After the Islamic Revolution and continuing his political career, he was sent to prison in Mashhad and was eventually released after months.

[8] In 1980, ahead of the Iranian presidential elections, tensions escalated between Tehrani and the Islamic Republic leadership over their preferred candidates for the presidency.

Tehrani supported Abolhassan Banisadr, while Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani favored Jalaleddin Farsi who was the candidate for Islamic Republic party at the time.

When Khomeini appointed Khamenei as the Tehran's Friday prayer Imam, Tehrani condemned this decision.

Four of them have remained distant from politics, in contrast to their father, while one of his daughters, Farideh Moradkhani, is known for her opposition to the Islamic Republic.

[12][13] Following the dismissal of Banisadr from the presidency and the armed rebellion of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq against the government, Tehrani was detained for a period in 1981.

Later, in 1984, as Mojahedin-e-Khalq had established a presence in Iraq, he fled to the country and sought refuge under Saddam Hussein's government, where he continued to speak out against the Iranian leadership through broadcasts on Persian-speaking radio in Baghdad, an action that diminished his popularity among the general public.