He’s baaack — not in the flesh, but as a cardboard cutout.
Thirty-three years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned from Parisian exile to revolutionize Iran, the country’s regime re-enacted the arrival at Tehran’s airport and other locations in the capital this week.
But since the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran died in 1989, they made do with a larger-than-life-size cutout of the leader.
As 40 uniformed officers, each holding a rose, waited on the tarmac and a military band played, Cardboard Khomeini was solemnly escorted off a jet by two white-gloved attendants in dark glasses.
He was joined on the ground by another cutout — this one based on a photo of Khomeini as he walked down the airstairs on Feb. 1, 1979. He was then whisked away in a limo.
The state Mehrs News Agency also released photos of another Cardboard Khomeini seated with several dignitaries at the Refah School, which he made his headquarters 33 years ago.