Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini was a man who led the Islamic Revolution to victory in 1979 and established the Islamic Republic in Iran, putting an end to decades of autocracy.
On the 32nd anniversary of his demise, Iranians paid tribute to him by congregating at his mausoleum in south of Tehran.
As with every year, Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution , Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, delivered a speech on the occasion.
Imam Khomeini passed away in 1989 at the age of 86, almost a decade after the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the US-backed Pahlavi regime in Iran.
Imam Khomeini spent many years in exile in Iraq, Turkey and France, from where he led a swelling grassroots movement which ultimately put an end to millennia of monarchical rule in Iran.
Imam Khomeini established the Islamic Republic following a referendum held in 1979, when more than 98 percent of eligible Iranians voted ‘yes’ to the Islamic Republic.
Three decades into his passing, Imam Khomeini is still remembered as the pioneer of a new era in Iran's history.
An era that put centuries of monarchies behind and brought about a new political system that honors Islamic values and tries to be independent of foreign powers.