The Iranian people experienced limited freedom in the first two years following the overthrow of the Shah’s dictatorship. Soon after, the new clerical regime’s policies and behavior, as introduced by its founder Ruhollah Khomeini, began to shift at a rapid pace. The style and rhetoric of these policies and behaviors were unlike anything seen during the Shah’s dictatorial reign. Khomeini, and then his successor Ali Khamenei, continued the Shah’s policies of restricting freedom of expression, arresting, imprisoning, and torturing his opponents, which had been briefly interrupted by the revolution. Thousands of political opponents have been executed so far, and the mullahs’ assassination machine is still at work.