Khomeini Dies: Iran's Supreme Leader Leaves Theocratic State
He sent a million young men to the front in the Iran-Iraq War with plastic keys around their necks — keys to paradise. Ruhollah Khomeini returned from fifteen years of exile in Paris on February 1, 1979, and within ten months had dismantled the monarchy, executed hundreds of officials, and established a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists. No comparable revolution in the 20th century moved faster. He died in June 1989, age eighty-nine. His funeral drew an estimated three million mourners. His picture hangs on government buildings across Iran today.
June 3, 1989
37 years ago
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