In February 1979, Iran changed forever when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from more than 14 years in exile and became the face of a revolution against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Khomeini had been forced out of Iran in the 1960s, spending time in Turkey, Iraq, and eventually France. From abroad, his speeches and messages were copied onto cassette tapes, smuggled into Iran, and passed from hand to hand. By late 1978, strikes and mass demonstrations had brought the country to a standstill, including Iran’s oil industry, which collapsed from nearly 6 million barrels a day to a tiny fraction of its usual output.
Just days after Khomeini returned, the Shah’s government fell apart. The Shah had already fled the country, the military declared neutrality, and Iran soon voted to abolish the monarchy. In April 1979, the country became the Islamic Republic of Iran, with religious authority built directly into the state through the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or guardianship of the jurist.
While Khomeini was in France, foreign reporters had unusually open access to him. That openness disappeared after the revolution, making those final months abroad one of the last truly free media windows around Iran for decades.
Crowds greeting him in Tehran were estimated at 3 to 5 million people.