Hossein Ali Montazeri

Hossein Ali Montazeri (born 1922, Najafabad, Iran—died December 20, 2009, Qom) was an Iranian cleric who became one of the highest-ranking authorities in Shiʿi Islam. He was once the designated successor of Ruhollah Khomeini as rahbar (supreme leader) of Iran. Montazeri was emphatic in his defense of human rights in Iran.

Early life and education

Montazeri was raised in Najafabad, west of Isfahan in central Iran. His father, a farmer, taught the Qurʾān to the residents of Najafabad. At age 7 Montazeri began studying Arabic grammar and Persian literature, and at 12 he enrolled in theological school in Isfahan, where he studied under a number of prominent scholars. At 19 he left Isfahan for the holy city of Qom, farther north, to continue his education.

Revolutionary leadership

In Qom Montazeri studied under Khomeini and was drawn into his trusted inner circle. Khomeini, who actively opposed the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was exiled by the shah from Iran in 1964. During Khomeini’s period in exile, Montazeri helped maintain his mentor’s anti-regime message within the country and campaigned for Khomeini’s return.

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In the 1960s and ’70s Montazeri was arrested a number of times for his political activism. In the same period he was often exiled within Iran, both to his hometown of Najafabad and to other locations—such as the desert town of Ṭabas, the town of Khalkhāl (whose inhabitants largely spoke an Azerbaijani dialect), or the primarily Sunni town of Saqqez, with its harsh winter weather—in an attempt to curb his influence. In spite of each effort to isolate him, however, Montazeri continued to attract followers: during his exile in Ṭabas, for example, tens of thousands of supporters traveled to meet him there. In 1975 Montazeri was arrested and taken from Saqqez to the notorious Evin prison in the northern suburbs of Tehran, where he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for several months and later tortured.

In 1978 Montazeri was released from prison, and, amid the Islamic Revolution’s gathering momentum, he traveled to meet Khomeini in Paris, where Khomeini designated him his deputy in Iran. Following the overthrow of the shah, Montazeri was instrumental in the drafting of a constitution for the new Islamic republic. At that time he was among those who advocated in favor of the concept of velāyat-e faqīh (governance by the religious jurist), but he later spoke out against the unchecked power of the supreme leader.

Opposition to Ali Khamenei

In 1985 Montazeri was designated by the Assembly of Experts (Majles-e Khobregān)—a body empowered to select Iran’s supreme leader—as Khomeini’s successor. For some time Montazeri had privately opposed human rights abuses that persisted under the Islamic government, and he brought his concerns to light in 1988, when in the wake of the execution of thousands of prisoners without a fair trial he asserted that circumstances were even worse than they had been under the shah. Soon after, Montazeri was stripped of his right to succession, and it was Ali Khamenei—a more junior cleric—who succeeded Khomeini upon his death in 1989. Montazeri was among those who criticized Khamenei’s relatively junior status and who argued that his status was not high enough to entitle him to issue fatwas (Islamic legal opinions). As a result of his criticism, Montazeri was under house arrest from 1997 until early 2003.

In the controversial presidential election of June 2009, Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor over his main challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, which sparked massive popular protests. Montazeri spoke out against the disputed poll, opposing the election results and condemning as illegitimate a political system that maintained power through repression and force. In November 2009 Montazeri issued an apology for his participation in the November 1979 Iran hostage crisis, in which militants in Iran had seized 66 American citizens at the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 of them hostage for more than a year.

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In December 2009 Montazeri died of heart failure in Qom. His funeral, which attracted tens of thousands of mourners, became an occasion for massive antigovernment protests and set off clashes with the authorities.