About Montazeri Born in 1922, Montazeri was from a peasant family in Najafabad,[3] a city in Isfahan Province, 250 miles south of Tehran. His early theological education was in Isfahan. Montazeri then went to Qom where he studied under Khomeini and went on to become a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School. While there he answered Khomeini's call to protest the White Revolution of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in June 1963 and was active in anti-Shah clerical circles. After Khomeini was forced into exile by the Shah, Montazeri "sat at the center of the clerical network" which Khomeini had established to fight the Pahlavi rule. He was sent to prison in 1974 and released in 1978 in time to be active during the revolution. Death On 19 December 2009, Montazeri died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Qom, at the age of 87.[39] The Islamic Republic News Agency, the official news agency of Iran, did not use the ayatollah title in its initial reports of his death and referred to him as the "clerical figure of rioters".[40] The state television and radio broadcasters were similar, showing the tension between the government and its opponents