Men Against a Monarch

In the politics of Iran, only one man counted until recently: Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Now, however, four key opposition figures have emerged who may well determine whether or not the monarch keeps his embattled throne. The four:

AYATULLAH KHOMEINI, 80, chief mullah (religious leader) of the country's Shi'ite Muslim sect, to which 93% of all Iranians adhere, and symbol of resistance to the Shah. Khomeini was exiled in 1963 for opposing the Shah's land-reform program, ostensibly because it conflicted with Islamic law. He directs an almost messianic campaign to overthrow the Shah from a white stucco house in the French village of Neauphle-le-Château, not far from the home of Brigitte Bardot. Five times a day French gendarmes stop traffic while the ayatullah (a Persian term meaning "sign of God") shuffles across the road in robes and black turban to face Mecca and kneel in prayer under an apple tree.

Sitting lotus fashion on a small rug in his cottage, Khomeini these days receives a constant stream of Iranian visitors and inquisitive reporters. In a voice barely above a whisper, he issues unrelenting calls for a jihad (holy war) against the Shah and his replacement by a democratically elected Islamic republic, which Khomeini professes no interest in heading. He wants to reduce Western influence in Iran. The appointment of the new military government, he told TIME Paris Correspondent Sandy Burton last week, "will not change anything. Rather, it will intensify the unrest and strikes ... The goal of our people's struggle is to wipe out the root and the fundamental cause of all the corruption and crimes, which is the Shah and the monarchy."

AYATULLAH SHARIETMADARI, 76, a Shi'ite scholar who speaks for the conservative, religious-based resistance to the Shah from within Iran, as Khomeini speaks for it from without. Sharietmadari, who lives in the holy city of Qum, is slightly less militant than his fellow mullah. He believes in an Islamic state but has not ruled out a constitutional monarchy so long as it adheres to Islamic principles. A holy war, he argues, is acceptable only as a last resort—that is, if the Shah ignores the Islamic community's legitimate demands. He insists on the segregation of sexes in schools, but is not opposed to higher education for women or their right to vote—in booths separate from men. "The demands of the religious community and the Iranian people," says Sharietmadari, "are in accordance with the most advanced legal regulations of the world."

KARIM SANJABI, 73, arrested last week, is the leader of the National Front, the most vocal political force opposing the Shah. A professor of law at Tehran University and an expert on constitutional government, Sanjabi looks more like an elderly businessman than an opposition political figure. He was once a disciple of Mohammed Mossadegh, the "fainting fanatic" who nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.; he served in Mossadegh's Cabinet before the Premier was overthrown by the Iranian army (with CIA help) in 1953.

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