-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was once a student revolutionary himself , perhaps not much different from the thousands of protesters who this week have taken to the streets in Iran . Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became a political activist while a religious scholar studying under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini Khamenei became a political activist while a religious scholar studying under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , among others , according to his biography on his official Web site . He was part of a circle of clerics who opposed the rule of the shah of Iran , Mohammed Reza Pahlavi , and was jailed by the shah 's secret police , the Savak , at least six times in the 1960s and 1970s . He says he was tortured in prison before being exiled in 1976 , three years before the revolution that deposed the shah . Khomeini was in exile in Paris , France , when the shah fled Iran in 1979 . He appointed Khamenei to represent him on an Islamic Revolutionary Council , alongside other key figures such as Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani . The appointment may have been a career-making moment for Khamenei , who was a fairly low-level scholar at the time , said Iran analyst Shireen Hunter , a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in Washington . Learn more about Iran 's recent history `` He is not qualified to be an ayatollah , '' or top-ranking Islamic scholar , she said , saying he had picked up the title by dint of succeeding Khomeini as supreme leader , `` like an honorary doctorate . '' Khamenei , now 70 , was briefly minister of defense and head of Iran 's Revolutionary Guards in the early 1980s before becoming president , a post he held from 1982 to 1990 . In power , he clashed ideologically with Rafsanjani , favoring a more left-wing politics than Rafsanjani , who came from a more bourgeois background than the poor Khamenei . He also locked horns with the man who was prime minister when he was president -- Mir Hossein Moussavi , now the most prominent opposition leader . The two had similar anti-American , left-wing politics but struggled over power in what Hunter called `` the two-headed monster '' that was then the Iranian political structure . `` There were turf battles between the president and the prime minister , '' she said . Khomeini died in 1989 , and Khamenei was appointed the next supreme leader . The post of prime minister was abolished . Rafsanjani seems to have been a `` kingmaker '' in the elevation of Khamenei to the top job , Hunter said , perhaps thinking he would be the power behind the throne . But with time , Khamenei has become his own man , she said . Rafsanjani was president in the 1990s , but lost a comeback attempt in 2005 -- defeated by current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . As supreme leader , Khamenei is the ultimate arbiter of policy in Iran . He appoints the Guardian Council , the country 's election authority . He also appoints key posts in the intelligence services and the armed forces , including the powerful Revolutionary Guard . Additionally , he confirms the president 's election . In theory , the supreme leader is appointed by a body of clerics whom voters elect . But in practice , this body -- the Assembly of Experts -- has answered to the supreme leader . Khamenei 's authority has been challenged at times . Nearly half the members of Iran 's parliament criticized him openly in 2004 for ordering general elections to go ahead despite a widespread belief that they would not be free or fair . The elections took place as scheduled . Khamenei supports the country 's controversial nuclear program , and when President Obama reached out directly to the people of Iran with a video message , it was Khamenei who responded . Khamenei said in March he saw no change in U.S. policy toward Iran despite Obama 's promise of a `` new beginning . '' He said a change in rhetoric was not enough , and Washington must practice what it preaches , according to the English-language Press TV channel in Iran . He hailed the disputed Iranian presidential election as `` a miracle '' for the record turnout , but that very public enthusiasm for the election may signal a shift that Khamenei failed to anticipate . `` He has now very much become his own man , but the country has changed , '' Hunter said . `` Look at the women 's situation . They make a big deal out of saying how many women they have educated . That is true , but then you can not expect them to keep doing things the same way . ''