From Overthrow Of Despot Shah To Uprising For Democratic Republic of Iran
The dream to establish the Republic of Iran with jewels in the crown –democracy, pluralism, secularism, inclusive elections and freedom of expression was dashed within a few months after the Shah of Iran was toppled in a revolution.
By Saleem Samad
The nationwide labour strikes in Iran mark the 44th anniversary on February 11 of the Islamic Revolution urging the government to honour their promises.
The dream to establish the Republic of Iran with jewels in the crown –democracy, pluralism, secularism, inclusive elections and freedom of expression was dashed within a few months after the Shah of Iran was toppled in a revolution.
The youths, students, trade unions, traders, transport drivers, teachers, and other professionals spearheaded a people’s revolution led by progressive groups from the Marxists Tudeh Party and the leftist Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK).
Soon the revolt was joined by hundreds of civil officers, and police – finally the military mutiny was the last nail in the coffin – the dictator Shah had to make his exit.
Tens of thousands of Islamists from the grassroots and Islamic schools cheered when the Shia (or Shiite) Islamist leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile on 1 February 1979.
The so-called Islamic Revolution which is commonly believed to have ousted the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi [known as the Shah of Iran], fled Iran on 17 January 1979 and was engineered by the nationalist, leftist and Marxist Iranians and their comrades living abroad.
The Shah and his family fled two weeks before the return of Khomeini, and the jubilant Iranian revolutionaries were eager to establish a new democratic government.
Emotionally charged Iranians sought to end the authoritarianism of the Shah, who was dubbed as a corrupt and spoiled brat of the extravagant Western governments.
Many Iranians were angry with Shah’s administration in the wake of a national oil boom – wealth was unequally distributed which created a wide gap between the rich and the poor.
His overthrow brought an end to the 2,500-year-old Pahlavi monarchy in Iran and ushered in a theocracy overseen by Ayatollah Khomeini.
In a secret diplomatic move, Khomeini’s safe return was assured by United States President Jimmy Carter. The charismatic exiled leader from his exile in Paris suburb told the US administration in Washington DC that he is afraid of Shah’s military and the possible threat to his life.
The Americans failed to predict that after nine months the pro-Khomeini students scaled the walls to storm into the US embassy in Tehran. The radical groups took hostage of 52 diplomats, family members and mission staff.
Despite assurance to the US establishment for normalisation of diplomatic ties, on 4 November 1979, the angry students demanded that the Shah should be extradited to stand trial for his tyrannical rule.
During the Iran hostage crisis, Shah died of cancer on 27 July 1980 in Cairo where he was given asylum by Egypt President Anwar Sadat.
Moments after President-elect Ronald Reagan took the oath of office, Iran released all 52 hostages after 444 days in captivity after $400 million were flown to Tehran in the dead of night by officials of the United States.
The end of the hostage crisis also sealed the fate of the US- Iran ally. Khomeini regime cancelled all bilateral agreements and also declared the United States as the number enemy of Islam.
American scholar Daniel Pipes in 1980 wrote in The New York Times that the Marxist-leaning leftists and the Islamists shared a common antipathy toward market-based reforms under the late Shah, and both subsumed individualism, including the unique identity of women, under conservative, though contrasting, visions of collectivism. Accordingly, both groups favoured the Soviet Union over the United States in the early months of the Iranian Revolution.
On April 1, following overwhelming support in a national referendum, Khomeini declared it as the Islamic Republic – the second Muslim country after the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
With religious fervour running high, Khomeini emerged as the Supreme Leader of Iran for life in December 1979 and consolidated his authority to transform Iran into a theocratic Islamic state – pushing the once liberal and secular Iran towards the 7th-century medieval era.
The Mullahs promptly moved to exclude their former leftist, nationalist, and intellectual allies from any positions of power in the new Islamic regime.
Both the left parties [Tudeh Party and MEK] were banned. Khomeini proved as ruthless as the Shah, and thousands of political dissidents, progressives, nationalists, critics and leftists were executed during his decade of rule.
Most of the central leadership of the Tudeh Party were captured, detained, tortured and hanged after a forced confession to conspiracy against the Islamic Republic. The confessions by coercion of the leaders were repeatedly shown on state television.
Under Khomeini’s strict Islamic Sharia laws, Iranian women were denied equal rights and required to wear hijab (Muslim veil) in public, Western culture was dubbed as Satanic culture, strict Sharia law was made mandatory and harsh punishments were imposed.
The X-Generation after 44 years decried the misogynist Islamic laws, especially compulsory hijab and segregation of males and females in educational institutions and workplaces.
The simmering anger for four decades turned into an outburst last autumn #IranRevolution. The protest witnessed the deadliest crackdown by the dreaded Islamic Revolutionary Guards and other security forces.
Protests have increased its intensity since the 2009 ‘Green Movement’ when their demand for political rights was brutally suppressed. Similarly, the 1979 nationwide protest against the Tehran regime was also crushed by the Mullah’s loyal security forces.
The recent upsurge sparked from the death of Kurdish Masha Amini in September 2022. The protest quickly engulfed the entire country – in 103 cities and most of the educational campuses demanding justice for the death of Amini caused by the torture by the morality police (Gasht-e-Ershad).
Her crime was not wearing the enforced hijab appropriately when she arrived from Kurdistan in the capital Tehran to meet her relatives.
Thousands of Iranian girl students and women threw their hijabs on bonfires in the streets of Iranian cities and scissored their hair in frustration.
Tens of thousands of angry protesters poured into the streets, which caused shivers to run through the spines of the Iranian zealots.
More than 500 protesters were killed including juveniles and children by the security forces since the protest began against the Islamic Republic, according to the latest situation report by Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI).
More than 20,000 prisoners of conscience are languishing in Iranian prisons from September to December 2022, which have a history of barbarity.
The angry protesters demanded that the Mullahs step down and hold an inclusive election, to establish a democratic Republic of Iran.
Today, a dozen of detained protesters were given death sentences after being convicted of “enmity against God” in a grossly unfair trial, writes Amnesty International, a global human rights organisation.
As friends of Iran are shrinking in the world – amid growing domestic challenges President Ebrahim Raisi is poised to set foot in Beijing on his first state visit to China.
Iran’s proxy wars in the Middle East has threatened the sovereignty and security of the Arab countries; the supply of Kamikaze drone to Russia to fight in undaunted Ukraine; flouting of the nuclear deal and aggressive surveillance of exiled Iranians abroad has further pushed Iran into a narrow lane by the West and their allies.
The dark lane has no U-turn option for the Mullahs of Iran unless they agree to inclusive elections and decriminalise pluralism, secularism and freedom of expression.
Saleem Samad is an independent journalist and columnist based in Bangladesh, a media rights defender with Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter). Recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He could be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter: @saleemsamad
