Brand Khomeini gets a facelift

http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2015/oct/05/instagram-savvy-khomeini-heir

Version 0 of 1.

This has been a big year for the Khomeini family. Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, has become politically more vocal while his Instagram-savvy teenage son, Ahmad, has also become more noticeable in both the virtual but actual worlds of politics.

Hassan is the most prominent of Ayatollah Khomeini’s 15 grandchildren. While normally politically neutral, the 42-year-old cleric has recently gone public with his broadly reformist political leanings. Headlines have been made by his possible candidacy for the February 2016 election for the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the supreme leader.

In early September, Toloue Sobh, a weekly magazine close to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the Expediency Council, featured Khomeini on its cover with a headline: “Khomeini nostalgia: Seyyed [honorific marking descent from the prophet Mohammad] Hassan follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.”

Hassan Khomeini’s political preferences have been echoed by his son whose popular Instagram account has over 149,000 followers. His page features photos not just of Rafsanjani but also Iran’s most well known reformists, including former president Mohammad Khatami, and opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have been under house arrest since February 2011.

Ahmad is part of the large segment of Iranians aged 15-24, who make up roughly a quarter of the 80-million population, As a third of 55 million eligible voters, their political views will be important in future elections.

Students have had more political breathing room since Rouhani won the 2013 presidential election, with university campuses again buzzing with political slogans. Student groups have regained confidence since Rouhani’s Minister of Science, Research and Technology, Reza Faraji-Dana made a wave of new senior appointments in both the ministry and in the universities – even though Faraji-Dana was impeached by parliament last year.

This is a unique generation, which experienced the inspiring atmosphere of the 2009 presidential election as well as the subsequent street protests calling for change. More importantly, four years later, instead of boycotting the 2013 presidential elections as a result of the authorities’ post-2009 election crackdown, a significant portion of the age group helped elect Rouhani.

Iran’s young people are less ideological than their predecessors, says Ramin Jahanbegloo, the York-Noor Visiting Chair in Islamic Studies at York University, Toronto. “I think more than the social media, the decline of the Marxist and Islamist paradigms have played an important role in preparing a new generation of pluralist and post-ideological intellectuals in Iran,” he told Tehran Bureau.

An Iranian journalist covering domestic politics in Iran told Tehran Bureau that Ahmad Khomeini had already “attracted an important segment of the youth because of his support of Mousavi and Rafsanjani”. Ahmad may face a negative reaction from both those with anti-religious sentiment who dislike the Khomeini family name and with those attracted to the Basij volunteer militia, but the journalist suggested the young people with whom Ahmad is popular would “have a game-changing role in relation to where the country will be heading in the future, including the upcoming [2016] elections”.

Ahmad has not publicly commented in the press or on Instagram about job opportunities or unemployment among young people, which are among their top issues of concern, but he has tried to make his mark on Instagram as to who he thinks could best increase opportunities for Iranian youth: During the 2013 presidential campaign, Ahmad made it clear he was voting for Rouhani.

For Ahmad, things do not end in the virtual world. This summer, he was present at series of events tied to religion and politics. In June, he for the first time stood on the podium behind his father as he addressed vast crowds, including the political elite, at Ruhollah Khomeini’s mausoleum on the southwest edge of the capital to mark the 26th anniversary of his death. This had particular prominence as Hassan Khomeini is the shrine’s caretaker.

In early July, Ahmad dressed in clerical garb to lead prayers and deliver the nightly sermon for ten days at a small mosque in northeastern Iran. When photographs spread across the Internet, they surprised many people who were familiar with Ahmad pictured wearing brand names like Nike and Tommy Hilfiger on his Instagram page.

The 18-year-old explained on Instagram that he was not yet an official seminary student but was “unofficially” following the seminary student missionary tradition of visiting villages during the month of Ramadan. Next, on 17 July, during a Friday prayer service ceremony marking the al-Fetr holiday, ending Ramadan, at Tehran’s Mosalla mosque, he stood in the front row alongside Iran’s most senior government officials and just a few feet away from the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmad’s drift towards clerical studies takes on greater significance with his father’s probable candidacy in February’s Assembly of Experts election. Since 2009, Hassan has been increasingly critical of what he calls “extremists”. If he were to win a seat in the Assembly, this would increase the chances for young Ahmad to enter politics in the future.

If he wanted, Ahmad could wear clerical garb all-day every day. But like most Iranian teens, he wants to wear the latest fashion and have the trendiest gadgets. Iran’s youth are attracted to modernity - even the most hard-line youth have Facebook accounts and watch satellite television.

Ambitious and curious, Ahmad wants to relate to his young countrymen and women, perhaps to become a symbol for them. With his father already established politically and popular, Ahmad knows he bears a heavy responsibility as Ayatollah Khomeini’s great-grandson, which is why he is selective with each photo he shares on Instagram, and why he uses nuanced language in the accompanying captions. He is methodically creating his own version of the Khomeini brand.

The Tehran Bureau is an independent media organisation, hosted by the Guardian. Contact us @tehranbureau