The return of Ayatollah Khomeini

The Guardian -- You know what it's like. You're re-enacting an important event in your country's history, but the national hero you're commemorating is dead, and such is his stature that it would be disrespectful to replace him with an actor.

What to do? Well, if you're the Iranian army, and you're recreating the Ayatollah Khomeini's return from exile in 1979, it's pretty simple: solemnly replace him with a massive cardboard cut-out, and let two soldiers parade it around an airport runway. Job done.

But why stop there? The Iranians didn't. As befits a moment as seminal as this, the paper Ayatollah was then treated to a guard of honour, before being seamlessly swapped for a second, smaller (but nevertheless relentlessly lifelike) incarnation of the great revolutionary leader, who in turn was spirited away by a jeep.

The event may seem absurd, but it highlights the significance Iranians attribute to Khomeini's homecoming. Iran's revolution started in 1977, and the secular Shah was toppled by the end of 1978. But it was the return of Khomeini (greeted by millions of Iranians) on 1 February 1979 that turned the revolution into a religious one, and led to the creation of the Islamic Republic that still exists today.

But back to the cardboard cutout. Over the past week, it has predictably undergone the same rite of passage that befalls any amusing dictator-themed photograph that ends up on the interweb. That is to say: it is the meme du jour. Internet users skilled in the art of Photoshop have added the paper Ayatollah and his pair of goons to scenes of the lunar landings, President Reagan's inauguration, the recent royal wedding, the 2006 world cup final, the 1943 Tehran conference, and Tiananmen Square. Lamentably, one of the few scenes the Ayatollah has yet to grace is a Salman Rushdie book-signing, but doubtless the internet will get its act together pronto.