The Tragedy of Flight 655 : Rare Description by Daughter of Ayatollah : Khomeini Called Loving, Demanding

The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini reads the Koran, Islam’s holy book, seven times a day, takes a radio with him to the bathroom to keep up with the news, and is an obsessive clock-watcher, his daughter says.

In a talk last month to students at Roshd High School in Tehran, Zahra Mostafavi gave an insight into the home life of Iran’s revolutionary patriarch.

“His self-discipline is unbelievable. You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it for yourself,” she told the children.

The talk was published in the Islamic Revolution Martyr Foundation’s magazine and reprinted in an unofficial English-language newsletter received recently in Nicosia.

The 49-year-old daughter, who is married, made no mention of her father’s health, which is reported to be deteriorating. He is believed to be 88 years old.

Mostafavi painted a portrait of a loving, if demanding, father who used to take his family on summer vacations in the mountains before he became a revolutionary leader banished into exile by the late Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Such a picture is far from the public image of the stern, unsmiling zealot whose Muslim fundamentalist revolution eliminated former allies and brought Iran into a seemingly endless war with Iraq.

Mostafavi was quoted as saying her father observes a strict schedule at his home in the north Tehran suburb of Jamaran and becomes so engrossed in his studies of the Koran or affairs of state that he sometimes does not talk for hours.

Punctual for Lunch

“He’s so punctual that if he doesn’t turn up for lunch at exactly 1:20 p.m., everyone gets worried,” she said. “He regulates his day in such a way that he turns up for lunch at exactly that time.

“To him, such things as ‘I sleep whenever I like’ or ‘I feel like going to sleep’ are meaningless. He eats exactly on time. He wakes up exactly on time. He goes to bed exactly on time.”

Mostafavi noted: “He goes walking three times a day, each time for exactly 20 minutes. When he gets back, he looks at his watch to see if it’s been 20 minutes. If it’s not, he turns around and takes a few more steps just to make everything complete.”

She said that Khomeini, engrossed in some activity or other, sometimes will not even talk to her when she goes to his study.

“Just because I’m his daughter doesn’t mean that we have a conversation each time,” she said. “I go into the room and say hello and just sit there, because he’s either listening to the radio or watching television or reading letters and reports.

“He’s not free even for a minute. Even in the bathroom, he has the radio with him.”

She said Khomeini’s income includes “taaroufi, “ or personal gifts from well-wishers and admirers to show their respect for his religious standing. She said these gifts include “some money or gold” which he sometimes spends “on home expenses.”

Referring to Khomeini’s religious devotion, she said: “He reads the Koran seven times a day at special times. There are also prayer books he reads, and he doesn’t care who’s there.”

Tunes In to BBC

Diplomats who have visited Khomeini at home said he regularly listens to the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Persian-language service, a habit that dates back to his exile in Iraq from 1963 to 1978.

The visitors said Khomeini often wears a small transistor radio on a cord around his neck. He also is reported to be a fan of Mickey Mouse and often watches cartoons on a videocassete recorder.

Mostafavi is one of Khomeini’s three daughters. His son, Ahmed, 48, is one of his closest advisers and carefully screens the hundreds of people who want to visit him every day.

Diplomats who have been based in Tehran said Ahmed only allows two or three people to see his father every day, usually at breakfast or lunch, so as not to tire him.

Another son, Mustafa, died in Iraq during Khomeini’s exile there.

Khomeini married Khanom Batool Saghafi in the Iran’s shrine city of Qom when he was a 29-year-old theology student and she was a teen-ager. Mostafavi said her mother, who is rarely seen in public, is “very sedate and cool. She went with him everywhere. In all that time, she has never complained.”

Despite his unyielding religious and political beliefs, Mostafavi said Khomeini “is very easy with his children. He has 14 grandchildren and a great-grandchild now. He allows the children a large degree of freedom.

“He doesn’t preach to the grownups that they should do this or that. He sets examples by his actions . . . but he gets very angry at the slightest act forbidden by religion.”

“He’s somewhat formal with people other than his family. But he’s very kind to his family.”