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In Tehran’s Ebrat Museum, once a notorious prison for political detainees under the Shah, a narrow corridor is lined with photographs of former inmates. Among them, in a brown wooden frame, is the image of a middle-aged man with a bearded face and thick rectangular glasses. The name beneath, written in Farsi, reads: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

Preserved by the revolutionary regime as a grim reminder of the brutality of the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, Ebrat displays torture chambers and documents torture methods. One tiny, dimly lit cell, with a single barred window, has been left intact – it is where Mr. Khamenei was held. Inside stands a life-size wax figure of the Ayatollah, older than he appears in the photograph. Dressed in a black turban, which suggests lineage to the Prophet Mohammed, round spectacles, and a brown robe, the statue evokes both suffering and resolve. “Khamenei was imprisoned six times by the Shah’s police.

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