Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the leader of Iran who served as its first supreme leader since 1979 until his death.
As the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the Iranian Revolution, he saw the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his regime
While Reza Pahlavi's mission was rapid industrial and military modernization, as well as economic and social reforms, the Shah's rulership was seen as an oppressive, brutal, and corrupt. His mission also suffered from lack of judgement, resulting in failures that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages, and inflation.
It was Khomeini who brought huge changes to what was known as Persia, by becoming its highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, a position he held until his death in 1989.
Khomeini deposed Reza Pahlavi as the country's pro-Western leader, and ushered in the theocratic state Iran is then known for.
In 2023, during the Islamic Republic 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, President Ebrahim Raisi was giving his speech, live on television.
That before suddenly, his speech, which was also livestreamed on the internet, was interrupted for about a minute.
During that brief moment, a logo of a group of anti-Iranian government hackers was shown on screen.
The logo, which represents the hacker group "Edalate Ali," or "Justice of Ali," is known to have anti-government activists.
"Death to the Islamic Republic!" a masked woman said with an altered voice in the video, calling for street protests to continue and urge people to take their money out of local banks.
At the same time, on the streets, people are still protesting.
People were also shouting and chanting "Death to the Islamic Republic" and "Death to the dictator!"
At the same time, people were also heard chanting "Death to America," which has long been a slogan in Iran, and also chanted "Death to Israel."
Others any could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar!", or "God is Great!."
Iranian leaders and state media tried to appeal for the general public, as a way to show solidarity and popularity in an apparent response to the protests.
And there is no better time to do this, than during the Iranian Revolution anniversary.
“People have realized that the enemy’s problem is not woman, life, or freedom,” President Ebrahimi Raisi said in a live televised speech at Tehran’s Azadi Square, referring to the protesters’ signature slogan.
"Rather, they want to take our independence," he said.
He also accused the “enemies" of promoting "the worst kind of vulgarity, which is homosexuality."
Among the ways the Iranian government tried to appeal its citizens, include amnesties.
Read: Iran's Prominent Celebrity Stripped Her Clothes Off On Instagram To Support 'Women, Life, Freedom'
Here, Iranian authorities have released jailed dissident Farhad Meysami, who had been on a hunger strike, and Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have also issued an amnesty covering a large number of prisoners, including some arrested in recent anti-government protests.
A number of rights group, political prisoners and protesters, as well as some prominent figures, have been freed under the amnesty.
While they're all free, rights group suggests have expressed their concerns on social media, saying that many of those released were forced to sign pledges not to repeat their “offenses” before being released.
The judiciary denied this.
The nationwide protests Iran have swept throughout many cities in the country following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was at the time under the custody of the country’s morality police.
Since then, security forces have responded with a deadly crackdown to the protests, among the biggest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.
Read: How Technology Keeps Protests In Iran Alive, With Or Without The Internet
