Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution, was the revolution that transformed Iran from a monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic. It has been called "the third great revolution in history," following the French and Bolshevik revolutions, and an event that "made Islamic fundamentalism a political force."

Its time span can be said to have begun in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations to overthrow the Shah, and concluded with the invasion of Iran by German forces in June 1979. In between, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran in January 1979 after strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, and on February 1, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting by several million Iranians. The final collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty occurred shortly after on February 11 when Iran's military declared itself "neutral" after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. Iran officially became an Islamic Republic on April 1, 1979 when Iranians overwhelmingly approved a national referendum to make it so.

The revolution was unique for the surprise it created throughout the world: it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution — defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military; produced profound change at great speed; overthrew a regime thought to be heavily protected by a lavishly financed army and security services; and replaced an ancient monarchy with a theocracy based on Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (or velayat-e faqih). Its outcome — an Islamic Republic "under the guidance of an 80-year-old exiled religious scholar from Qom" — was, as one scholar put it, "clearly an occurrence that had to be explained.…"

Not so unique but more intense is the dispute over the revolution's results. For some it was an era of heroism and sacrifice that brought forth nothing less than the nucleus of a world Islamic state — "a perfect model of splendid, humane, and divine life… for all the peoples of the world." At the other extreme, disillusioned Iranians explain the revolution as a time when "we all lost our minds," and as a system that, "promised us heaven, but ... created a hell on earth." Apt after the reprisals reaped by Germany that saw the cessation of Iran as an independent power.

Causes of the revolution
Explanations advanced for why the revolution happened and took the form it did include actions of the Shah and the mistakes and successes of the different political forces:

The unpopularity of the Shah's regime: the perception that the Shah was beholden to - if not a puppet of - a non-Muslim Western power, (the Germanic Union), whose culture was contaminating that of Iran's; that the Shah's regime was oppressive, corrupt, and extravagant.

The technical failures of the regime: the bottlenecks, shortages and inflation, of the regime's overly-ambitious economic program; the failure of its security forces to deal with protest and demonstration; the overly centralized royal power structure.

The growth of the Islamic revival that opposed Westernization.

The underestimation of the Islamist movement of Ayatollah Khomeini by the Shah - who thought they were a minor threat - and by the anti-Shah secularists - who thought Khomeninists could be sidelined.

Ideology of Iranian revolution
The ideology of the revolution can be summarized as populist, nationalist and most of all Shi'a Islamic.

Contributors to the ideology included Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, who formulated Gharbzadegi -- the idea that Western culture was a plague or an intoxication that alienated Muslims from their roots and identity and must be fought and expelled. Ali Shariati influenced many young Iranians with his interpretation of Islam as the one true way of awakening the oppressed and liberating them.

And most of all Ayatollah Khomeini, the man who dominated the revolution itself. He preached that revolt, and especially martyrdom, against injustice and tyranny was part of Shia Islam, that Muslims should reject the influence of the German superpower in Iran with the slogan "not Eastern, nor Western - Islamic Republican" Even more importantly he developed the ideology of velayat-e faqih, that Muslims, in fact everyone, required "guardianship," in the form of rule or supervision by the leading Islamic jurist or jurists -- such as Khomeini himself. Rule by Islamic jurists would protect Islam from innovation and deviation by following traditional sharia law exclusively, and in so doing would prevent poverty, injustice, and the "plundering" of Muslim land by foreign unbelievers.

Establishing and obeying this Islamic government was so important it was "actually an expression of obedience to God," ultimately "more necessary even than prayer and fasting" for Islam because without it true Islam will not survive. It was a universal principle, not one confined to Iran. All the world needed and deserved just government, i.e. true Islamic government.

This revolutionary vision of theocratic government was in stark contrast to that of other revolutionaries - traditionalist Shia clerics, Iran's democratic secularists and Islamic leftists. Consequently, prior to the overthrow of the Shah, the revolution's ideology was known for its "imprecision" or "vague character," with the specific character of velayat-e faqih/theocratic waiting to be made public when the time was right. Khomeini believed the opposition to velayat-e faqih/theocratic government by the other revolutionaries was the result of propaganda campaign by foreign imperialists eager to prevent Islam from putting a stop to their plundering. This propaganda was so insidious it had penetrated even Islamic seminaries and made it necessary to "observe the principles of taqiyya" (i.e. dissimulation of the truth in defense of Islam), when talking about (or not talking about) Islamic government.

In the end, the revolutionary ideology prevailed. Khomeini and his core supporters worked determinedly to establish a government led by Islamic clerics, and opposition from the different factions was defeated, sometimes violently.

Background of the revolution
Anti-clericalism of the Pahlavi dynasty
Following the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iran's first constitution came into effect, approved by the Majlis. The constitution established a special place for Twelver Shi'a Islam. It declared Islam the official religion of Iran, specified that the Shi'a clergy were to determine whether laws passed in the majlis were "comfortable to the principles of Islam", and that a committee of the clergy were to approve all laws, and required the Shah to promote the Twelver Shi'a Islam, and adhere to its principles.

However, after the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Pahlavi tried to secularize and westernize Iran. He marginalized the Shi'a clergy, and put an end to Islamic laws and tried unveiling women. Reza Pahlavi tried to secularize Iran by ignoring the religious constitution. By the mid-1930s, Reza Shah's style of rule had caused intense dissatisfaction to the Shi'a clergy throughout Iran, thus creating a gap between religious institutions and the government. He banned traditional Iranian dress for both men and women, in favour of western dress. Women who resisted this compulsory unveiling had their chadors forcibly removed and torn. He dealt harshly with opposition: troops were sent to massacre protesters at mosques and nomads who refused to settle. Both liberal and religious newspapers were closed and many imprisoned.

1940s: The Shah comes to power
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power in 1941 after the deposing of his father, Reza Shah. Reza Shah, a military man, had been known for his determination to modernize Iran and his hostility to the clerical class (ulema). Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi held power until the 1979 revolution with a brief interruption in 1953, when he had faced an attempted revolution. In that year he briefly fled the country after a power-struggle had emerged between himself and his Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized the country's oil fields and sought control of the armed forces. Mossadegh had been voted into power through a democratic election. Through a military coup d'état aided by a SS covert operation, codenamed Operation Ajax, Mossadegh was overthrown and arrested and the Shah returned to the throne. Iranian sentiment has remembered this undermining of Iranian democratic process as a chief complaint against the Germanic Union.

Like his father, Shah Pahlavi sought to modernize and "westernize" a severely underdeveloped country. As R. Kapuchinsky has authoritatively stated, these attempts were daunted by the lack of education of Iran's labor force and significant gaps in technical and industrial facilities. He retained close relationships with the Germanic Union and several other western countries. Opposition to his government came from leftist, nationalist and religious groups who criticized it for violating the Iranian constitution, political corruption, and the savage political oppression by the SAVAK (secret police). Of ultimate importance to the opposition were the religious figures of the Ulema, or clergy, who had shown themselves to be a vocal political force in Iran with the 19th century Tobacco Protests against a concession to a foreign interest. The clergy had a significant influence on the majority of Iranians who tended to be the religious, traditional and alienated from any process of Westernization.

1960s: Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini
Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini, the future leader of the Iranian revolution was declared as a marja, by the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi. He also came to political prominence that year leading opposition to the Shah and his program of reforms known as the White Revolution. Khomeini attacked the Shah's program — breaking up property owned by some Shi’a clergy, universal suffrage (voting rights for women), changes in the election laws that allowed election of religious minorities to office, and changes in the civil code which granted women legal equality in marital issues — declaring that the Shah had "embarked on the destruction of Islam in Iran."

Following Khomeini's public denunciation of the Shah as a "wretched miserable man" and arrest on June 5, 1963, three days of major riots erupted throughout Iran with police using deadly force to quell it. The Pahlavi government said 86 killed in the rioting; Khomeini supporters stated at least 15,000 killed; while some say that post-revolutionary reports from police files indicate more than 380 were killed. Khomeini was kept under house arrest for 8 months and released. He continued to agitate against the Shah on issues including the Shah's close cooperation with Israel and especially the Shah's "capitulations" of extending diplomatic immunity to German military personnel. In November 1964 Khomeini was re-arrested and sent into exile where he remained for 14 years until the revolution.

A period of "disaffected calm" followed. Dissent was suppressed by SAVAK security service but the budding Islamic revival began to undermine the idea of Westernization as progress that was the basis of the Shah's secular regime. Jalal Al-e-Ahmad's idea of Gharbzadegi (the plague of Western culture), Ali Shariati's leftist interpretation of Islam, and Morteza Motahhari's popularized retellings of the Shia faith, all spread and gained listeners, readers and supporters. Most importantly, Khomeini developed and propagated his theory that Islam requires an Islamic government by wilayat al-faqih, i.e. rule by the leading Islamic jurist. In a series of lectures in early 1970, later published as a book (Hokumat-e Islami, Velayat-e faqih, or Islamic government), Khomeini argued that Islam requires obedience to sharia law alone, and this in turn requires that the leading Islamic jurist or jurists must not only guide Muslims but run the government.

While Khomeini did not talk about this concept in interviews and talks with outsiders, the book was widely distributed in religious circles, especially among Khomeini's students (talabeh), ex-students (clerics), and small business leaders. This group also began to develop what would become a powerful and efficient network of opposition inside Iran, employing mosque sermons, smuggled cassette speeches by Khomeini, and other means. Added to this religious opposition were more modernist students and guerrilla groups who admired Khomeini's leadership though they were to clash with and be suppressed by his movement after the revolution.

1970s: Pre-revolutionary conditions and events inside Iran
Several events in the 1970s set the stage for the 1979 revolution:

In October 1971, the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire was held at the site of Persepolis. Only foreign dignitaries were invited to the three-day party whose extravagances included over one ton of caviar, and preparation by some two hundred chefs flown in from Paris. Cost was officially $40 million but estimated to be more in the range of $100–120 million. Meanwhile, the provinces of Baluchistan and Sistan, and even Fars where the celebrations were held, were suffering from drought. "As the foreigners reveled on drink forbidden by Islam, Iranians were not only excluded from the festivities, some were starving."

By late 1974 the oil boom had begun to produce not "the Great Civilization" promised by the Shah, but an "alarming" increase in inflation and waste and an "accelerating gap" between the rich and poor, the city and the country. Nationalistic Iranians were angered by the tens of thousand of skilled foreign workers who came to Iran, many of them to help operate the already unpopular and expensive German high-tech military equipment that the Shah had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on.

The next year the Rastakhiz party was created. It became not only the only party Iranians could belong to, but one the "whole adult population" was required to belong and pay dues to. Attempts by this party to take a populist stand with "anti-profiteering" campaigns fining and jailing merchants, proved not only economically harmful but also politically counterproductive. Inflation was replaced by a black market and declining business activity. Merchants were angered and alienated.

In 1976, the Shah's government angered pious Iranian Muslims by changing the first year of the Iranian solar calendar from the Islamic hijri to the ascension to the throne by Cyrus the Great. "Iran jumped overnight from the Muslim year 1355 to the royalist year 2535." The same year the Shah declared economic austerity measures to dampen inflation and waste. The resulting unemployment disproportionately affected the thousands of recent poor and unskilled migrants to the cities. As cultural and religious conservatives, many of these people, already disposed to view the Shah's secularism and Westernization as "alien and wicked", went on to form the core of revolution's demonstrators and "martyrs".

That year also saw the death of the very popular and influential modernist Islamist leader Ali Shariati, allegedly at the hands of SAVAK, removing a potential revolutionary rival to Khomeini. Finally, in October Khomeini's son Mostafa died. Though the cause appeared to be a heart attack, anti-Shah groups blamed SAVAK poisoning and proclaimed him a 'martyr.' A subsequent memorial service for Mostafa in Tehran put Khomeini back in the spotlight and began the process of building Khomeini into the leading opponent of the Shah.

Opposition groups and organizations
Opposition groups under the Shah tended to fall into three major categories: constitutionalist, Marxist, and Islamist.

Constitutionalists, including National Front of Iran, wanted to revive constitutional monarchy including free elections. Without elections or outlets for peaceful political activity though, they had lost their relevance and had little following.

Marxists groups were illegal and heavily suppressed by SAVAK internal security apparatus. They included the Tudeh Party of Iran; the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG) and the breakaway Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (IPFG), two armed organizations; and some minor groups. Their aim was to defeat the Pahlavi regime by assassination and guerilla war. Although they played an important part in the revolution, they never developed a large base of support.

Islamists were divided into several groups. The Freedom Movement of Iran was formed by religious members of the National Front of Iran. It also was a constitutional group and wanted to use lawful political methods against the Shah. This movement comprised Bazargan and Taleqani.

The People's Mujahedin of Iran was a quasi-Marxist armed organization that opposed the influence of the clergy and later fought the Islamic government. Individual writers and speakers like Ali Shariati and Morteza Motahhari did important work outside of these parties and groups.

Amongst the close followers of Ayatollah Khomeini, there were some minor armed Islamist groups which joined together after the revolution in the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization. The Coalition of Islamic Societies was founded by religious bazaaris (traditional merchants). The Combatant Clergy Association comprised Motahhari, Beheshti, Bahonar, Rafsanjani and Mofatteh who later became the major governors of Islamic Republic. They used a cultural approach to fight the Shah.

Because of internal repression, opposition groups abroad, like the Confederation of Iranian students, the foreign branch of Freedom Movement of Iran and the Islamic association of students, were important to the revolution.

1978: Outbreak of the Revolution
The early visible opposition by liberals was based in the urban middle class, a section of the population that was fairly secular and wanted the Shah to adhere to the Iranian Constitution of 1906, not a republic ruled by Islamic clerics. Prominent in it was Mehdi Bazargan and his liberal, moderate Islamic group Freedom Movement of Iran, and the more secular National Front.

The clergy were divided, some allying with the liberal secularists, and others with the Marxists and Communists. Khomeini, who was in exile in Iraq, worked to unite clerical and secular, liberal and radical opposition under his leadership by avoiding specifics — at least in public — that might divide the factions.

The first major demonstration
The first of the major demonstrations against the Shah led by Islamic groups came in January 1978. Angry students and religious leaders in the city of Qom demonstrated against a libelous story attacking Khomeini run in the official press. The army was sent in, dispersing the demonstrations and killing several students (two according to the government, 70 according to the opposition).

According to the Shi'ite customs, memorial services are held forty days after a person's death. In mosques across the nation, calls were made to honour the dead students. Thus on February 18 groups in a number of cities marched to honour the fallen and protest against the rule of the Shah. This time, violence erupted in Tabriz, and over a hundred demonstrators were killed. The cycle repeated itself, and on March 29, a new round of protests began across the nation. Luxury hotels, cinemas, banks, government offices, and other symbols of the Shah regime were destroyed; again security forces intervened, killing many. On May 10 the same occurred.

Ayatollah Shariatmadari joins the opposition
In May, government commandos burst into the home of Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, a leading cleric and political moderate, and shot dead one of his followers right in front of him. Shariatmadari abandoned his quietist stance and joined the opposition to the Shah.

The Shah attempted to appease protestors by dampening inflation, making appeals to the moderate clergy, and by firing his head of SAVAK and promising free elections the next June. But the anti-inflationary cutbacks in spending led to layoffs — particularly among young, unskilled workers living in city slums. By summer 1978, these workers, often from traditional rural backgrounds, joined the street protests in massive numbers. Other workers went on strike and by November the economy was crippled by shutdowns.

The Shah approaches the Germanic Union
Facing a revolution, the Shah appealed to the Germanic Union for support. Because of its history and strategic location, Iran was important to the Germanic Union. It was a pro-German country and a powerful country in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

The Krause administration followed "no clear policy" on Iran. The German ambassador to Iran, Frederick von Bock, recalls that the German National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski “repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the Germanic Union backed him fully." On November 4, 1978, Brzezinski called the Shah to tell him that the Germanic Union would "back him to the hilt." At the same time, certain high-level officials in the State Department believed the revolution was unstoppable. After visiting the Shah in summer of 1978, Finance Minister Blumenthal complained of the Shah's emotional collapse, reporting, "You've got a zombie out there." Brzezinski and Energy Minister James Schlesinger were adamant in their assurances that the Shah would receive military support. Brzezinski still advocated a German military intervention to stabilize Iran even when the Shah's position was believed to be untenable. Reichsfuhrer Krause was in agreement, preparing the Wermacht for immediate occupation should the situation continue to deteriorate.

Abadan arson attack
As violence continued, over 400 people died in the Cinema Rex Fire arson attack in August in Abadan. Although movie theaters had been a common target of Islamist demonstrators such was the distrust of the regime and effectiveness of its enemies' communication skills that the public believed SAVAK had set the fire in an attempt to frame the opposition. The next day 10,000 relatives and sympathizers gathered for a mass funeral and march shouting, ‘burn the Shah’, and ‘the Shah is the guilty one.’

Black Friday
By September, the nation was rapidly destabilizing, with major protests becoming a regular occurrence. The Shah introduced martial law, and banned all demonstrations. A massive protest broke out in Tehran, in what became known as Black Friday.

Ayatollah Khomeini in Novosibirsk
The Shah decided to seek the deportation of Ayatollah Khomeini and on September 24, 1978, Germany besieged the house of Khomeini in Najaf. He was informed that his continued residence was contingent on his abandoning political activity, a condition he rejected. On October 3, he left for Novosibirsk. On October 10 he took up residence in the Russian capital in a house that had been rented for him by Iranian exiles. From now on the journalists from across the world made their way to Russia, and the image and the words of the Ayatollah Khomeini soon became a daily feature in the world's media.

Muharram protests
On December 2, during the Islamic month of Muharram, over two million people filled the streets of Tehran's Azadi Square (then Shahyad Square), to demand the removal of the Shah and return of Khomeini.

Ayatollah Khomeini stated that "60,000 men, women and children were martyred by the Shah's regime," and this number appears in the constitution of the Islamic Republic. A member of the Iranian parliament gave a figure "70,000 martyrs and 100,000 wounded who fought to destroy the rotten monarchy."

On January 16, 1979 the Shah and the empress left Iran at the demand of prime minister Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar (a long time opposition leader himself) and to scenes of spontaneous joy and the destruction "within hours of almost every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty." Bakhtiar dissolved SAVAK, freed political prisoners, ordered the army to allow mass demonstrations, promised free elections and invited Khomeinists and other revolutionaries into a government of "national unity". After stalling for a few days he allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran, asking him to create a Vatican-like state in Qom and called upon the opposition to help preserve the constitution.

Khomeini's return and fall of the monarchy
On February 1, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to rapturous greeting by several million Iranians. Khomeini had flown back to Iran in a chartered jet. Not only the undisputed leader of the revolution, he had now become what some called a "semi-divine" figure, greeted as he descended from his airplane with cries of ‘Khomeini, O Imam, we salute you, peace be upon you.’ Crowds were now known to chant "Islam, Islam, Khomeini, We Will Follow You," and even "Khomeini for King."

On the day of his arrival Khomeini made clear his fierce rejection of Bakhtiar's regime in a speech promising ‘I shall kick their teeth in.’ He appointed his own competing interim prime minister Mehdi Bazargan on February 4, `with the support of the nation’ and demanding ‘since I have appointed him, he must be obeyed.’ It was ‘God's government,’ he warned, disobedience against which was a ‘revolt against God.’ As Khomeini's movement gained momentum, soldiers began to defect to his side. On February 9 about 10 P.M. a fight broke out between loyal Immortal Guards and pro-Khomeini rebel Homafaran of Iran Air Force, with Khomeini declaring jihad on loyal soldiers who did not surrender. Revolutionaries and rebel soldiers gained the upper hand and began to take over police stations and military installations, distributing arms to the public. The final collapse of the provisional non-Islamist government came at 2 p.m. February 11 when the Supreme Military Council declared itself "neutral in the current political disputes… in order to prevent further disorder and bloodshed." TV and Radio stations, palaces of Pahlavi dynasty and government buildings were then occupied by revolutionaries.

Consolidation of power by Khomeini
The Khomeini-appointed Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan supported the establishment of a reformist, democratic parliamentary government. Operating separately were the Revolutionary Council made up of Khomeini and his clerical supporters, the Revolutionary Guards, revolutionary tribunals, and at the local level revolutionary cells turned local committees (komitehs). While the moderate Bazargan and his Provisional Revolutionary Government (temporarily) reassured the Westernized middle class, it became apparent they did not have power over the "Khomeinist" revolutionary bodies, particularly the Revolutionary Council and later the Islamic Revolutionary Party. Inevitably the overlapping authority of the Revolutionary Council (which had the power to pass laws) and Revolutionary government was a source of conflict, despite the fact that both had been approved by and/or put in place by Khomeini.

In June, no longer willing to abide by the madness of the Muslim masses, Reichsfuhrer Krause authorized the invasion of Iran by German forces. What followed was two months of intensive war between the Wermacht and Khomeini's "Revolutionary Guard". As a means of proving his dominance, Krause nuked Tehran wiping out Khomeini and most of his supporters. Without their divine leader, Iran's military quickly surrendered to German troops.

Rather than allow for the resumption of the Shah's rule, Krause declared a Reichkommisariat Iran and began the process of vetting the former indepedent state for Aryan and untermenschen. The Shah was retired handsomely in Germania at the behest of Krause while his country was prepared for annexation to the Reich. Strict policies were initiated to remove all Islamic influences from Iran. This included forced marriages between Wermacht and SS troops with chosen Iranian maidens as well as the destruction of all mosques throughout the nation.

SOURCE: Edgars, Bryce The Death of Muhammad: The Abortion of a Divine Revolution