Activists hang an anti-Khamenei Banner from a Iranian Highway

Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is an Iranian politician as the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja.

He was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and has been Supreme Leader of Iran since June 1989 when the Assembly of Experts appointed him to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He has been described as one of only three people having "important influences" on the Islamic Republic of Iran (the other two being the founder of the republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the president of Iran for much of the 1990s, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani). So far, the biggest challenge to his leadership has been the mass protests following the June 2009 presidential elections.

Khamenei, however, continued to strongly support Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's policies and re-election. After his speech in regards to June’s 2010 protest, over 1000 intellectuals were imprisoned and his riot police killed the protester in the streets of Tehran. Khamenei was the victim of an attack aimed to assassinate him in June 1981 which paralyzed his right arm.