2018-09-24 Mon

Iran’s ultimate political and religious leader, Ruhollah Khomeini was born on 24 September 1902. He was an Iranian charismatic Shiite priest who led the revolution that overthrew the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979.

Ruhollah Khomeini was born in Khomeyn in central Iran. He became a religious scholar in the early 1920s and become an 'Ayatollah' (the sign of god), a term for a leading Shia scholar. In 1962 he was arrested by the Sha’s security service for his outspoken opposition to the administration of the Shah. His arrest elevated him to status of national hero.

In 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran in triumph after 15 years of exile. The shah and his family had fled the country two weeks before, and jubilant Iranian revolutionaries were eager to establish a fundamentalist Islamic government under Khomeini’s leadership.

Following the revolution, Khomeini became a supreme leader of a country. A position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death.

To honor him Iran Postal Department has issued many postal stamps illustrating the portrait of Khomeini.

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