Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 A Brief History of Protests Since the 1979 Revolution

The 1977 – 1979 protests were a broad-based popular revolution against the Shah’s dictatorship. The objectives of the revolution were to establish independence, freedom, and social justice. The opposition to the Shah included secular liberal democrats and social democrats of the Iran National Front (INF), liberal Islamists (e. g., Liberation Movement of Iran), various Marxist groups, and conservative Islamists (Khomeini). As fundamentalists gained more support among the population, they changed the slogan from “Independence, Freedom, Social Justice” to “Independence, Freedom, Islamic Republic.”

The Shah was widely considered to be a puppet of the British and Americans whose primary objective was to serve their colonial interests. For example, after the 1953 coup, which was organized by the CIA and MI6, the Shah returned Iran’s oil that had been nationalized by Mossadegh to a consortium of major oil companies. The Shah’s agreements with the oil companies were canceled by the provisional government in 1979 and Iran’s oil was in the hands of Iranians again.1 There were no freedoms of expression, of the press, or of political parties. The Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, engaged in horrendous torture of dissidents including high school children and university students who had committed no crime other than reading books that the regime did not approve of. There were no free elections and the Shah had violently imposed his one-man tyranny.2 The Shah, his family, and their cronies were engaged in outright theft, financial corruption, and graft that made them grotesquely rich while millions of the people lived in abject poverty. The Pahlavis and their nouveaux riches close associates lacked the Noblesse oblige of the upper classes or the social consciousness of the modern middle classes. Their extravagant, opulent, and pretentious lifestyles as well as their arrogance and condescending attitude toward the rest of the population alienated the overwhelming majority of the people. The demand for social justice came to mean that national wealth (state income from oil, natural gas, and the like) should be distributed fairly and legally among the population rather than siphoned off to a handful of corrupt monarchists.

1.2 Resistance to Khomeini’s Dictatorship, 1979 – 1981

The fall of the Shah did not usher in what many had struggled for. The so-called “Bahar Azadi” [Spring of Freedom] after the overthrow of the Shah’s dictatorship did not last long. During the brief interlude between the monarchist and fundamentalist dictatorships, the people expressed their desire for democracy and freedom. The initial euphoria soon gave way to resistance against Khomeini and his fundamentalist supporters who envisioned a utopia different from theirs. The dystopic polity that Khomeini and his supporters were creating could not be build but upon the mass repression and oppression of millions of Iranians who were not fundamentalist. Thus, struggle ensued right after the overthrow of the hated monarchy as Khomeini and his supporters began to institute their vision of a holy polity.

As time went on, Khomeini and the fundamentalists were becoming stronger. They created the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) as their vehicle for organizing supporters of Khomeini, concentrating all power in their own hands, eliminating the non-fundamentalists, and creating a totalitarian right-wing clerical theocratic regime. They organized and armed their supporters in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). They also created the Basij and plain-clothes club-wielding violent extremists called Hezbollahis. One of the main slogans of the fundamentalists between February 1979 and the late 1980s was: “Hezb Faghat Hezbollah, Rahbar Faghat Ruhollah” [Sole Party Is Party of God, Sole Leader Is Ruhollah].3

As the fundamentalists became stronger, Khomeini began eliminating non-fundamentalists one by one. First, they went after the feminists and female judges. Then, the free press. Then, the religious and ethnic minorities. Then, the secular, liberal, and leftist university professors and students. The IRGC, Basij, and Hezbollahis attacked the non-fundamentalists with knives, clubs, and guns in order to beat up, injure, or murder them. The fundamentalists routinely took non-fundamentalist political activists hostage and tortured them. By June 1981, the fundamentalists had murdered many non-fundamentalists.

Soon after the triumph of the revolution, Khomeini went after the moderate liberal Islamists such as the Prime Minister of the provisional government Mehdi Bazargan and the first elected President Dr. Abolhassan Bani Sadr.4 After the elimination of the moderates in June 1981, the fundamentalist regime engaged in wholesale massacres of opponents and political prisoners, many of whom were supporters of Bani Sadr, the Islamist leftist People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), and Marxists.

During the First Reign of Terror between June 1981 and December 1982 somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 political prisoners were executed. The Economist (October 23, 1982) provided the figure of 12,000 while the higher number was given by opposition groups.5 Thousands more were killed in armed clashes between the regime and opposition groups.

During the Second Reign of Terror in August and September 1988, about 5,000 political prisoners were executed.6 About 4,000 were members and supporters of the PMOI, many teenage boys and girls, who had already gone through unfair trials and been given prison sentences. About 1,000 were members of various Marxist groups (who had been born into Muslim families). PMOI prisoners were asked whether they were still supportive of their positions, whether they would be willing to execute members of the PMOI, or would be willing to walk over mines in minefields. Those PMOI political prisoners who refused to answer or gave the “wrong” answer were executed within hours or days. Members of Marxist groups were asked: if they believed in God; if they were Muslim; and if they believed that the Koran was the word of God. Those who refused to answer or said “no” were considered apostates and were executed within hours or days.7

The corpses were buried in unmarked mass graves throughout Iran. These gravesites became known as “Khavaran.” The regime has refused to provide details to families about the whereabouts of the corpses of their loved ones. On several occasions when mass graves were discovered many years later, the regime destroyed the remains. Grieving mothers of the victims have been asking for information about their children. They became known as “Madaran-e Khavaran” [Mothers of Khavaran]. Among officials directly responsible are: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Supreme Leader), Ahmad Khomeini (Chief of Staff for Supreme Leader), Ayatollah Abdol-Karim Moussavi Ardabili (Chief of the Judicial Branch), Ebrahim Raisi (a member of the “Death Board” and later Chief of the Judicial Branch, and President), and Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi (Rouhani’s Minister of Justice).8

Amnesty International considers the 1988 massacres of political prisoners to constitute “crimes against humanity.”9 Moreover, according to Amnesty International, the regime officials have lied about the massacres or tried to justify them, refused to give the corpses of those executed to their families or tell them where the graves are, and threatened the families with violence. In September 2020, a U.N. human rights group stated that the 1988 massacre of political prisoners may constitute “crimes against humanity.”10

1.3 Resistance and Mass Protests, 1982 – 2023

By mid-1982, the fundamentalist regime had succeeded in crushing the opposition groups. From then, Iran has witnessed several major mass protests.

1.3.1 May 1992, Mashhad

The first mass protests after 1982 occurred in May 1992 in the poor shantytown of Koy Toulab on the outskirts of Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city. When city municipality officials ignored the pleas of the poor shanty town dwellers who had built their shacks illegally, mass riots occurred there. The people burned police cars and municipality buildings after the police killed a 12-year-old boy. Several people and members of the coercive apparatuses died in the ensuing violence. The regime executed four of the protesters. Building of illegal housing on the outskirts of large cities has been common since the early 1970s with the large-scale migration of poor rural people to major cities.

Most observers blame the economic policies of then-President Rafsanjani for these protests by the urban poor.11 Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was one of the main pillars of the fundamentalist regime. After Khomeini died in June 1989, Rafsanjani was able to convince the Assembly of Experts to appoint the then-President Ali Khamenei to the position of Supreme Leader. Rafsanjani then became President (1989 – 1997). By most accounts, Rafsanjani was...