Khadijeh saqafi
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Her father, AyatollahMirza Mohammad Saqafi, was a respected religious scholar and author of the Quranic exegesisTafsir Javan, and her great-grandfather, Mirza Abulfazl Tehrani, was a Tehran-based theologian known for works such as Shafa al-Sudur and Ziyarat-e Ashura.[6][4]As the first child of her parents, Saqafi was raised in considerable affluence by her grandmother, whose own father had served as treasury minister under Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, amassing substantial wealth.
*Derived from the Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini Works
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The Imam's wife brought her children up well. Thus the scholars and clergymen of Najaf showed great affection to and admiration for the Imam and his family.Hajj Agha Mustafa's martyrdom while they were in exile, was a very bitter and sorrowful experience for the Imam and his wife.
Even after they were deported from Iran to Iraq, she still wanted to continue her studies.
She cooked simple food for the Imam who was given strict doctor's orders to abstain from having particular ingredients. At age nine, circa 1922, the family relocated from Tehran to Qom, where her father enrolled in advanced studies at the Qom Seminary, shifting their lifestyle toward greater religious immersion.[2][6]Saqafi's formal education took place at an elitemodernschool in Tehran, limited to 20 female students from wealthy backgrounds—such as those of doctors and merchants—and costing 5 rials monthly, reflecting the exclusivity of secular education for girls at the time.
Imam Khomeini always encouraged his wife to study and helped her a great deal.
Khadijeh Saqafi
Khadijeh Saqafi (1913 – 21 March 2009) was the wife of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and inaugural Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[1] Born in Tehran to a family headed by a prominent cleric and merchant, she married the then-young cleric Khomeini in 1929, forgoing a life of relative privilege to share in his scholarly and later oppositional pursuits.[2] The couple had five children, and Saqafi managed the family household through Khomeini's exiles to Turkey, Iraq, and France in the 1960s and 1970s, providing domestic stability amid his anti-Shah activism, though she eschewed any public role.[3] Iranian state outlets later styled her the "mother of the Islamic Revolution" for her steadfast spousal support, but independent accounts emphasize her reclusive demeanor and lack of overt political involvement.[1][3]
Early Life and Background
Birth and Family Origins
Khadijeh Saqafi was born in 1913 in Tehran to a family of Shiʿa Muslim clergy.[4][5][2] Her father, Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Saqafi (also known as Hajj Mirza Mohammad Thaqafi-e Tehrani), was a respected cleric, merchant, and author of the Qurʾanic exegesis Tafsir Javan.[4][5] The family's clerical background provided Saqafi with an upbringing steeped in religious scholarship and traditional Persian-Islamic values, though specific details on her mother or siblings remain sparsely documented in available accounts.[4][2]Education and Upbringing
Khadijeh Saqafi was born in 1913 in Tehran to a prominent clerical family.She endured the loss of her son Ahmad Khomeini, who died of cardiac arrest on March 16, 1995, at age 50, an event that reportedly deepened her isolation but did not lead to documented public family rifts.[1] Official biographies emphasize her resilience in upholding family unity and revolutionary ideals, with no substantiated accounts of tensions; however, broader analyses of the Khomeini clan's post-1989 marginalization suggest underlying frictions over influence, though Saqafi's private demeanor precluded her active participation in such disputes.[3] Regime sources, prone to idealization, portray these familial bonds as unblemished, contrasting with the scarcity of corroborative evidence from neutral observers.
Death and Immediate Aftermath
Final Years and Health Decline
Khadijeh Saqafi's health began to decline markedly in her later years following the death of her husband, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989.Although Khomeini initially resided in Bursa, Turkey, Saqafi joined him in Najaf, Iraq, after the family's relocation there in October 1965, leaving behind a more comfortable life in Qom and adapting to significantly harsher conditions. This was a huge boost to the Imam's morale. She sought medical treatment abroad on several occasions, including a trip to London shortly after Khomeini's passing and additional travels, likely to Spain, for eye-related care.[14]By 2008, Saqafi's condition worsened into a prolonged illness that persisted until her death.
After Imam Khomeini was released from prison and was detained in the Qeytariah area of Tehran, a new period of patience and struggle began.
Lady Khadija moved to Tehran to be with her husband, who was under house arrest. However she never complained or showed that she was in pain. Her great grandfather was Mirza Abulfazl Tehrani, who was a genius in his era and wrote the famous book "Shafa Al-Sodoor" which described 'Ziyarat-e-Ashura'.
Imam Khomeini's wife was very intelligent, and showed great interest in pursuing her studies.
Finally in 2007 she passed away and was buried beside the Imam. Official tributes upon her death on March 21, 2009, at age 93, reinforced this image, with state funerals and commemorations framing her as a "beloved wife" whose endurance through "thick and thin" exemplified velayat-e faqih's familial ethos.[10] This narrative, disseminated via state institutes and media, serves to humanize Khomeini's persona while reinforcing regime legitimacy, though it draws from selective memoirs and lacks independent corroboration of her inner motivations beyond hagiographic lenses.[5]
Criticisms and Alternative Viewpoints
While Khadijeh Saqafi was officially eulogized as a paragon of piety and revolutionary sacrifice following her death on March 21, 2009, dissident Iranian voices and exile commentators have portrayed her enduring influence within the Khomeini family as emblematic of nepotistic privileges embedded in the Islamic Republic's power structure.Her hospitality was famous among people in Qom, Najaf and Tehran.
Lady Khadija had a close relationship with the families of government officials and authorities, and made sure that her meetings with them did not involve political debates. Opponents of the regime, including women's rights advocates, contend that her alignment with Ayatollah Khomeini's ideology facilitated policies post-1979 that reversed pre-revolutionary gains in female autonomy, such as mandatory hijab enforcement announced by Khomeini on March 7, 1979, and restrictions on mixed-gender interactions, framing her as complicit in a broader causal chain leading to institutionalized gender segregation and legal inequalities.[27][7]Scrutiny has also focused on personal aspects of her life, including her marriage at age 15 to the 27-year-old Khomeini in 1929, which contemporary critics cite as reflective of normalized child marriages endorsed by clerical elites—a practice defended in regime discourse but increasingly contested amid Iran's ongoing debates over legal minimum ages, where similar unions persisted in Khomeini family circles.
Their love for one another was talked of and admired by friends and family.
The Imam's wife was a real and sincere religious woman. Saqafi provided emotional steadfastness amid these challenges, reportedly without voicing complaints despite personal homesickness.