Bangladesh, March 3 -- The current turbulence across the Middle East has once again raised a fundamental question: how has Shiite-majority Iran managed to exert such sustained influence across predominantly Sunni Muslim nations? From the Gulf monarchies to segments of political movements in the wider Muslim world, Tehrans reach has often exceeded what sectarian arithmetic alone would predict.

To understand this phenomenon, one must revisit 1979 – the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. That year did not simply mark a change of regime in Tehran; it marked the birth of a revolutionary doctrine with transnational ambitions. Khomeinis project was never confined within Irans borders. It was ideolog...