NEAUPHLE-LE-CHATEAU: It has been nearly 50 years since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini recorded speeches calling for an Islamic revolution from a country home in an affluent village west of Paris.
But the inhabitants of Neauphle-le-Chateau have still not got over their famous guest, as the US-Israeli war against Iran puts the spotlight back on the ayatollah’s legacy.
Khomeini, the original spiritual guide of Iran’s modern theocracy, spent barely 120 days ensconced in a villa in the village 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the French capital, before returning in a blaze of publicity to complete the ousting of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in the Iranian Revolution in early 1979.
Andre, an 86-year-old neighbor of the house that was briefly Khomeini’s headquarters, recalled the sudden storm that hit sleepy Neauphle-le-Chateau in the Yvelines department.
“One evening on the television, they announced that an ayatollah had set up home in a comfortable district in the Yvelines,” said the retired engineer, who declined to give his family name but has lived in the village since 1974.
