“People think [of Iran] as a theocracy, because he [Khamenei] wears the turban and the language of the state is the language of religion, but in reality, he was a wartime president that came out of war with the assumption that Iran is vulnerable and in need of security,” said Vali Nasr, Iranian affairs expert and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History. As a political activist, Khamenei was repeatedly arrested by the shah’s secret police (SAVAK) and sentenced to exile in the remote city of Iranshahr in southeastern Iran, but returned to take part in the 1978 protests that led to the end of the Pahlavi rule. In what was then considered the strongest challenge to Khamenei’s leadership, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets under what the media dubbed the Green Movement to contest the election results and express support for the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Author: Virginia Pietromarchi
Published at: 2026-02-28 22:20:41
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