No Obstacle in Death (on an Ayatollah)

By Wayne Kublalsingh  –  Mar 7, 2026

On Saturday 28th February 2026, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamanei, went to his office as usual. At around 8:30 am, he and his eight-month-old granddaughter and her parents were assassinated in an Israeli/US air assault. In these CIA/Mossad attacks, one hundred and sixty-five pupils and fifteen teachers of the Shajarah Tayyebeh Girls’ elementary school were killed. But why was the Ayatollah so exposed?  

First, Iran and the US were involved in nuclear negotiations. The key mediator in these talks, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi (Oman), had announced that the talks were nearing resolution. Negotiations were set to resume on the following Monday. The aerial strikes must have been unexpected. Second, the Supreme Leader had said: “If you can relocate 90 million Iranians to another city, I will move after that. If you can provide underground bunkers for all the Iranian people, then I will take them.” He felt it was dishonourable to himself seek refuge whilst most of the population was itself exposed.

The Ayatollah had been the victim of an assassination attempt in June 1981 at Abuzar Mosque in Tehran; carried out by either the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) a Marxist group, or Furqan Group possessed of a clandestine cell system, and a Shia anti-clerical Islamist ideology. The Supreme Leader, like 90% of Iran, is Shia. At his death, he was still carrying old wounds to his arm, vocal cords and lungs. Recently, as he sat in state, a little boy approached him and said, “Pray for me to become a martyr.” The octogenarian replied: “You must first grow up. Insha Allah, you must first grow up, study hard, gain knowledge, and Insha Allah become beneficent, live for 80 or 90 years, then become a martyr.”

Ayatollah Khamenei was the second of two Supreme Leaders of Iran. In 1979 the Imperial State of Iran was deposed in a popular revolution. It was succeeded by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Supreme Leaders Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini Ayatollah (1979-1989) and Khamenei (1989-2026). Khamenei was born into a pious and frugal family in 1939. His father was a cleric. His mother, from a family of prominent clerics, possessed an avid interest in Literature and History. 

The Supreme Leader himself was a keen student of History and Literature (Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, the Indian Jawaharlal Nehru, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and African History). In 1997, he publicly praised Africa’s revolutionary heritage: “In the last decades, Africa has had great men like the late Nkrumah, Samora Machel, Julius Nyerere, & Nelson Mandela. All of them were involved in the struggle against oppression. We’re deeply fond of Africa because this region has always stood up against oppression.”

When Mosaddeq, Iran’s democratically elected leader, was deposed in a CIA/MI5 US-British coup in 1953, Khamenei was 14. When the US installed puppet monarch, the Shah of Iran, fell to the Revolution in 1979, he was 40. He was a student of Ayatollah Khomeini, and witnessed the latter’s powerful opposition to the Monarchy. The Shah exiled Khomeini to Turkey and was held under house arrest (1964-1965), then Iraq (1965-1978), then expelled to France (1978-1979). 

During the Shah’s reign, Khamenei himself was imprisoned by the Shah’s secret police SAVAK, six times. He was a fiery gospeller against US/Israeli imperialism. Following the decapitation of Mosaddeq in 1953, who sought to nationalize Iranian oil, the Shah had conceded the production volumes and pricing of Iranian oil to US and European companies. Khamenei advocated for an Islamic Republic. 

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a theocracy. It comprises a judiciary, an executive (governed by an elected President) and a unicameral legislature (Majles), whose 290 members are elected every four years. The Majles is responsible for legislation, budget approval, and oversight of the executive branch. Khamenei was President between 1981-1989, much of his time spent on the Iran-Iraq (1980-1988) warfront.

The Supreme Leader is Wilayat Al Faqih, the Guardian of the Islamic Jurist, elected by an Assembly of Experts. The Assembly is the deliberative body of Iran, empowered to appoint, supervise, and discharge the Supreme Leader of Iran. The latter is the nation’s commander-in-chief of the army; with supreme authority to guide the populace, to interpret Islamic law (daily life, including regulations on financial transactions, marriage, and religious rituals, e.g. fasting, prayer), and to discharge fatwas. 

The Wisdom Behind Martyr Ali Khamenei’s Refusal of Nuclear Weapons

In October 2003, Khamenei issued a fatwa that the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons were forbidden under Islam. In 2010, in response to sectarian tensions, he declared a fatwa that insulting the wives of the Prophet Muhammad (specifically Aisha) or other respected Sunni figures was forbidden. He underscored the religious obligation to protect the environment and combat pollution. 

On the sexes, he stated: “Both possess boundless potential, and there is no difference between them. In the field of knowledge. Both men and women can compete equally. Men are not more knowledgeable than women. Throughout History, there have been great and distinguished women. A woman in the home is a flower. She is not the servant of the house. You should not say, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ Or, ‘Why didn’t you do that?’ Or ‘Why is the house not clean?’ She is a flower. And a flower must be cared for. It must be protected.”

Not long before his assassination, he stated: “My life has little value. I have a disabled body. I have a little bit of dignity which you yourselves have given me. I put this all on the line. I am ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of this Revolution and for Islam. May all this be sacrificed for you.”

Death, for Ayatollah Khamenei, was not an obstacle. Allah would decide. In life, he morally and militarily empowered Iran, the Palestinians and the Axis of Resistance (labelled by the US/Israelis “terrorists” or “evil”) to the hilt. In death, his life empowers and emboldens global resistance to boot out the US armies and military bases from West Asia, an area wrongfully known as the Middle East, thanks to Eurocentric colonialism. 

 

WK/OT