Info about Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini after the Islamic Revolution

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatollah_Khomeini

Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini (Persian: آیت‌الله روح‌الله خمینی Arabic: روح الله الخميني ) (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was an Iranian Shi'a Muslim cleric and Marja, and the political and spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Khomeini was considered a spiritual leader to many Shi'a Muslims, and in Iran is officially addressed as Imam rather than Ayatollah, and his supporters also adhere to this convention. Khomeini is considered by many as one of the most influential men of the 20th century, and was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1979. snip

Life under Khomeini

Under Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic modest dress code enforced for both men and women. Many Iranians welcomed these policies, since during previous regimes particuarly Iranian women had not been permitted to wear Islamic dress code. However, many opponents fled the country because of their dislike of the political situation after the Revolution and its changes. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press were ostensibly protected, at least as long as it did not contradict Islamic law. Inevitably, however, many newspapers and other media outlets were closed down. Furthermore, opposition to the religious rule of the clergy or Islam in general was often met with harsh punishments. In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, there were many systematic human rights violations, including mass executions and interrogation of former members of the overthrown monarchy and military.

For many years under the shah, breaking the barrier of confinement of the private sphere has been a major source of frustration for advocates of women's rights in Iran. But the Islamic revolution broke the barrier overnight. When Khomeini called for women to attend public demonstration and ignore the night curfew, millions of women who would otherwise not have dreamt of leaving their homes without their husbands' and fathers' permission or presence, took to the streets. Khomeini's call to rise up against the Shah took away any doubt in the minds of many devoted Muslim women about the propriety of taking to the streets during the day or at night.

The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed a marked increase of employment for women. This increase was much more than the rate prior to the revolution. Such dramatic change in the pattern of labor force participation might not have been possible if Khomeini had not broken the barriers to women entering into the public sphere. Educational attainment for women, also a product of free education and the literacy campaign, contributed to this increase. In fact, today there are more women in higher education than there are men. The Islamic Republic had adopted certain policies to expand educational levels for women in order to ensure that sexual segregation paid off. These policies were to encourage women to become skilled workers in domains exclusive to women. For example, the government set quotas for female pediatricians and gynecologists and set up barriers against women wanting to become civil engineers.

Khomeini supported family planning, a program through which the government called upon women to distribute contraceptives. He also supported organ transplants.

Ayatollah Khomeini was also supportive of religious minorities including the Persian Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian communities.<1> He called for unity of Sunni and Shia muslims.

In 1976, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa to allow people with hormonal disorders to undergo gender reassignment if they wished, as well as to change their birth certificates to reflect their new gender role. Before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, there was no particular policy regarding transgendered individuals. Iranians with the inclination, means and connections could obtain the necessary medical treatment and new identity documents.

In early 1989, Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie, claiming that Rushdie's murder was a religious duty for Muslims because of his alleged blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad in his novel, The Satanic Verses. The novel, which examines the integration of Indian characters into modern Western culture, implies that the Qur'an was not properly preserved. Rushdie's book contains passages that some Muslims – including Ayatollah Khomeini – considered offensive to Islam and the prophet. The issuance of the fatwa caused many Westerners, particularly those on the left who had generally been in favor of the Revolution against the Shah, to reconsider their support of Khomeini.

Click on the link and read the whole bio. This guy was no angel but I didn't know about a lot of this stuff until I just read it myself now.