Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the second person to hold this position following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. He has been serving as Supreme Leader since 1989. For many younger Iranians, he is the only Supreme Leader they have ever known.
As Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei holds immense authority at the heart of Iran’s political system. He has the power to veto any government decision and influence the selection of candidates for public office. As the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Khamenei is widely considered the most powerful individual in Iran.
Born in 1939 in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city, Khamenei comes from a religious family. He is the second of his siblings, and his father was a mid-ranking Shiite cleric. Khamenei received religious education from an early age and was qualified as a cleric by the age of 11. Like many clerics of his era, his work blended religious and political activism.
A powerful orator, Khamenei emerged as a critic of the Shah of Iran. He was arrested multiple times—six in total—by the Shah’s secret police and was subjected to torture.
After the success of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini appointed him as Tehran’s Friday Prayer leader. In 1981, Khamenei was elected President of Iran. Following Khomeini’s death in 1989, Khamenei was appointed as his successor by Iran’s Assembly of Experts.
According to the BBC, Khamenei rarely travels outside Iran. He leads a modest lifestyle with his wife in a compound in central Tehran. He is known to have interests in gardening and poetry. Interestingly, Khamenei reportedly smoked cigarettes in his youth, an unusual trait for a senior cleric. Due to an assassination attempt in the 1980s, he lost the full use of his right arm.
Khamenei is married to Mansoureh Khojasteh Baqerzadeh, and they have six children—four sons and two daughters. His family largely stays out of the public eye, and verified information about their private lives is scarce.
Among his children, his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is the most prominent due to his growing influence in Iran’s inner political circles.
