Background

Ethnicity: Ali Khamenei's father was from the Iranian Turkish-speaking minority known as Azeri. His mother was an ethnic Persian speaker from Yazd.

Ali Khamenei was born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, Iran. He is the second of eight children of Seyyed Javad Khamenei and Khadijeh Mirdamadi. Khamenei's ancestor was Seyed Hossein Tafrechi, whose lineage is said to date back to the fourth Shia Imam Ali Zeyn-ol-Abedin.

Education

At the age of four Ali Khamenei was sent to maktab, a traditional primary school of that time, in order to learn the alphabet and the Holy Quran. Later, he was transferred to a newly established Islamic school to continue his learning. Khamenei also studied at the theological seminary in Mashhad where his mentors were Sheikh Hashem Qazvini and Ayatollah Milani. In 1957, he entered the Najaf Seminary but did not stay there for long as his father sought to bring him back to Iran. He studied at the Qom Seminary from 1958 to 1964. There he attended the classes of Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi and Ruhollah Khomeini.

Career

Ali Khamenei became involved in Islamic activities in 1963. He was imprisoned many times by Iran's security services for his involvement in Islamic activities. In 1979, together with Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili, Khamenei founded the Islamic Republican Party. In the same year he became Deputy Minister of National Defence for Revolutionary Affairs and held this post until 1980. On January 14, 1980, he assumed the office of Tehran's Friday Prayer Imam. Khamenei also commanded the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from 1979 to 1980.

After the assassination of President Mohammad Rajai, Ali Khamenei was elected President of Iran by a landslide vote in the Iranian presidential elections in October 1981. He was reelected in 1985 and held this post until 1989. Khamenei also served as Secretary-General of the Islamic Republican Party from 1981 to 1987 and as Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council from 1988 to 1989. He was a member of the Assembly of Experts from 1983 to 1889 and a member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly from 1980 to 1981. When the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ruhollah Khomeini, died in 1989, Ali Khamenei succeeded him, assuming the role of the new Supreme Leader of Iran on June 4, 1989. In the same year he became Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Ali Khamenei also wrote books about Islam, art, daily prayers, good understanding of religion. His most famous books are Iqbal: Manifestation of the Islamic Spirit, Al-Tawhid and Its Social Implications and Islamic Rulings: Medical Issues.

Achievements

• Ali Khamenei is the current Supreme Leader of Iran who is known as the longest-serving head of state in the Middle E. He also served as President of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is considered the most powerful political authority in Iran. In 2012, he was named as the 21st most powerful person in the world in the list of The World's Most Powerful People by Forbes.
  
  Khamenei was one of the major figures who guided the country during the Iran-Iraq War. He played a key role in the 1979 Iranian revolution, which led to the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Al-Tawhid and Its Social Implications

    (This book is one of the many Islamic publications distrib...)

    2014
  • Islamic Rulings: Medical Issues

    (A compilation of queries on various topics answered by Ay...)

    2014
  • An Outline of Islamic Thought in the Quran

    (An Outline of Islamic Thought in the Quran is the distill...)

    2008
  • A 250 Years Old Person

    (A 250 Years Old Person is a book by Ali Khamenei, supreme...)

    2011
  • Iqbal: Manifestation of the Islamic Spirit

    (This work is in two parts representing the views of two I...)

    1997
  • Miscellaneous Fatwas

    (English edition)

    2014
  • Lessons from the Nahjul-Balaghah

    (English edition)

    1984
  • The Place of al-Mufid in the Development of Shi'i Kalam and Fiqh

    (English edition)

    2014

Religion

Ali Khamenei has approved new legislation against Bahá'ís (the largest religious minority in Iran, that is officially considered a dangerous cult) in Iran and lessened their influence abroad.

Politics

In 1979 Ali Khamenei founded the Islamic Republican Party. He was a member of this party until 1987. He also was a member of the Combatant Clergy Association from 1977 to 1989. When he became President of Iran he tended to advocate stern social and cultural purity. He encouraged skilled Iranians to return from abroad, regardless of their fidelity to revolutionary norms. His most significant presidential contribution was in foreign policy. As Iran struggled to break its pariah status, Khamenei launched in 1984 what became known as an "open door" policy. Khamenei insisted that reciprocity and mutual respect were Iran's criteria for good relations. In 1989, he was appointed Supreme Leader of Iran and became an independent politician.

As the Supreme Leader, Khamenei continued Ruhollah Khomeini's policy, the main idea of which was balancing one group against another, making sure that no single side gains too much power. Khamenei has been able to place many loyalists throughout Iran's major institutions. He issues decrees and makes the final decisions on economy, environment and foreign policy. Khamenei also has influence over elections in Iran since the Constitution of Iran allows him to appoint half of the members of the Guardian Council and the Chief Justice of Iran. In 2010, he accused foreign powers including Britain, Israel and the United States of helping foment protest against results of the 2009 – 2010 Iranian elections.

Ali Khamenei has a foreign policy team independent of the president. Political analytics say that his foreign policy is said to steer a course that avoids either confrontation or accommodation with the West. He condemned the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. Khamenei asserts that the United States is the main cause of insecurity in Iraq. Besides, he criticized the NATO-led military intervention in Libya. In June 2011, Khamenei accused the United States government of terrorism. In 2015, during his speech at a mosque in Tehran, Khamenei said that the policies of the United States in the region were absolutely opposed to Iran's political and religious movement. In March 2020, Khamenei warned against a United States offer of aid to fight the coronavirus disease on the grounds that it could be a way to hurt Iran by further spreading the disease.

Views

Ali Khamenei has been supportive of scientific progress in Iran. He was among the first Islamic clerics to allow stem cell research and therapeutic cloning. He stated that the country should be making more investment in the fields of science and technology and accord higher status to scholars.

Even though he has called human rights a fundamental principle underlying Islamic teachings, he has often been criticized by the western media for the sorry state of human rights in Iran. He claims that homosexuality is wrong and believes in the need for a compulsory hijab for women. Also, he has invited considerable wrath of the media for curbing freedom of the press.

Quotations: "The great powers have dominated the destiny of the Islamic countries for years and installed the Zionist cancerous tumor in the heart of the Islamic world. Many of the problems facing the Muslim world are due to the existence of the Zionist regime."

"The people who control America today make decisions like drunkards. They do not understand what they are doing at all."

"The idea of human rights as a fundamental principle can be seen to underlie throughout Islamic teachings."

"The winner must promote social justice, remove corruption and discrimination, and stand against political, cultural and economic plots."

Personality

Those who know Ali Khamenei said that he is renowned for a spartan lifestyle. Mehdi Khalaji said that Khamenei has a decent life without it being luxurious. However, different sources stated that Ali Khamenei collects items such as pipes and owns 170 antique walking sticks, and also has a private court stretching over six palaces.

Ali Khamenei has a significant literary culture and has read many Iranian and foreign poets and writers. He is fluent in Arabic in addition to his native languages, Persian and Azerbaijani. Khamenei plays the tar, a traditional Iranian stringed instrument.

Quotes from others about the person

• Hassan Nasrallah: "We find ourselves in front of a great and exceptional personality who is criticized – even in Iran. Our responsibility is to introduce this great Imam to the nation. This is the very important and sensitive mission of this conference."
  
  Amir Taheri: "Khamenei is certainly better educated than the late Khomeini. At least he can speak and write correct Persian and Arabic, something the late Ayatollah never managed. From available evidence Khamenei also has a better knowledge of Islam and its history than Khomeini did."

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertrand Russel

• Writers

  Victor Hugo

Connections

Ali Khamenei married Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh in 1964. The marriage produced six children.

Father:

Seyyed Javad Khamenei

Seyyed Javad Khamenei (1894 – July 6, 1986) was an Iranian Shia cleric.

Mother:

Khadijeh Mirdamadi

(1914 – August 6, 1989)

Grandfather:

Hashem Mirdamadi

Brother:

Hadi Khamenei

Hadi Khamenei (born 1947) is an Iranian reformist politician, mujtahid and linguist. He is a member of the Association of Combatant Clerics and a former deputy of the Majlis of Iran representing a district in Tehran.

Brother:

Seyyed Mohammad Khamenei

(born December 25, 1935)

Sister:

Fatemeh Hosseini Khamenei

(died 2015)

Sister:

Rababeh Khamenei

Wife:

Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh

(born 1947)

Son:

Mojtaba Khamenei

Mojtaba Khamenei (born 1969) served in the Iran–Iraq War from 1987 to 1988.

Son:

Mostafa Khamenei

Mostafa Khamenei (born 1965) is an Iranian Twelver Shia cleric.

Son:

Masoud Khamenei

Son:

Meysam Khamenei

Daughter:

Hoda Khamenei

Daughter:

Boshra Khamenei

References

• The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's Vision of Islamic Philosophical Theology and Praxis of Global Peace A collection of select writings of Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader and High Jurist of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
  2015
• Ali Khamenei Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was born into a family of strict piety and moderate poverty. As a serious-minded religious student, he soon caught the eye of Ayatollah Khomeini. Upon Khomeini's death, Khamenei was named his successor and became the Grand Ayatollah of Iran. This biography tells his story.
  2007
• Ali Khamenei's Twitter