Khamenei According to Khamenei

“In my early school days I always went to school wearing a cloak. It was a lot of trouble to mingle with the kids wearing a cloak, but I compensated by being playful and wouldn't allow myself to suffer too much. We played as well, but on the street, as there was no room for it in the house. We mostly played volleyball and soccer. Our non-sports games those days were tag and ...."

These few sentences provide a general portrayal of the childhood of Iran's supreme leader, tweeted from a Twitter account believed to be run by his office. Though Iranians face widespread limitations accessing sites such as Twitter and Facebook, Ali Khamenei’s office is one of these site's most avid fans. Notwithstanding the obvious contradictions, publishing these lines from his memoirs does not terribly unusual. These days, in a symbolic gesture, the Iranian president goes to a school, rings the school bell, and asks the students questions. Some other important government officials have also done similar things.

However sharing with the general public vignettes from the supreme leader's childhood on the occasion of the first day of school is a relatively new approach to the public. Recently we've seen the supreme leader's office seeking to project a different image of Khamenei through releasing excerpts from his memoirs or others' recollections about him.

Khamenei According to Khamenei

A number of the portrayals of Ali Khamenei are taken directly from the Iranian leader's personal memoirs. Of course unlike Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who kept a diary of his political and sometimes family affairs, Ali Khamenei has not kept a dairy and has often orally told stories of his personal life. In Khamenei's memoirs, one significant point stands out. He is constantly creating a character for himself. His emphasis on his positive personal characteristics, retelling stories about his own political activism, his moral approach, and his efforts to show that his lifestyle from childhood to the present has been that of an ordinary Iranian, are some of the things that can be easily spotted in Ali Khamenei's memoirs.

First Portrait: I am an ordinary citizen who has had a hard life just like everyone else.  "The first day they took me to that school, I remember that in my memory it was registered as a very gloomy, dark, awful, and unpleasant day! My father took my older brother and me into a big room. There was no glass in the window panes, and the windows were instead covered with wax paper that was dark and awful...one of the things that I carried as a complex for years was that the kids made fun of me, they made fun of my turban. See how much savagery is needed to make fun of an ordinary person who is walking through the streets or the bazaar."

Second Portrait: I oppose superstition. "The cleric teacher would sit me by his side in the mornings and hand me a small bill, like a five-rial bill which you haven't seen [it was so long ago!], but was in use back then, or a one-toman or a two-toman bill, and he would tell me, 'Rub this money on the Quran, so it would gain prosperity!' Poor man, he fooled himself into thinking that perhaps his money would grow this way..."

Third Portrait: I come from a wholly religious family. "My mother was the daughter of a cleric herself and had cleric brothers, too...I did very well in my religious studies; I used to read the Quran with a loud voice and I was the Quran-reader at my school; I loved the religious stories [hadith], too...My mother read the Quran, and she read it sweetly and beautifully. We would gather around her and she would read the verses appropriate for occasions, about the lives of the prophets."

Fourth Portrait: I have a multi-dimensional and scientific character. "I had an interest in math and geography; I liked history a lot and was particularly interested in geometry. I used to read a lot; I read history books, literature books, poetry books, and story books and novels. I used to read poetry, too. I was familiar with many books of poetry in my adolescence and youth. I started writing poetry when I was young."

Fifth Portrait: I have a strong memory and I am an expert in various fields. "I can presently remember stories I read as an adolescent...the critique I offered on poetry was a critique that was often confirmed and agreed upon by those present, including the poet himself."

Sixth Portrait: I am a completely moral and religious individual. "I was lucky in life; I believe this is a result of my good treatment of my father, actually my father and mother...[during the Shah era] I traveled by train. Because I would have been late to do my prayers if I waited for the train to come to a full stop, I jumped out of the window of the moving train in order to do my prayers on time."

Seventh Portrait: My life was poverty-stricken. "My father's house was in the poor neighborhood of Mashhad...My mother made our clothes out of our father's old clothes, which was something strange. Our father did not give up his clothes so easily. For example, he had a robe that he wore for about 40 years. There was a lot of longing in our childhood. We couldn't even eat wheat bread all the time. We didn't have dinner, and my mother would use the small change my grandmother would sometimes give me or one of my siblings to buy some raisins or milk for us to eat with our bread.”

Eighth Portrait: I am not enthralled with power. “I consider myself your servant and a servant of these people, and if the title of servant fits me, I shall be proud of it...when the Imam was going to come [to Iran from France], we said ‘let’s sit down and organize.’ We talked about dividing responsibilities. I said that I would like to be responsible for pouring tea! Everyone was surprised. The gathering became very emotional. This has [always] been my approach...[After the death of Ayatollah Khomeini] I was repeatedly named as a member of the Leadership Council, which of course I kept rejecting it in my mind...I wholeheartedly wanted it not to happen...I don’t have any specific chairs in any rooms. When I enter a room, wherever there is space, that’s where I sit.”

Ninth Portrait: I am courageous, revolutionary, and capable of combat. “I had gone to Birjand to deliver a message from the Imam [Khomeini], and I was arrested...They shaved my beard. When I was going to wash my face, an arrogant and selfish lieutenant started to make fun of me. He was laughing and saying loudly, ‘Did you see how I shaved your beard?!’ I said calmly, ‘It’s not too bad.  Hadn’t seen my chin for a long time’...When the [Iran-Iraq] War first broke out, I was Imam Khomeini’s representative in the Supreme Defense Council and its Spokesperson. I went to see the Imam...I said, ‘please allow me to go to Ahvaz or Dezful, maybe I can do something.’ He said immediately, ‘go.’ I was so happy, it was as if I had sprouted wing. In an international gathering where I delivered a very inspiring speech against the dominance of [world] powers and the dominant regime of the world, in front of more than 100 delegations and heads of states, I called on the US and USSR and humiliated and condemned them by name.”

Khamenei According to Others

Iran’s Supreme Leader is not the only one creating an image of himself. In offering their memories of him, those in his inner circle have tried to fashion a spartan, popular, righteous, scientific, and modest character for him.

Images of the simple and poor life of Iran’s supreme leader, as portrayed by those close to him, are some of the best examples of this. One of his students has said that when he bought some Persian carpets for the supreme leader, Khamenei did not welcome his gift: “He said, ‘these things are not compatible with me.’ I ended up having to sell the carpets and buy him a kilim.”

In a similar story, former IRGC Commander Mohsen Rafighdoost reported, “I had seen that rug when I went to Agha’s [Ali Khamenei’s] house. It was really a frayed, coarse rug [Zilou].” One of his friends has said, “I procured a very thick carpet for the home of the supreme leader. When he saw the carpet he said, ‘Take this carpet; that thin carpet is sufficient for our life.’”

Former IRGC Commander Nabiollah Roudaki has also said, “We asked that he allow us to videotape the inside of his house and his living conditions, so that people could see the living conditions of their leader and learn how he lives, but he said, ‘If you try to show my life, I’m afraid many would not believe it.’”

Apart from the supreme leader's carpeting, eating with him has also been the source of countless tales. Ultra-conservative cleric Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi has said that in Khamenei's home only one type of stew is served. Former IRGC Commander Rahim Safavi has said that his dinner at Ali Khamenei’s home was a simple omelette. Former Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi also had a dinner of boiled eggs and potatoes with the Supreme Leader, and the Leader told him, ‘Our dinner tonight was potatoes, but out of respect for you I asked that they add a few eggs, too.”

The important point about this character engineering is that it does not span Ali Khamenei’s tenure as the supreme leader, as his allies wish to show that attributes such as austerity, diplomacy, a revolutionary mentality, and his moral conduct are instilled in him. As an example, an individual close to Khamenei says about his arrest before the 1979 revolution, “I bought a kilogram of bananas. I separated one of the bananas and gave it to him. He said, ‘because people can’t eat such an expensive fruit, I too won’t have any.’

 Our Leader was combatting the Shah’s regime. He could have been arrested any moment. One day when I was waiting in line to buy some bread, he came and stood in line, too. There were two people waiting in line between him and me. After greeting him, I asked him, ‘Haj Agha, how many pieces of bread do you need? Allow me to get it for you!’ He said modestly, ‘because there are two people standing in line between me and you, I would rather buy my bread when it’s my turn, lest these two people’s rights are compromised.’”

Mesbah Yazdi has also said, “one day the Supreme Leader said, ‘After I became the Leader, I forgave all those I could have possibly had a gripe against.’” The most important feature of this character engineering by Khamenei's supporters, however, is their presentation of a divine, righteous, and spiritual image of him.

Mohammad Ali Akhtari, the leader's adviser in religious affairs has said, “[Our] dear Leader leads the Islamic Revolution through his contact with the Twelfth Imam, and we have witnessed many times that he went to the sacred Jamkaran Mosque in Qom, and after connecting and speaking with him [Twelfth Imam], he returned to Tehran with a strong heart and with strength that brimmed with faith and reliance on God.”

Mohammad Niazi, a former judicial official has said, “on the night the Tehran University Dormitories incident happened, I stood behind Agha to follow him in the Maghrib and Isha [evening] Prayers. When the prayers ended, I went to him to present a report. His Excellency said, ‘I have a feeling something is about to happen tonight!’ I said to myself, ‘It must be the regular happenings that take place in the country every day.’ The next day we learned that the bitter incident of the Tehran University Dormitories had taken place. Apparently he didn’t know the details, but it appears that he had received a revelation about the essence of the event.”

A Simple But Difficult Objective

More than anything else, efforts for widespread re-publication of these memories and the numerous compliments and praises of the upreme leader follow a specific objective. They are repeatedly trying to simulate and liken his character to that of the first Imam of Shia Islam, or to Khomeini himself, and to create a completely divine and yet popular character. If this divine and popular character is also brave, an expert, and moral, he would automatically secure legitimacy for occupying the seat of the country’s supreme leader. In fact all these memories, praises and stories are published in order to solve a greater problem, a crisis of legitimacy. Iran’s supreme leader and his inner circle are trying to present themselves as legitimate, to God and to the people.