QOM, IRAN: TO GO WITH AFP STORY: IRAN -VOTE-RELIGION-CLERICS An Iranian cleric student looks at the courtyard of Faiziyeh religious school in Iran's clerical capital Qom, 120 kms south of Tehran, 18 May 2005. It was in this desert city where it all began 42 years ago: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini branded the shah of Iran a "wretched, miserable man", and set in motion a series of events that led to the Islamic revolution. Khomeini's theocracy, where Shiite clerics exercise absolute power, is now 26 years old

Revolution at 40: Qom seminary at crossroads over clergy’s future in Iran

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QOM, IRAN: TO GO WITH AFP STORY: IRAN -VOTE-RELIGION-CLERICS An Iranian cleric student looks at the courtyard of Faiziyeh religious school in Iran's clerical capital Qom, 120 kms south of Tehran, 18 May 2005. It was in this desert city where it all began 42 years ago: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini branded the shah of Iran a "wretched, miserable man", and set in motion a series of events that led to the Islamic revolution. Khomeini's theocracy, where Shiite clerics exercise absolute power, is now 26 years old

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