Iranian Revolution (1979)

 

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The Iranian Revolution (also known as the Islamic Revolution,^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} Persian: انقلاب اسلامی, Enghelābe Eslāmi) 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.^[7] It has been called "the third great revolution in history," following the French and Bolshevik revolutions.^[8]

Although some might argue that the revolution is still ongoing, its time span can be said to have begun in January 1978 with the first major demonstrations,^[9] and concluded with the approval of the new theocratic Constitution — whereby Khomeini became Supreme Leader of the country — in December 1979. In between, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left the country for exile in January 1979 after strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, and on February 1, 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to a greeting of several million Iranians.^[10] 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.^[11]

The revolution was unique for the surprise it created throughout the world:^[12] it lacked many of the customary causes of revolution — defeat at war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military;^[13] produced profound change at great speed;^[14] overthrew a regime thought to be heavily protected by a lavishly financed army and security services;^[15][16] 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.…"^[17]

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."^[18] At the other extreme some Iranians explain the revolution as a time when "for a few years we all lost our minds,"^[19] and did damage to Iran's economy and world prestige from which it has yet to recover.^[20][21]

Reasons for 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:

Alleged errors of the Shah

• His strong policy of Westernization and close identification with a Western power (the United States) despite the resulting clash with Iran's Shi'a Muslim identity.^[22] This included his original installation by Allied Powers and assistance from the CIA in 1953 to restore him to the throne, the use of large numbers of US military advisers and technicians and the capitulation or granting of diplomatic immunity from prosecution to them, all of which led nationalistic Iranians, both religious and secular^[23] to consider him a puppet of the West;^[24][25]
• Extravagance, corruption and elitism (both real and perceived) of the Shah's policies and of his royal court;^[26][27]
• His failure to cultivate supporters in the Shi'a religious leadership to counter Khomeini's campaign against him;^[28][29]
• Focusing of government surveillance and repression on the People's Mujahedin of Iran, the communist Tudeh Party of Iran, and other leftist groups, while the more popular religious opposition organized, grew and gradually undermined the authority of his regime;^[30][31][32]
• Authoritarian tendencies that violated the Iran Constitution of 1906,^[33][34] including repression of dissent by security services like the SAVAK,^[35] followed by appeasement and appearance of weakness as the revolution gained momentum;^[36][37]
• Failure of his overly ambitious 1974 economic program to meet expectations raised by the oil revenue windfall. Bottlenecks, shortages and inflation were followed by austerity measures, attacks on alleged price gougers and black-markets, that angered both the bazaar and the masses;^[38]
• His antagonizing of formerly apolitical Iranians, especially merchants of the bazaars, with the creation of a single party political monopoly (the Rastakhiz Party), with compulsory membership and dues, and general aggressive interference in the political, economic, and religious concerns of people's lives;^[39]
• His overconfident neglect of governance and preoccupation with playing the world statesman during the oil boom,^[40] followed by a loss of self-confidence and resolution^[36] and a weakening of his health from cancer^[41] as the revolution gained momentum;
• Underestimation of the strength of the opposition — particularly religious opposition — and the failure to offer either enough carrots or sticks. Efforts to please the opposition were "too little too late,"^[42] but no concerted counter-attack was made against the revolutionaries either.^[36]
• Failure to prepare and train security forces for dealing with protest and demonstration crowd control without excessive violence^[43] (troops used live ammunition, not Plexiglas shields or water cannons),^[44] and use of the military officer corps more as a powerbase to be pampered than as a force to control threats to security;^[45]
• The personalised nature of the Shah's government, where prevention of any possible competitor to the monarch trumped efficient and effective government and led to the crown's cultivation of divisions within the army and the political elite,^[46] and ultimately to a lack of support for the regime by its natural allies when needed most (thousands of upper and middle class Iranians and their money left Iran during the beginning of the revolution).^[47]

Failures and successes of other political forces

• Overconfidence of the secularists and modernist Muslims, of liberals and leftists in their power and ability to control the revolution;^[48]
• Shrewdness of the Ayatollah Khomeini in winning the support of these liberals and leftists when he needed them to overthrow the Shah by underplaying his hand and avoiding issues (such as rule by clerics or "guardianship of the jurists") he planned to implement but knew would be a deal breaker for his more secular and modernist Muslim allies;^[49]
• Cleverness and energy of Khomeini's organizers in Iran who outwitted the Shah's security forces and won broad support with their tactical ingenuity — amongst other things, convincing Iranians that the Shah's security was more brutal than it was;^[45]
• The Ayatollah Khomeini's self-confidence, charisma, and most importantly his ability to cast himself as following in the footsteps of the beloved Shi'a Imam Husayn ibn Ali, while portraying the Shah as a modern day version of Hussein's foe, the hated tyrant Yazid I;^[50] and so to be seen by millions as a savior figure,^[51] and inspiring hundreds to feats of martyrdom fighting the regime.
• Policies of the American government, which helped create an image of the Shah as American "puppet" with their high profile and the 1953 subversion of the government on his behalf, but helped trigger the revolution by pressuring the Shah to liberalize, and then finally may have heightened the radicalism of the revolution by failing to read its nature accurately (particularly the goals of Khomeini), or to clearly respond to it.^[52][53][54]

Ideology of Iranian revolution

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

“	The Iranian revolution expresses itself in the language of Islam, that is to say, as a religious movement with a religious leadership, a religiously formulated critique of the old order, and religiously expressed plans for the new. Muslim revolutionaries look to the birth of Islam as their model, and see themselves as engaged in a struggle against paganism, oppression, and empire.	„
—Bernard Lewis, [55]

Leaving aside a traditional clerical quietism, there was a diverse ideological interpretation of Islam within the grand alliance that led to the 1979 revolution. The first three Islamic discourses were Khomeinism, Ali Shariati’s Islamic-left ideology, and Mehdi Bazargan’s liberal-democratic Islam. The fourth discourse was the socialist guerrilla groups of Islamic and secular variants, and the fifth one was secular constitutionalism in socialist and nationalist forms.^[56]

Revolutionaries railed against corruption, extravagance and autocratic nature of Pahlavi rule;^[57] policies that helped the rich at the expense of the poor; and the economic and cultural domination/exploitation of Iran by non-Muslim foreigners -- particularly Americans.^[58] Demonstrators chanted slogans such as "Independence, Freedom, and Islamic Republic,"^[59]

Contributors to the ideology included Jala Al-e Ahmad, who formulated the idea of Gharbzadegi -- that Western culture must be rejected and fought as was a plague or an intoxication that alienated Muslims from their roots and identity.^[60] Ali Shariati influenced many young Iranians with his interpretation of Islam as the one true way of awakening the oppressed and liberating the Third World from colonialism and neo-colonialism.^[61]

The author who ultimately formulated the ideology of the revolution though, was the man who dominated the revolution itself -- the Ayatollah Khomeini. He preached that revolt, and especially martyrdom, against injustice and tyranny was part of Shia Islam,^[62] that clerics should mobilize and lead their flocks into action, not just to advise them. He introduced Qur'anic terms -- mustazafin ('weak')^[63] and mustakbirin ('proud and mighty')^[64] -- for the Marxist vocabulary of "oppressed" and "oppressors."^[65] He rejected the influence of both Soviet and American superpowers in Iran with the slogan "not Eastern, nor Western - Islamic Republican" (Persian: نه شرقی نه غربی جمهوری اسلامی)

But even more importantly he developed the ideology of who would run the Islamic Republic, what form of government it would take. Khomeini believed strongly that Islam required the principle of velayat-e faqih, be applied to government, i.e. 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.^[66]

Main article: Hokumat-e Islami : Velayat-e faqih (book by Khomeini)

This was necessary because Islam requires obedience to traditional Islamic sharia law alone. Following this law was not only the Islamically correct thing to do, it would prevent poverty, injustice, and the "plundering" of Muslim land by foreign unbelievers. But for all this to happen, sharia had to be protected from innovation and deviation, and this required putting Islamic jurists in control of government.^[67]

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. ^[68] It was a universal principle, not one confined to Iran. All the world needed and deserved just government, i.e. true Islamic government, and Khomeini "regarded the export of the Islamic revolution as imperative." ^[69] However regarding "export of revolution" he stated: it "does not mean interfering in other nation's affairs",^[70] but "answering their questions about knowing God" ^[71][72]

This revolutionary vision of theocratic government was in stark contrast to the quietist Shiism that called for withdrawal from political life, or at least government, until the return of the Mahdi. And needless to say it was in conflict with the hopes and plans of Iran's democratic secularists and Islamic leftists. At the same time Khomeini knew a broad revolutionary base was necessary and did not hesitate to encourage these forces to unite with his supporters to overthrow the Shah.^[73] Consequently, the ideology of the revolution was known for its "imprecision"^[74] or "vague character"^[75] prior to its victory, with the specific character of velayat-e faqih/theocratic waiting to be made public when the time was right.^[76] 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. ^[77][78]

This split between the general and the specific elements of the revolution's ideology inevitably broke down the unity of the revolution as Khomeini abandoned taqiyya^[79][80] and worked determinedly to establish a government led by Islamic clerics, while opponents of theocracy resisted. (see below: Khomeini takes power, Consolidation of power by Khomeini and Opposition to the revolution) In the end the break was not fatal. The opposition was defeated and the revolutionary ideology prevailed.

Background of the revolution

Pahlavi dynasty and its secular, anti-clerical policies

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 of 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. ^[81] (See: Supplementary Fundamental Laws)

However, after the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty, Reza Pahlavi, like his contemporary Atatürk, 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.^[82] He banned traditional Iranian dress for both men and women, in favour of western dress.^[83] 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.^[83] By the late 1930s, Reza Shah had become increasingly despotic and disliked by the Iranians.^[84]

1940s: The Shah comes to power

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power in 1941 after the deposing of his father, Reza Shah, by an invasion of allied British and Soviet troops in 1941. 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. Through a military coup d'etat aided by a CIA and MI6 covert operation, codenamed Operation Ajax, Mossadegh was overthrown and arrested and the Shah returned to the throne.

Like his father Shah Pahlavi sought to modernize and westernize his country. He retained close relationships with the United States and several other western countries, and was frequently recognized by the American presidential administrations for his policies and steadfast opposition to Communism. 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 of 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 voice 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

See also: Movement of 15 Khordad

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."^[85]

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;^[86] while some say that post-revolutionary reports from police files indicate more than 380 were killed.^[87] 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 American 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.^[88] 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. Jala Al-e Ahmad's idea of Gharbzadegi (the plague of Western culture), Ali Shariati's leftist interpretation of Islam, and Morteza Morahhari's popularized retellings of the Shia faith, all spread and gained listeners, readers, supporters.^[60] 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, Guardianship of the jurist in English), 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.

Main article: Hokumat-e Islami : Velayat-e faqih (book by Khomeini)

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^[89] 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^[90] 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.^[91] 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."^[92]

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.^[93] 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 American 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.^[94] 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.^[95]

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."^[96] 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. Culturally and religiously conservative and already disposed to view the Shah's secularism and Westernization as "alien and wicked",^[97] many of these same people went on to form the core of revolution's demonstrators and "martyrs".^[98]

In 1977 a new American President, Jimmy Carter, was inaugurated. In hopes of making post-Vietnam American power and foreign policy more benevolent, he created a special Office of Human Rights which sent the Shah a "polite reminder" of the importance of political rights and freedom. The Shah responded by granting amnesty to 357 political prisoners in February, and allowing Red Cross to visit prisons, beginning what is said to be 'a trend of liberalization by the Shah'. Through the late spring, summer and autumn liberal opposition formed organizations and issued open letters denouncing the regime.^[99] Later that year a dissent group (the Writers' Association) gathered without the customary police break-up and arrests, starting a new era of political action by the Shah's opponents.^[100]

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.^[101][102]

Oppositions 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.^[103] 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 Morahhari 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^[104] (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.^[105] 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^[106] by avoiding specifics — at least in public — that might divide the factions.^[107]

The various anti-Shah groups operated from outside Iran, mostly in London, Paris, Iraq, and Turkey. Speeches by the leaders of these groups were placed on audio cassettes to be smuggled into Iran.

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).^[108]

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.^[109]

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.^[110] 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.^[111]

The Shah approaches the United States

Facing a revolution, the Shah appealed to the United States for support. Because of its history and strategic location, Iran was important to the United States. It was a pro-American country sharing a long border with America's cold war rival, the Soviet Union, and the largest, most powerful country in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. But the Pahlavi regime had also recently garnered unfavorable publicity in the West for its human rights record.^[112]

The Carter administration followed "no clear policy" on Iran.^[113] The U.S. ambassador to Iran, William H. Sullivan, recalls that the U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski “repeatedly assured Pahlavi that the U.S. backed him fully." President Carter arguably failed at following up on those assurances. On November 4, 1978, Brzezinski called the Shah to tell him that the United States would "back him to the hilt." At the same time, certain high-level officials in the State Department believed the revolution was unstoppable.^[114] After visiting the Shah in summer of 1978, Secretary of the Treasury Blumenthal complained of the Shah's emotional collapse, reporting, "You've got a zombie out there."^[115] Brzezinski and Energy Secretary James Schlesinger (Secretary of Defense under Ford) were adamant in their assurances that the Shah would receive military support. Brzezinski still advocated a U.S. military intervention to stabilize Iran even when the Shah's position was believed to be untenable. President Carter could not decide how to stabilize the situation; he was certainly against another coup. Initially, there appeared to be support for a peaceful transfer of power, however this option evaporated when Khomeini and his followers swept through the country, taking power on February 12, 1979. Many Iranians believe the lack of intervention and sometime sympathy for the revolution by high-level American officials indicate the U.S. "was responsible for Khomeini's victory."^[116] A more extreme position asserts that the Shah's overthrow was the result of a "sinister plot to topple a nationalist, progressive, and independent-minded monarch."^[117]

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^[118][119] 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.^[120] 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.’^[121]

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.

The clerical leadership spread rumours that "thousands have been massacred by Zionist troops."^[122] The troops were actually ethnic Kurds who had been fired on, and the number killed not 15,000 but more like 700,^[123] but in the mean time the appearance of government brutality alienated much of the rest of the Iranian people and the Shah's allies abroad. A general strike in October resulted in the paralysis of the economy, with vital industries being shut down, "sealing the Shah's fate".^[124]

Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris

Shah decided to seek the deportation of Ayatollah Khomeini from Iraq and on September 24, 1978, Iraqi regime sieged the house of Khomeini in Najaf. He was informed that his continued residence in Iraq was contingent on his abandoning political activity, a condition he rejected. On October 3, he left Iraq for Kuwait, but was refused entry at the border. Finally October 6 Ayatollah Khomeini embarked for Paris. On October 10 he took up residence in the suburb of Neauphle-le-Château in a house that had been rented for him by Iranian exiles in France. From now on the journalists from across the world made their way to France, and the image and the words of the Ayatollah Khomeini soon became a daily feature in the world's media.^[125]

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.^[126]

Victory of revolution and fall of monarchy

The Shah leaves

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."^[127] 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".^[128] 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 Feb. 1 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to rapturous greeting by several million Iranians. Khomeini had flown back to Iran in a chartered Air France Jumbo Jet.^[129] Not only the undisputed leader of the revolution,^[130] 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.’^[131] Crowds were now known to chant "Islam, Islam, Khomeini, We Will Follow You," and even "Khomeini for King."^[132]

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.’^[133] 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