[EVENT] The Revolution

“The Shah ordered it!”

 

The planes needed to be American. And American planes needed technicians, American ones. Americans, the Defense Department said, needed protection. They needed the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The unhappy task of passing the SOFA was therefore handed down from the Niavaran Palace to the office of the Prime Minister, Assadollah Alam. The responsibility of pushing the treaty through the cabinet and the Majiles, both of which would surely be skeptical, fell upon him.

 

Within the cabinet, the Justice Minister, Mohammed Baheri, was almost implacably opposed to the agreement. Others, including the Agriculture Minister Hassan Arsanjani, were deeply reluctant to put their consent behind the draft legislation. Baheri attempted a workaround — the bill be scrapped, but a fund be created to automatically pay bail for American servicemembers, thus achieving the same effect of being essentially immune from Iranian prosecution (by giving the US authorities time to remove the accused persons from the country). The Defense Department would not agree — they needed the SOFA. Baheri would not budge — the agreement reeked of the old “capitulation rights” that Reza Shah had done away with some forty years prior. The cabinet remained deadlocked for two weeks, with the increasingly furious Shah blowing up Alam’s phone for every one of those days.

 

Eventually, near desperation, Alam delivered what his Shah desired — the draft legislation was sent to the Majles, with a letter from the Prime Minister indicating the approval of the cabinet. Only, the approved draft had only one name on it: Alam’s. The remaining members of the cabinet, sensing the difficulties ahead, had opted to approve only anonymously, or perhaps not at all — whether the approval was unanimous, by majority, or simply (and illegally) by Alam’s personal fiat would never be known. None of the participants in the affair have divulged what truly happened in that final cabinet meeting of 11 Mehr 1347.

 

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The next barrier to passage, the Senate (a constitutional innovation of The Shah’s), populated largely by ex-generals and cronies of the monarch, passed the bill swiftly, without debate and via voice vote. The Majiles were another story. Alam’s Mardom formed a narrow majority of the chamber, but the government could surely count on the support of the Iran Novin in this bill so close to The Shah’s heart. But when the bill reached their chambers (and even now, rumors of impropriety in the cabinet were beginning to filter down to the public), the legislators of the normally-quiescent “loyal opposition” and even some of the steadfastly monarchist “loyal-er opposition” balked.

Both Alam and the leader of the opposition Hassan-Ali Mansur were sent in to whip votes, but for three days furious debate continued within the Majiles despite intense pressure from the palace. Eventually, Alam resorted to another “dirty trick” to win passage — declaring that the contents of the draft legislation were no different from the 1961 Vienna Convention. The American Embassy called in a frenzy later that day, demanding to know why the bill had been watered down. Alam replied that it had not been — he had lied to the Majiles. The bill passed, by a bare majority of 94 in favor to 81 against (including a near-plurality of Mardom and independents), with 25 abstentions. That was when the trouble really began.

 

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There had been growing, but scattered demonstrations against the bill as it worked its way through the government, mostly by radical students. But on 15 Mehr, the cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, already the subject of some notoriety for his role in prior anti-government disturbances, gave a particularly inflammatory speech from Qom opposing the newly-ratified bill:

Does the Iranian nation know what transpired in parliament these past days? Do they know that, without their knowledge and in secret, a great betrayal occurred? Do they know that the parliament, upon the proposal of the government, signed the document of Iran’s enslavement and effectively acknowledged that Iran is a colony? That they handed the United States a certificate declaring the Muslim nation to be barbaric? That they took a black pen to all of our Islamic and national honours and wrote them off? That they erased with a red line all the pompous claims of the ruling elite over the past years? That they degraded Iran below the status of the most backward countries in the world? That they insulted the noble Iranian military, its commanders, and its officers? That they trampled the dignity of our judicial system? That they ratified—under the current government and with no public knowledge—one of the most disgraceful decrees from the previous administration, after only a few hours of secret discussion? That they subjected the Iranian people to the domination of the Americans?

Now, American military and non-military advisers, along with all their family members and servants, cooks, bakers, janitors, and the like, have complete freedom to commit any crime or treason in Iran. The Iranian police are not allowed to arrest them, and Iranian courts have no authority to prosecute them. Why? Because America is the land of dollars, and the Iranian government is desperate for them!

Today, when one colonized country after another is courageously and bravely breaking free from the chains of colonialism, the “progressive” Iranian parliament, with all its boasts of a 2500-year-old civilization and claims of parity with developed nations, votes for the most disgraceful and humiliating decree of the most discredited governments, and introduces the noble people of Iran as among the most degraded and backward of the nations. And with utmost arrogance, the government defends this erroneous decree, and the parliament approves it.

Let the world know that every calamity afflicting the Iranian nation and Muslim nations stems from foreign powers, especially America. The Muslim nations detest foreign domination, especially that of America. The misfortunes of Islamic states arise from foreign intervention in their affairs. It is foreign powers who have looted and continue to loot our underground treasures. It was the British who, for decades, plundered our black gold at negligible prices. It was foreigners who occupied our beloved land and attacked it from three directions without any justification, slaughtering our soldiers. Yesterday, Islamic countries were caught in the claws of Britain; today, they are trapped by America.

It is America that supports Israel and its allies. It is America that empowers Israel to displace the Muslim Arabs. It is America that directly or indirectly imposes representatives upon the Iranian nation. It is America that sees Islam and the Qur’an as obstacles and seeks to eliminate them. It is America that views our religious scholars as thorns in the path of colonialism, and thus, they must be imprisoned, tortured, and humiliated. It is America that pressures the Iranian parliament and government to pass and enforce this disgraceful decree, which crushes all our Islamic and national honours. America treats Muslim nations with barbarity, and worse.

We do not recognise this as a law. We do not recognise this Parliament as a true Parliament. We do not recognise this government as a true government. They are traitors, traitors to the people of Iran!

People of Iran! Noble nation! This betrayal cannot be endured. Do you want to remain silent? Have you no sense of honour? Is this how a Muslim lives, silent before oppression, indifferent to humiliation, accepting the erosion of Islam?

People! You are being sold — your dignity, your sovereignty, your courts, your honour! You must awaken. You must rise.

Perhaps by tomorrow, they will come for me. Perhaps by tomorrow, I will be taken away. I tell you today — I may not be among you by tomorrow. I have made my duty clear. I have shouted. I have warned.

If they kill me, let it be known that I died defending Islam. If they silence me, let the people rise in my place. If they exile me, let this speech be my final will.

But I swear by God — if you remain silent, you will all be enslaved. Islam will be trampled, and you will no longer be a nation.

God, remedy the affairs of the Muslims!

God, bestow majesty on this sacred religion of Islam!

God, destroy those individuals who are traitors to this land, who are traitors to Islam and to the Qur'an.

 

Already, on the day of Khomeini’s speech, some thousands of people had gathered in both Qom and Tehran to oppose the bill. That same day, an armored column arrived in Qom to arrest Khomeini. The next day, the people rose up, led primarily by students, both of the secular universities and the religious seminaries.

An estimated 50,000 people showed up on the streets of Tehran alone, many clearly taking inspiration from not just Khomeini’s words but the May 1968 events in France and the ongoing revolutionary convulsions elsewhere in the world. The international character of the demonstrations was clear — many of the students came prepared with chants against the American “butchers of Vietnam” and “oppressors of Palestine,” which were eagerly taken up by many among the great crowds.

By the end of the day, rioters were attacking police stations with improvised bombs and attempting to occupy the government district. Similar riots were ongoing in Mashhad, in Isfahan and Shiraz, and of course in Qom, where the religious students launched an assault on the central police station over rumors that Khomeini was being held there. The only saving grace for the government was that Abadan, and the other crucial centers of the oil industry in Khuzestan, remained largely free of disturbances. It was amidst this chaos, the greatest challenge the regime had faced since the days of Mossadeq, that the Prime Minister rode by armored convoy to the Niavaran Palace.