Is presence of a leader needed to unite Iran? How smuggled audio tapes of Khomeini from exile helped establish Islamic Republic

When Mojtaba Khamenei’s first message as Iranian Supreme Leader was read out by TV anchors of the Islamic Republic on Thursday (Mar 12), historical parallels were not lost on observers. Smuggled audio cassettes containing the messages and sermons of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had once contributed to sparking the Iran Revolution that established the Islamic Republic in 1979. Mojtaba’s message was a clear call for Iranians to fight to safeguard that revolution and the Islamic Republic. He may or may not succeed in ruling through audio or text messages, but Iranians certainly remember the parallels from history.

Mojtaba is ‘ghosting’. But this is nothing new for the Islamic Republic

Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed Supreme Leader this month after his father and the second Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint Israel-US strike on February 28 that sparked the ongoing Iran war. Mojtaba’s first public statement was primarily a written one, without him making himself seen. This creates an ironic modern parallel with Khomeini: the founder of the Islamic Republic built revolutionary momentum through prolific voice recordings while in exile, and the current leader is operating through messaging without making any appearance since being chosen.

Khomeini’s audio tape revolution

The audio cassette phenomenon took place ahead of and during Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, making it one of the most striking instances of low-tech media being used to power a mass uprising. Exiled since 1964, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini recorded sermons and political speeches while living in Najaf, Iraq, until 1978, and later from a rented house in Neauphle-le-Château, a village west of Paris in France, from October 1978 until his return to Iran. The tapes became the most powerful and ubiquitous underground communication tool of the revolution.

How Khomeini’s tapes were produced, smuggled and distributed

Khomeini’s most influential tapes, which were played via loudspeakers during and after the Islamic Revolution, were recorded on ordinary tape recorders in the 1970s, mostly from the French village. Cassette copies were cheaply duplicated in France or Iraq and then smuggled into Iran through clandestine channels. Trusted couriers, merchants, and Shia pilgrims returning from holy sites in Iraq brought the tapes to Iran, often hidden in personal luggage, clothing, suitcases, or mixed with ordinary goods. Despite strict monitoring by SAVAK, the Iranian Shah’s secret police, many of these cassettes still found their way into the nation.

Audio messages of Khomeini mobilised a grassroots network

The tapes were eagerly listened to by Khomeini’s followers, creating a grassroots network primed for revolution. Cheap home cassette recorders were used by activists and mosque networks to reproduce hundreds of duplicates from a single master copy of Khomeini’s cassettes. At the peak of revolutionary mobilisation in Iran, some 90,000 mosques across the country simultaneously duplicated and circulated Khomeini’s audio messages. His voice became ubiquitous while he remained physically absent from the country.

The cassettes were passed through bazaars, private homes, student circles, and religious gatherings, and were sold cheaply on the streets. They were so much in demand that the cassettes were resold for around $1.25, giving daily profits to the sellers. Khomeini’s speeches and sermons were openly played during Friday prayers, effectively turning mosques into revolutionary broadcast hubs. The regime could not fully suppress the spread of his message, as the cassettes bypassed the Shah’s tight control over radio, television, and the print media networks.

What followed was the Islamic Revolution.

What was the message of Khomeini in the smuggled audio tapes?

In the tapes, Khomeini’s calm, authoritative and slow voice denounced the Shah as a tyrant. He described the Westernisation of Iran at the time as cultural imperialism and called for a new government based on Islamic identity. His voice reached millions directly, bypassing media censorship.

He framed the revolution as a war to safeguard the Islamic faith. The message resonated with vast segments of Iranian society — from bazaari merchants and clerics to students and ordinary Shia Muslim believers who formed the backbone of the revolution.

The silent revolution that paralysed Iran

Historians described the tapes as a “silent revolution” organised in mosques and religious seminaries. They helped coordinate protests, strikes, and mass demonstrations that paralysed the country in 1978–79. Even though Khomeini had not been physically present in Iran for over a decade, his voice remained in constant contact with followers inside the country.

The tapes also contained specific instructions to clerics. According to one description, the recordings became “as vital as a daily newspaper” by late 1978. Bloody crackdowns eroded the Shah’s legitimacy and convinced millions that an Islamic Republic under Khomeini was not only possible but inevitable.

Under the weight of the public uprising, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled Iran on 16 January 1979. On 1 February 1979, Khomeini returned from exile in a chartered Air France jet to a hero’s welcome by millions in Tehran.

All this while, he was not a ghostly figure to them. His voice had already enabled the nationwide unification of people under the principles and ideas he had shared for years through those audio messages.