Iranians are marking 31 years since the departure of the revered founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, an eternal example of the defeat of the West in imposing its will on freedom-seeking nations.

Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Rouhollah Mousavi Khomeini, better known as Imam Khomeini, passed away on June 3, 1989 at the age of 87.

As an anti-imperialist icon, he devoted his life to standing up to Iran’s former Pahlavi monarchy, a key ally of the United States, and eventually paved the way for the regime’s downfall in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

He spent many years in exile in Iraq, Turkey and France, from where he led a swelling grassroots movement, which ultimately put an end to millennia of monarchical rule in Iran.

He was not allowed to return to Iran during Pahlavi’s reign, and only came back home on February 1, 1979 after the monarch fled the country in the face of angry popular demonstrations. The Pahlavi regime fully collapsed 10 days later on February 11.