Neauphle-le-Château

Neauphle-le-Château is a village 35 kilometres from Paris, on the outskirts of the city, which is the capital of France, due to Imam Khomeini’s several month stay there (from October to February 1978) It enjoyed great fame and importance with the Iranian people and the history of the Islamic Revolution.

The region became world-famous when a crowd of enthusiasts, revolutionaries, and opponents of the Pahlavi regime, local and foreign journalists flocked there to meet with Imam Khomeini.

 

He moved there after the Iraqi regime, following a secret agreement with the Pahlavi government, placed the place of residence in exile of the Imam in Najaf under strict surveillance and controlled any movement of people and followed by Iraqi security officials, announced to Imam Khomeini the necessity of leaving Iraq, therefore, the Imam decided to leave there and settle in one of the two Islamic countries of Kuwait or Syria. Therefore, the Imam decided to leave there and settle in one of the two Islamic countries of Kuwait or Syria.

 

However, due to the opposition of these countries, because France had more freedom and the Pahlavi regime had less influence there and Iranians could go there without a visa, it became their forced residence. Thus, on October 5, 1978, Imam Khomeini, along with his son Haj Sayyed Ahmad Khomeini, Dr. Ebrahim Yazdi, Shaykh Esmail Ferdosipour, and Shaykh Mohammad-Hoseyn Emlaei, left Baghdad airport in an Iraqi jumbo jet, and at 6 pm Tehran time on Friday, October 6, 1978, they set foot at Orly Airport in Paris.

 

Due to the possibility of any danger from the Iraqi and Iranian governments on the Imam’s life, by stopping the plane between the route (Geneva, Switzerland), Dr. Yazdi‎ and Shaykh Emlaei‎ informed the Imam’s friends in Paris of the Imam’s trip so that they would more prepared for the arrival of the Imam. Abolhasan Banisadr, Hasan Habibi, Ahmad Ghazanfarpour, Habibollah Ayatollahi and Ahmad Salamatian welcomed the Imam at the airport. From the very beginning, Imam Khomeini and his companions lived in the house of an Iranian living in France named Mr. Ghazanfarpour in the Cachan commune of Paris. After two days, for some reason, they left the Imam of Paris and went to the suburbs of Paris, namely Neauphle-le-Château, and settled in the house of Mahdi Asgari, one of the Iranians who loved the Imam. Until his re-entry into Iran on February 1, 1979, the Imam and his companions and lovers were stationed in this village.

 

With the presence of the Imam in France and the awareness of fighters, revolutionaries and students living in Europe and the United States, Iranian and non-Iranian journalists and reporters travelled to France and Neauphle-le-Château‎ to meet and discuss and provide news and images. The world turned into the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Thus, I think that village became world-famous. This was especially the case when the Figaro newspaper published an interview with the Imam on October 14, 1978, and published it, while in the first days after the Imam’s arrival in Paris, French officials had explicitly banned any interviews and political activities against the Pahlavi regime, informing them that his maximum stay in France would be three months, after which he would have to leave the country.

The interview with Figaro prompted other publications and video media outlets to compete for news from the Imam and his followers in Neauphle-le-Château. With the presence of Iranian students who were studying at European universities to meet the Imam in Neauphle-le-Château, which usually increased in number on Saturdays and Sundays, the news of the Islamic movement and Imam Khomeini in Iran, Europe and the United States increasingly spread. This occurred especially because the students were very active in publishing the Imam’s proclamations and speeches in Europe and the United States. Thus, while the Pahlavi government did not oppose the residence of the Imam, thinking that with the arrival of the Imam in France, he would be isolated and forgotten and as a result the movement would be silenced, Neauphle-le-Château became the reason for the worldwide fame of the Imam and the movement and also became a means of exposing the non-Islamic and anti-Islamic façade of the Pahlavi regime.

Imam Khomeini and his companions lived in three houses during their stay in Neauphle-le-Château. At first, after ten days, the house in front of Mahdi Asgari’s house was rented and the Imam and his family, who had come to Neauphle-le-Château, settled there. Mr. Asgari’s small house was located in the middle of a 1,500-metre garden, dedicated to gatherings of Iranian students and members of the Imam’s office, and some of the Imam’s congregational prayers were held there. In addition, a small inn nearby was set aside for students and other followers of the Imam, who came from different parts of the country, to rest and sleep. In addition, Mr. Ghazanfarpour’s home in Paris was a meeting place for travellers arriving in France or Neauphle-le-Château.

During his stay in Neauphle-le-Château, the Imam rested for 4 to 6 hours, so he spent most of his time working against the Pahlavi regime and advancing the Islamic movement. Studying reports and news of Iran and the world, correspondence and replies to letters received, lecturing and issuing announcements and messages and talking to the media and journalists and answering questions from the audience at Neauphle-le-Château, were his most important work plans. After a while, his congregational prayers were held in the garden of Mr. Asgari’s house and became the gathering place of many lovers of the revolution.

In the same place, the Imam’s positions towards the Pahlavi regime, Western governments and colonial countries, as well as the United States and the United Kingdom, the past and future of the movement and finally the purpose and future of the struggle of the Imam and the Iranian people and the fate of Mohammad-Reza Shah Pahlavi were explained. These activities caused the Pahlavi regime to falter and to prevent the continuation of the activities of the leader of the Islamic movement in various ways. For this reason, various world political figures rushed to meet the Imam to somehow change his position towards the Shah and the Pahlavi regime but the Imam stressed the need for the Shah to leave Iran and end the Pahlavi dynasty over Iran. His strong stances caused the administrations of Ja’far Sharif-Emami and Gholamreza Azhari to fall, and this time it was Shahpour Bakhtiar’s turn to form his own cabinet, but from the very beginning, he opposed him and his cabinet, calling it illegal. It caused several political figures to come to the Imam again and mediate to change his opinion about Bakhtiar.

 

With the departure of Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi from Iran on January 16, 1979, the foundations of the Pahlavi regime collapsed even more, which is why the Imam announced his definite return to Iran. This announcement caused panic among the Pahlavi statesmen and Bakhtiar himself at the head of the government. Therefore, he tried to delay the Imam’s return to Iran. On the other hand, the Royal Council was formed under the chairmanship of Sayyed Jalaloddin Tehrani with the intimidation of the Shah but after a few days, with the resignation of its chairman in the presence of the Imam, that council was dissolved.

 

With the closure of the country’s airports to Imam Khomeini by order of Bakhtiar, a large protest sit-in was held in the mosque and campus of the University of Tehran by the clergy to open the airports as soon as possible. Eventually, following public opposition, mass demonstrations, and internal and external pressures, Bakhtiar was forced to open airports for the return of the Imam. Imam also returned to Iran on February 1, 1979, via a chartered Air France flight with more than 200 companions and local and foreign journalists.

 

During the presence of the Imam and his companions in Neauphle-le-Château, a special friendship and intimacy were established with the people of that village, so when leaving there, a large number of French people accompanied him and expressed great satisfaction and happiness from the days of the Imam’s presence there.

 

Neauphle-le-Château is very important for the Islamic Revolution, as a street in Tehran is named after this town and the house where the Imam lived in that village was purchased by the Imam Khomeini Publishing House as a historical, important and effective place in the Islamic movement. In addition to Neauphle-le-Château becoming the sister city of the city of Khomein in Iran, every year during the “Ten-Day Dawn” of the Islamic Revolution, a ceremony is held there by the lovers of the Imam and the Revolution.

Archive of The Enemies of the Islamic Revolution