Word: ayatollah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...self-appointed supreme rulers, despite parliamentary and presidential elections that allow the population a limited outlet for their own views. The frustrations of a generation raised under the Islamic revolution poured out in unprecedented six days of confrontations with authority, in which students dared challenge the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini. But the reformers? strong suit is not street battles; it?s elections. Next March, Iranians go to the polls to elect the 270 legislators of the Majlis, or parliament. There are no political parties, and candidates deemed disloyal to the revolution can be nixed by a conservative-controlled Council...
...electoral process, but within those limitations there?s a real struggle for power between groupings committed to dramatically different visions of Iranian society," says TIME correspondent William Dowell. "Second to Israel, Iran may still be the liveliest republican democracy in the Middle East." Even though the conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini ? who controls the security forces, the broadcast media and the religious bodies that vet laws passed by parliament and candidates running for election ? is appointed for life by a closed group of clergy, he still depends to some extent on the illusion of popular consent. "Electoral defeats...
...sixth day of pitched battles against riot police in Tehran Tuesday despite dire warnings against demonstrating, Iran?s leaders ? who themselves made a revolution 20 years ago ? may be feeling history catching up with them. The student protesters are targeting the country?s hard-line religious leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khameini, the supreme ruler who also controls the security forces. Although many of the demonstrators are carrying portraits of President Mohamed Khatami, whose efforts at reform and democratization are being blocked by the hard-liners, they won?t necessarily abide by his call for calm to avoid provoking a crackdown...
...week, but they escalated after an attack by police and hard-line militants on Thursday night killed one student and injured four. The latest clashes come amid a fierce battle for Iran?s future that pits reformers led by President Mohamed Khatami against Iran's conservative clergy, led by Ayatollah Ali Khameini, which retains ultimate power over the country's government and electoral system. President Khatami, who was elected in 1997 in a landslide denunciation by voters of the conservative clergy, supports the demonstrators but has urged them to avoid provocation. And with good reason: Thursday?s attack may signal...
Rushdie, whose 1989 novel The Satanic Verses provoked a worldwide controversy and a death sentence from Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, read an excerpt from his latest book, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, published last month...