
Who Is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Ruthless Leader?
Tehran’s bitter winter had penetrated the dungeon and left the frail inmate shivering with cold. Houshang Asadi, a communist dissident, took pity on his cellmate and gave him his sweater. The man refused it at first before tearfully accepting the gift. “Houshang,” the man said, “when Islam will come to power, not a single tear will be shed.”
READ MORE: https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran/article/ayatollah-ali-khamenei-iran-supreme-leader-phd8p3z85
That memory of Ali Khamenei in 1975 as an idealist who suffered for his opposition to the Shah stayed with Asadi for decades to come. Years later, in 2003, Khamenei, now the undisputed dictator of Iran who threw young men and women into those same dungeons, repaid Asadi’s kindness by forcing him into exile.
“He changed from a man who fought for freedom into a dictator,” Asadi told an interviewer. “Now Mr Khamenei is more of a dictator than a shah.” If he met him again, he said, he would ask: “Who are you, Mr Khamenei?”
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READ MORE: https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran/article/ayatollah-ali-khamenei-iran-supreme-leader-phd8p3z85
That memory of Ali Khamenei in 1975 as an idealist who suffered for his opposition to the Shah stayed with Asadi for decades to come. Years later, in 2003, Khamenei, now the undisputed dictator of Iran who threw young men and women into those same dungeons, repaid Asadi’s kindness by forcing him into exile.
“He changed from a man who fought for freedom into a dictator,” Asadi told an interviewer. “Now Mr Khamenei is more of a dictator than a shah.” If he met him again, he said, he would ask: “Who are you, Mr Khamenei?”
Read the best of our journalism: https://www.thetimes.com/
Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=timesonlinevideo
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timesandsundaytimes/
Find us on X: https://x.com/thetimes
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimes/
#iran #israel #tehran #ayatollahkhamenei