The courageous resisters embodied the energy of the Imam’s eternal youthfulness and showed that they were his soldiers ready to avenge his death and continue his unfinished work.
Development from local government-up
The Imam made it his historical responsibility to force USA to retreat from West Asia. This dovetailed into the Global South’s aim to make it retreat from all its regions.
The aim is to create a multipolar world with a fair and just global governance system, from local government-up.Towards qualitative development
Those countries that had structural maldevelopment imposed on them by IMF, World Bank, and the Paris Club need to deconstruct it and shift from quantitative economic growth to qualitative socio-economic development.
Definition of development
Development is the capacity and capability of the state to create sovereign social development out of sustainable economic growth by means of widespread distribution of wealth.
Need for collective security as condition for development
The Islamic Republic demonstrated through the 40-Day War the need for regional, military, and political security. This requires regional cooperation, collaboration, dialogue, and peaceful coexistence to counter external threats. Mutual trust is a necessity because without security there cannot be development.
The task of the Global South is to re-globalize the world in its own multiple images.
The Imam’s foreknowledge
The Imam had foreknowledge of the consequences of losing national sovereignty. Hence, his leadership in defending and advancing the right to it as the non-negotiable national character of the Islamic Republic.
Consequences of losing national sovereignty
The lessons of the Sahel region in Africa are instructive.
On 24 August 2026 three countries of the Sahel region (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso) held their inaugural Confederal Parliament of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) to assert their newfound joint sovereignty – beyond the sovereignty of colourful flags. They agreed on a common biometric passport, a confederal TV network, and a CFA franc development bank.
Niger’s uranium stockpile
But 200km away in Agadez city, Niger had stored 1800 tons of its uranium. It was nationalised from the French nuclear group Orano in June 2025. Fourteen months later it remained unsold and blocked by an international arbitration order. France threatened Niger’s sovereignty over its uranium stockpile.
The struggle on seven fronts
AES is still fighting on seven fronts to win: fiscal and monetary sovereignty; control of its own indigenous story; cultural and spiritual transformation; confrontation posed by armed ‘political Islamic’ groups; the military struggle for territory; productive transformation; and an independent foreign policy.
The struggle is seven decades-long because the parasitic ‘state bourgeoisie’ compromised sovereignty for factionalised political and economic power. The French Treasury totally controlled the bank accounts of the three countries through the Paris Club. The region was marked by many coups since 1958.
External and internal threats
External threats included proxy wars, sanctions, blockades, lawfare, and information war specifically waged against the socialist model in the Sahel. In the 1980s France imposed structural adjustment program that forced the governments to cut down social spending on veterinary services, agricultural extension, and grain reserves that had once sustained rural livelihoods. It became the new source of social discontent in peaceful rural communities.
Internal threats included bureaucracy, corruption, a ‘state bourgeoisie’, and sacrifice fatigue.
The seven fronts aim to rebuild AES sovereignty over currency, mining, faith, culture, food, defence and more. AES is growing its own firm backbone.
(Seven Fronts: The Sahel’s Fight for Sovereignty: International People’s Assembly: 2 September 2026)l Quran News Agency
Iranians localising sovereignty
How do Iranians commute Iranian sovereignty forward so that it enters their daily lives and improves their livelihood? This should result in agrarian reform at large scale and poverty eradication. It should also have the capability to evolve through local development with the capacity to adapt to changing material conditions – even withstanding imposed wars.
From small local projects
Small local projects have the potential to grow cumulatively into large projects with national impact. And translate the initiative into institutions like cooperatives and waqfs to enhance local government performance. Be positioned to share in the economic momentum that will follow the end of the current war. Create local supply and demand of consumer goods and widen the local circulation of money.
Locals taking proactive charge of their own affairs contributes to supporting the government manage the macro-environment of enemy hostility.
Progress and development produce such unintended challenges.
Grassroots democratic planning
The enabling environment created by the national government provides space for grassroots democratic planning for economic development in collaboration with the local government. There is opportunity to determine what is produced from local materials and strengthen productivity and supply chains while there are numerous new trade corridors that connect Iran to Eurasia.
Local community involvement in large projects like agriculture, mining, and manufacturing is necessary and should translate into building schools, clinics, and more. This may be considered enhanced local emancipation.
The revolution that the Imam led will continue to change Iran, the region, and the world, for which he had trust in people.
Trust-building is a democratic process and practice
Trust begins with the common purpose of a group. Constant interaction, conversation, dialogue, collaboration, and networking build trust. Repetition of them is reinforcement that build memories of fulfilled faith in people.
A single breach of faith delinks the chain of wholesome memories. It requires effort to relink faith. It requires seeking and accepting forgiveness by the wrong-doer and the wronged.
Trust is a heart
Trust is the heart of social interaction or else the social membrane weakens in elasticity. The social system becomes dysfunctional in parts where there are damaged relationships. As the repaired relationships heal they present opportunities for deeper friendships. Self-confidence helps to overcome the uncertainty of change. Change is embraced with renewed faith.
Management of reliability and morality
Building trust requires management of reliability and morality, which are operationalised not by law but by trust alone. It produces satisfaction as its own reward. It is aided by competency, consistency, and responsibility. It is achieved by doing what is promised. Avoid promises that cannot be fulfilled. Understate rather than overstate. To progress take measured risks. Trust should be an intangible daily achievement. It becomes the power of personal authority. Every member of the community becomes a witness to the trustworthiness of a person. When a person becomes authoritative it is foundational to one’s character.
Local government is the foundation of democracy
The 40-Day War demonstrated that women can lead macro-campaigns such as the NO SURRENDER campaign. There was no shortage of men, women, and youth volunteers. By mid-September 2026, 33.5-million volunteers of the Basij Forces enlisted to defend their homeland. This is a repository of organised trust, which has happened for the first time in modern world history of wars.
These two examples alone proved that people can take the initiative to mobilise themselves and practise democracy at grassroots level in transdisciplinary fashion. How do local people leverage the 150000 employment projects recently launched by the government? People have proven their ability to trust one another.
Iran has a very large network of local government councils: 1372 cities and 40620 villages and nomadic tribal areas. The latest elections had to be postponed because of the 40-Day War and its aftermath.
Local government structure is the foundation of democracy, tiered upwards to middle (provincial) and top (national) layer.
The fighting energy of the martyred Imam lives on
The courageous resisters embodied the energy of the Imam’s eternal youthfulness and showed that they were his soldiers ready to avenge his death and continue his unfinished work.
(Next article: Imam Seyyed Ali Khamenei & the culture of reading and studying)
Note: The purpose of the series of articles on Imam Khamenei is to explain the development of his character as being immersed in the development of the history of Iran. The aim is simple truth from complex facts. It is the intersection of literary biography and scientific history.
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