Mojtaba Khamenei, the 59‑year‑old new Supreme Leader of Iran, is reportedly facing intense scrutiny over his health, sexuality and private life after he was seriously injured in the Feb. 28 airstrike in Tehran that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and five other family members including his wife Zahra and teenage son Mohammad Bagher.
Mojtaba's rapid rise to the top of Iran's theocratic hierarchy was already contentious before the airstrike. Long seen by some analysts as a powerful backroom operator, he has now assumed formal leadership just as rumours about his survival, health and personal history are being scrutinised by foreign governments, exiled opponents and the international press. Little of this can be independently verified, but it is shaping how the outside world discusses the man now formally titled Leader of the Revolution.
