e all know that the present Iranian regime systematically uses political expediency to pursue its monopolization of power. But how much is known of the reformists’ own political expediency, and at what cost are they hidden from public view? At great cost, if we consider the current struggles of the Green Movement to disentangle itself from the all-powerful authority of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. What if it were more widely known, for example, that he had in effect become leader not through legitimate means but by a forged letter, written supposedly by the previous leader, Khomeini, just before his death? According to the Iranian constitution, the country’s supreme leader had to be a grand ayatollah, marja. Khamenei was not even an ayatollah. Before the revolution, he made a living through preaching (rozeh khaani), which even the least educated clergy may do.
