Death Decree For Rushdie

Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for death of Salman Rushdie after he published a book called The Satanic Verses in which he allegedly mocks Quran. Khomeini's decree backfires, bringing much fame and fortune to the Bombay born English writer who met with president Clinton at the white house in 1993 and was honored by the Queen of England with knighthood in 2007. On the other hand Rushdie found lots of support from intellectuals all around the world although his book was a poorly written fiction according to many critiques. (Updated: Jan, 30, 2008)

Ayatollah Khomeini Died

Iranians mourned the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic revolution of Iran. He was buried at Behesht-Zahra cemetery and construction of a gigantic mausoleum began right after his death. A couple of years later his son Ahmad also died on March, 17, 1995. He represented an uncompromising face of the Islamic revolution. Khomeini was succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the new spiritual leader. The IRI constitution improvises a leader assigned by a special assembly of clerics as the head of the state making the republic resemble a monarchy, hence replacing democracy with theocracy. (Updated: Dec, 17, 2008)

New Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei

Ayatollah Khamenei was appointed as the new Supreme Leader after Ayatollah Khomeini suddenly died. Khamenei served twice as President, once after assassination of President Rejayi, he won elections in October 1981 with more than %95 of the 16 million votes cast, and he was elected again in November 1985. By two thirds of the votes, he was chosen as the new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts. The idea of Supreme Leader was developed by Ayatollah Khomeini as the highest political and religious authority; such divine power above public vote has turned Iran into a theocracy.
Born on July, 16, 1939 in Mashhad, he went to clerics school in Najaf in 1957. Very shortly after that, he continued his studies in Qom. Because of his anti-Shah activities, he was first arrested and sent to jail in 1964. He served 6 times in jail until his release in 1975, he was sent to the city of Iranshahr.
He took an active role during the 1979 revolution and was appointed as the Friday Imam and a member of the Revolutionary Council. He was the head of the Supreme Defense Council, when an assassination attempt seriously injured him in June, 1981. A bomb, concealed in a tape recorder at a press conference, exploded beside him. His right hand has been malfunctioning ever since.
Khamenei's new status as Supreme Leader started with controversies. He was not even an Ayatollah in 1989 which raised voices of discontent among some high ranking clerics. In 1994, he was declared Marja. However, some dissident grand ayatollahs have declined to recognize Khamenei as Marja. As a supporter of scientific progress, he was among the first clerics to authorize stem cell research cloning.
Khamenei has been the target of some international right groups for his policies limiting press freedom and supression of dissidents but he has proved to be following a milder and more logical path. (Updated: May, 17, 2009)

Hashemi Rafsanjani Elected President

5th presidential election: From a total of 79 nominees for the presidential race, 77 were disqualified leaving only two presidential candidates. Of 30,139,598 Iranians eligible to vote 16,409,353 people participated in the election marking another low %54.4 participation rate. Mr. Rafsanjani leaded the race with %94.52 of the votes. His presidency started with a substantial change in the constitution that gave executive duties of the prime minister to the president, thus; the 5th president started his government without a prime minister for the first time.
He was born in 1934 in a small village near Rafsanjan. He was soon attracted to becoming a clergyman and went to Qom. Meanwhile he continued political activities an was arrested several times. 4 months after the revolution he became target of a terror attempt by the Forghan group. Before presidency, he had many other key positions such as head of the Revolutionary Council and the parliament and currently is the head of a council that supervises laws and regulations for well-being of the regime. (Updated: Jan, 22, 2009)

• Ayatollah Khamenei : آيت الله خامنه اي(Ali Hosseini Khameneyi) علي حسيني خامنه اي
• Hashemi Rafsanjani : هاشمي رفسنجاني
• Salman Rushdie : سلمان رشدي(Salman Roshdy)
• Rafsanjani : رفسنجاني
• Rafsanjan : رفسنجان
• Ayatollah : آيت الله
• President : پرزيدنت
• Iranshahr : ايرانشهر
• Khomeini : خميني(Imam Khomeini)
• Khamenei : خامنه اي
• Mashhad : مشهد(Mashad)
• Islamic : اسلامي
• Behesht : بهشت
• Defense : دفاع
• Rejayi : رجايي(Mohammad Ali Rajayee) محمد علي رجايي
• Bombay : بمبئي(Mumbai)
• Leader : رهبر
• Queen : ملکه
• Quran : قرآن(Koran,Qoran,Ghoran)
• Najaf : نجف
• Death : مرگ
• Ahmad : احمد
• Marja : مرجع
• Shah : شاه پادشاه‌
• Iran : ايران
• Imam : امام(Emam)
• IRI : جمهوري اسلامي ايران(I.R.I.)
• Qom : قم(Ghom)
• New : جديد

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