Iran in World History

parties were meant to provide a semblance of democracy, but since 
both parties were ultimately answerable to the shah they were dismis-
sively referred to as the “Yes, Your Majesty Party” and the “Yes, 
cer-
tainly
, Your Majesty Party.” Eventually the shah dispensed with this 
charade and in 1975 created a single political party, called Rastakhiz 
(Resurgence), which people were forced to join. Rather than increasing 
his support base as intended, this move had the opposite effect of nega-
tively politicizing many individuals who had previously been apolitical.
Much of the money generated by Iran’s oil industry was used to buy 
expensive military equipment from the United States or disappeared 
into the pockets of the shah’s cronies. Even as Iran’s urban elites were 
amassing fortunes, massive rural displacements due to the mecha-
nization of agriculture created a burgeoning urban underclass. This 
included large numbers of unemployed single men who had little to do 
but while away their days hanging around in neighborhood mosques 
where they could find a sense of community and share their complaints. 
Often their entertainment would consist of sitting together and listen-
ing to inflammatory speeches by Khomeini, smuggled into the country 
on cassette tapes from Iraq.
Within Iran, a dissident form of Shi‘ism was promoted by Ali 
Shari‘ati, a sociologist trained in Paris. As a student, Shari‘ati had been 
friends with members of the Algerian Liberation Front (a radical orga-
nization fighting to throw off French colonial rule), and he was deeply 

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influenced by Frantz Fanon’s anti-colonial tract 
The Wretched of the 
Earth
, which Shari‘ati translated into Persian. During the 1960s and 
1970s he lectured at an institute in Tehran known as the Hosseiniyeh 
Ershad, where he was highly popular among progressive-minded reli-
gious students.
Shari‘ati coined the term “red Shi‘ism” (a reference to martyrs’ 
blood, not to socialism) in opposition to the “black Shi‘ism” of the 
clergy. In making this distinction he harkened back to the revolutionary 
example of the ill-fated Sarbedar sect in the fourteenth century: “for 
the first time, a revolutionary movement based on Alavite Shi‘ism, 
against foreign domination, internal deceit, the power of the feudal 
lords and wealthy capitalists, had an armed uprising, led by peasants 
seven hundred years ago, under the banner of justice and the culture of 
martyrdom, for the salvation of the enslaved nation and the deprived 
masses.”
7
Shari‘ati’s activism led to his arrest in 1974. After a year and 
a half he was released. In 1977 he left for England, but died three weeks 
later under suspicious circumstances.
The shah’s heavy-handed rule also fostered the emergence of 
two militant leftist revolutionary groups, the religiously oriented 
Mojahedin-e Khalgh (MEK) and the Marxist Fedayin-e Khalgh. Both 
organizations staged attacks during the 1970s that were met with bru-
tally repressive measures, including mass arrests, secret kidnappings, 
and a number of executions. The leftist threat provided the SAVAK 
secret police with a pretext to increase their harassment of ordinary 
citizens, further alienating the shah from the general population.
During the mid-1970s the shah developed cancer, which he kept 
secret from the public. As his condition worsened he began to make a 
series of misjudgments, ultimately leading to the revolution that ended 
his reign. Yet on a state visit to Tehran in December 1977, US president 
Jimmy Carter praised his host by declaring that “Iran, because of the 
great leadership of the Shah, is an island of stability in one of the more 
troubled areas of the world.”
8
Events would soon demonstrate just how 
badly Carter had misread the situation.
Late 1977 had already seen several large public demonstrations 
against the shah’s rule. Middle-class opposition groups such as the 
National Front—a remnant of Mossadegh’s party—and the religious 
but moderate Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) were growing stronger 
and better organized. The shah’s government provoked religious hard-
liners, meanwhile, with an anonymous article in an official newspaper 
insulting the character of Ayatollah Khomeini. This led to riots in Ghom, 
resulting in a number of deaths. Another leading cleric, Ayatollah

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Shari‘atmadari, broke with the clergy’s traditional quietest stance and 
joined the opposition.
The Ghom killings initiated a cycle of demonstrations every forty 
days—the traditional mourning period in Shi‘ite Islam—in which both 
religious and secular protesters participated. Each time a few more 
individuals were killed by anti-riot forces, exacerbating public anger 
against the regime. The situation calmed somewhat in the summer of 
1978 when the shah announced a number of reforms, including the 
ending of censorship and the promise of full democratic elections the 
following year. But a terrorist attack on a cinema in the southern city 
of Abadan on August 19, which some blamed on Islamists and others 
on the secret police, reignited tensions. As a result of a fire (which was 
later shown to have been set by an Islamic militant), 422 people died of 
flames or smoke inhalation when the doors to the cinema were locked 
from the outside.
Massive protests followed. At the same time, the shah began to 
make a number of concessions, including the legalization of political