The Basij (Persian: بسيج‎) (officially Basij-e Mostaz'afin, literally "Mobilization of the Oppressed") is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The original organization comprised the civilian volunteers whom the Ayatollah Khomeini urged to fight in the Iran-Iraq war. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits. Currently Basij serve as an auxiliary force engaged in activities such as internal security as well as law enforcement auxiliary, the providing of social service, organizing of public religious ceremonies, and, more notoriously, policing of morals and the suppression of dissident gatherings.Basij is the name of the force; a basiji is an individual member.

The Basij are set up as subordinate to, receiving their orders from, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to whom they are known for their loyalty. They have also been described as "a loosely allied group of organizations" including "many groups controlled by local clerics." They have a local organization in almost every city in Iran.

Grand AyatollahSayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: سید علی حسینی خامنه ای‎, Azerbaijani: سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای – Seyyid Əli Xameneyi, pronounced [ʔæˈliː hoseiˈniː xɒːmeneˈʔiː] ( listen); born 17 July 1939) is the Supreme Leader of Iran, and a Twelver Shi'a marja. He had also served as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 1989. In 2010, Forbes selected him 26th in the list of 'World's Most Powerful People'.

Holding absolute power in his country, he has been described as one of only three people having "important influence" during the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran . Khamenei was the victim of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralyzed his right arm, although so far the biggest challenge to his leadership has been the mass protests following the June 2009 presidential elections during which he strongly supported president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They have had a falling out since.

Khamenei holds the title of Sayyed, which means that he claims direct patrilineal descent from Ali ibn Abi Talib. Some^[which?] of Khamenei's ancestors are from Tafresh in today's Markazi province, and had migrated from their original home in Tafresh to Tabriz. Born in Mashhad, he is second eldest of eight children, and two of his brothers are also clerics. His younger brother, Hadi Khamenei, is a renowned newspaper editor and cleric. Khamenei is Iranian Azeri on his father's side and his mother is a Yazd-native Persian.