Word: khomeini
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...activities of the Revolutionary Guards and neighborhood Islamic committees as sentinels of the new morality have been curtailed somewhat, and Khomeini has personally forbidden arbitrary searches of private homes. Even so, these watchdogs have considerable power. On one recent evening on the promenade at Bandar Anzali, a popular weekend getaway for Tehranis, five guards, three of them veiled women, drove in a Nissan van through the strolling crowds. A woman was stopped and told to roll down her three-quarter-length sleeves. Another was admonished for allowing a lock of hair to escape from under her scarf. Sometimes female guards...
...coveting American technology. These covert attempts to secure what Iran's bellicose anti-Western policies prevent it from obtaining openly suggest one of the Islamic Republic's long-term weaknesses. Unlike the Shah, who tried to open up Iran to the West and turn it into an industrial power, Khomeini has turned the country back on itself. Science and technology are neither condemned nor encouraged. Admissions to the University of Tehran are down--partly the result of political vetting, which weeds out many of the best students--while admissions to theological colleges...
...choice came as no surprise: a longtime supporter and former student of Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, 85, he has long been considered the aging Iranian leader's heir apparent. Khomeini's son Ahmed has occasionally referred to him that way, and his picture has been displayed prominently alongside that of Khomeini throughout Iran. Now Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, 62, has formally been designated by the 83-member Assembly of Experts, or senior theologians, to succeed Khomeini...
...appointment caused some unease in Tehran's ruling circles, where there are sharp divisions on how to manage the country's stagnant economy. Montazeri is the youngest of Iran's handful of Grand Ayatullahs and has an undistinguished reputation as a religious scholar. Considered more of a pragmatist than Khomeini, Montazeri is also said to lack his mentor's charisma and oratorical skills. The timing of the announcement did not appear to coincide with any worsening of Khomeini's health. Last Saturday the Ayatullah stood in public for 30 minutes to deliver a speech marking the Prophet Muhammad's birthday...
Though the U.S. has banned arms sales to Iran since the outbreak of the hostage crisis in 1979, Washington has long suspected that American weapons are still finding their way to Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini's Shi'ite armies. Last week the Justice Department unveiled a web of smuggling plots that would have netted Iran $2.5 billion worth of U.S. equipment. Federal authorities filed conspiracy charges against 17 people, including a London-based American lawyer and a retired Israeli general. It was the biggest arms bust that the feds had ever staged...