He rules Iran with an iron fist: Who is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was born on 17 July 1939 in Mashhad, Iran, as the second son of his family. His father (Ayatullah Sayyid Cevat Huseyni Khamenei) is Azerbaijani Turk and his mother (Daughter of Sayyid Hashim Necefabadi) is Yazdi.

At the age of 4, he was sent to a school (the main school for religious education) with his elder brother Sayyid Muhammed. Here he learned the alphabet and attended Quran courses. The two brothers then continued their primary education at the newly established Islamic school "Diyanet dar ut Talimi".

Ali Hosseini Khamenei (born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989. Previously he served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is the longest serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest serving Iranian leader of the last century, after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Ali Khamenei entered Cami-el-Mukaddemat, Sarf, and Nahv'havza in high school. He took literature and scripture lessons from his father and other educators.

Ali Khamenei, who has 6 palaces, has shelters in two of his palaces to be protected from nuclear attack. In 1963, he joined the Islamic Movement led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Although he wanted to be exiled by the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1977, he was not exiled after the growth of the Islamic Movement and returned to the city of Mashhad. He was appointed as a member of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution upon the realization of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini's return from exile. He came to Tehran from Mashhad on this mission.

He became the Deputy Minister of Defense of Iran in 1979. In the same year, he was elected to the Islamic Shura Council as the deputy of Tehran. He was appointed as a member of Iran's Supreme Defense Council by Khomeini in 1980. He served in the Iran-Iraq War. He was seriously injured in the bomb attack on Ebuzer Mosque on 27 June 1981.

After the death of Iranian President Mohammad Ali Recai as a result of a bomb attack, he was elected as the 3rd President of Iran with 16 million votes in the October 1981 presidential elections. He was elected president for the second time in 1985. He was appointed Chairman of the Council for Diagnosing the Benefit of Order, established by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1986.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei married Khojaste Bagherzadeh in 1964. He has 6 children named Mojtaba Khamenei (Son), Hoda Khamenei (Daughter), Boshra Khamenei (Daughter), Masoud Khamenei (Son), Meysam Khamenei (Son), Mostafa Khamenei (Son).

Upon the death of Ayatollah Khomeini on June 3, 1989, he was elected as the religious leader by the Assembly of Experts on June 4, 1989, with the recommendation of Hashemi Rafsanjani. He has been taking on the task of "religious leadership" to this day.