It's true. Ali Khamenei, Iran's "Supreme Leader," Ayatollah in chief and mother of all deciders (at least in that part of the world) has his own Web site.
Actually, more than that. He has two portals to his web highness: there's www.khamenei.ir, where visitors can fan out according to no less than 13 languages, including English, French, Urdu, Arabic Farsi, Swahili, Japanese and something called "Indonesia" (actually Bahasa Indonesia, a derivative of Malay, but no Javanese). A second portal, featuring a more saluting than inclining Khamenei, goes by a more leader-like url: www.leader.ir, but provides pretty much the same fanning service, except that Hausa and Swahili aren't offered, but Azerbaijani is.
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Either way, it's more than the White House Web site offers (English only, with a few speeches in Spanish and a few in Arabic or Farsi, depending on the audience targeted for flattery or manipulation). It's also a lot more than the French presidency's Web site (no surprise there: France still thinks that Louis XIV's language is the the world's lingua franca) or the British prime minister's Web site (which looks like something a high school student put together in his spare time).
Khamenei, in other words, means to be heard, and doesn't implicitly thinks everyone speaks his language. The mere inclusion of Great Satan languages like English or Brie Satan languages like French suggests that the man is at least willing to acknowledge the existence of other tongues, not assume that everyone should wrap theirs around his.
Two Portals, Two Interpretations, One Ayatollah
Oddly though, the two portals lead to different versions of the World According to Khamenei. Going in by way of the "leader" page, the top story for English readers is a Nowruz message about the trouble with consumption, conspicuous or otherwise. ("In light of the vitality of rationality in consuming the country's resources, he considers the new Iranian year as the year of revision to pattern of consumption nationwide.") Nothing about foreign affairs, nothing about Barack Obama's Nowruz messsage to Iran.
Go in by way of khamenei.ir, however, and the top story looks tailor-made for the American chat-show circuit: "Supreme Leader Demands Genuine Change in US policies." There's even a special message for Obama:
Ayatollah Khamenei referred to Obama's attempts at negotiation and his slogans of change, further adding: "If there is really any change, apart from a change in a small portion of your rhetoric, show it. Did you end your animosity against the Iranian nation? Did you release Iran's frozen assets? Did you lift the sanctions against us? Did you give up slandering and broadcasting negative propaganda against our nation? Did you give up your unconditional support for the Zionist regime?" The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution also stressed: "Change must not be accompanied by ulterior motives and verbiage. If you try to pursue the same goals and only change the policies, that constitutes a machination not a change. If you intend to bring about genuine change, you must show something in action. In any case, all the American officials as well as other people must know that the Iranian nation will not be deceived or intimidated."
Who Controls Khamenei?
So why the difference between the two sites? Look closer: that khamenei.ir site has a red stamp at the top that reads: "Trial Version" (even Iran has its betas). Also, it looks like the two sites are the work of two different entities, and may well represent competing interest groups in Iran. Khamenei.ir is produced by "The Center for Preserving and Publishing the Works of Grand Ayatollay Sayyid Ali Khamenei." The other one, leader.ir, is produced by "The Office of the Supreme Leader" himself. Is one to be considered official and the other not? Is one the real Khamenei, and the other the wishful version? The Glasnost version?
It occurs to me that Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's insufferable little detective, could speak Farsi, among the 56-odd languages he was, by the miracle of translations, fluent in. Agatha Christie is dead. Poirot, like all fictions, is not. Maybe the Khamenei mystery should be his next assignment. One supreme fiction deserves another.