomeini
(b. Sept. 24, 1902?, Khomeyn, Iran—d. June 3, 1989, Tehrān)
R
uhollah Khomeini was one of the most influential
figures in Iranian history, the Iranian Shī‘ite cleric
who led the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza
Shah Pahlavi in 1979, and Iran’s ultimate political and reli-
gious authority for the next 10 years.
Little is known of Khomeini’s early life. There are
various dates given for his birth, the most common being
May 17, 1900, and Sept. 24, 1902. Originally named
Ruhollah Musawi, he was the grandson and son of mul-
lahs, or Shī‘ite religious leaders. When he was five months
old, his father was killed on the orders of a local landlord.
The young Khomeini was raised by his mother and aunt
and then by his older brother. He was educated in various
Islamic schools, and he settled in the city of Qom about
- About 1930 he adopted the name of his home town,
Khomayn (also spelled Khomeyn or Khomen), as his sur-
name. As a Shī‘ite scholar and teacher, Khomeini
produced numerous writings on Islamic philosophy, law,
and ethics. But it was his outspoken opposition to Iran’s
