The BBC reporter, Jiyar Gol’s wife died of Leukaemia

When Gol, now a correspondent for the BBC's Persian service, was just eight years old, he remembers Ayatollah Khomeini returning from exile in 1979 to lead the Iranian revolution that deposed the Shah. "We were all excited because many people in Iran thought he [would bring] back happiness to everybody. We will have a democratic country," he recalls.