The Grateful Family

Why today is the Shah reviled and Ayatullah Khomeini revered? One reason is that millions of Iranian poor were untouched by the new wealth of the monarch's industrializing society; meanwhile, many remember the role traditionally played by the Shi'ite mullahs as protectors of the oppressed. TIME Correspondent William McWhirter talked with one peasant family, uprooted from the Ayatullah's birthplace of Khomein (pop. 12,000) in central Iran. His report:

Surrounded by her sons and daughters, in-laws and grandchildren, the handsome 56-year-old matriarch, Marhemat Mokhtari, talks animatedly about the old feudal life in one of Iran's poorest areas. Fifty years ago, Khomein was controlled by landlords. A peasant who herded sheep was paid 30 rials, the equivalent of half a dollar, for a year's work. Tenant farmers who came to the area were given quotas to meet: often their entire crop of wheat was for the landlord, with nothing left over to make bread of their own. Mrs. Mokhtari remembers that the Ayatullah's grandfather and father were "always the dissenters, the militants." They allowed poorer farmers to take produce from their own lands, persuaded richer tenants to share their crops, distributed the tithes they received from the devout to those most in need.

Khomein today remains as poor as it was then. People and animals share one-story clay hovels; water is scarce. Instead of seeking out the mullahs to resolve disputes, the people are now subjected to the local police and to the bureaucracy in Tehran, 180 miles away.

In desperation, the Mokhtaris moved to Tehran 30 years ago. They have done better than most. Until four years ago, twelve members of the family lived in a one-room shack at the bottom of an abandoned ravine, surrounded by scrap, refuse and old tires. They struggled and sacrificed their way from the bottom of the ravine to the top of the hill. They built a two-story house with a Mediterranean-style courtyard, with electricity to power a TV set, a hi-fi and an air conditioner. Mrs. Mokhtari is proud of the honest work of her sons, who helped pay for these luxuries, but financial security remains elusive. The Mokhtaris were told that they must pay $36,000 to have their house connected to the water supply line because they were outside the Tehran municipal jurisdiction. "We've paid one-third of that, but we haven't been able to get three drops of water," she complains. Meanwhile, an apartment building up the street, owned in part by the Shah's brother Gholam Reza, was instantly hooked up. "Why is he inside and why are we outside?" asks Mrs. Mokhtari.

At the same time that she yearns for an Islamic republic guided by the Ayatullah, Mrs. Mokhtari is grateful for the new liberties for women that gave her three grown daughters the opportunity for an education and good jobs. She has no illusions about returning to the rough but simple life of Khomein a half-century ago. "We know the problems that any modern society faces," says Mrs. Mokhtari. "There is no way that we are going backward. The main trouble was that the government of the Shah was so corrupt. What we couldn't take was injustice."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.