Aadel Collection
Letter From Iran
l)Ec. 11
A STORY from the Kennedy
)‘ears which li ts the rare qual-
ity of being true is that once,
w hen tIle P resident was ot he rwiSe en—
gaged, Dave l>owers, his original guide
to the pour Irish of Boston and later a
Corn hijied compalli ) ii and jester at the
White house, was delegated to kill a
few minutes with the Shalt of Iran.
Subsequently, he was asked how he
liked his Imperial Majesty. ‘‘/A,Tel],))
Powers said, ‘‘lie's our kind of Shah.''
I was reminded of that story when
I saw the Shah few weeks ago here
in Fe he ran. At that point, M diammed
Reza Pahlavi wasn't anybody's kind of
Shah. I Ic received we, as he had on
several of my p ic i'i ois visits, in a ball-
room on the second floor of tile Nia—
varan Palace, on the northern outskirts
of Ieheran. lie 1ook d pale, spoke in
subdued tones, :uul seemed dwarfed h
the vast expanse of tile rt on, wit Ii its
huge, ornate eh;tndeli is and heavy
F:n pii e furniture. He wore a double—
breasted suit whose blackness suggested
moti ruing. He St a rte il wit ii a ii api 1 gy
He was sorry to have kept rue waiting.
l'lte American and B ritishi Ambassa-
dors had been in to see him. ‘‘‘l'hey
tried to cheer me up,'' he said. “As if
there were anything to lie cheerful
about.”
I expressed surprise at and, indeed,
felt some suspicion about this show of
glut m . There had it d ti no list iii —
tions in many P ;11ts of tlic L'I) )ilitr ', alit 1
strikes, hut 1'elieran, ipart from tile
university, seemed cal ni, and the A rnly
was in thorough control. ? ioreovcr,
the opposition was headed by the l/1 s—
1cm clergy, and tlie were clearly di—
vided. Surely, I said, the factions could
he played off against each to in r.
‘‘Possibly,'' the Shalt said, shrugging
his shoulders in an elaborate show of
disbelief.
I pointed our that tie leader of the
lay oppositit ui, Kit rin t San a hi, was the
to go to Paris to see the nit st intransi-
gent of tile religious leaders, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini. Die gossip in Te-
heran ‘was that a compromise deal was
in the works. Sanjahi would win KJio—
mcmi's blessing for t coalition govern-
ment. The coalition would make ic—
forms but maintain the nioiiarcliy.
‘l'he Shah expressed doubt that KIto—
mcmi would agree to that. ‘‘Certainly
not with Sanjabi,” he said.
I further noted that, while there was
ohvh tuS unrest in the Cowl try, the Shah
himself had lifted the lid by easing up
on security and initiating -efo -ms, May—
he all that was required was a si, we r
pace and more publicity for the changes
he had made. I mentioned that one of
the problems was corruption in the
royal family. He had decreed a new
code of conduct fur royal behavior, hut
it had not been published. Could I get
a copy? The Shah agreed—with. a
weary air.
If worst came to worst, I went on,
there was always the Army. The mili-
tary was strong, and its leaders were
loyal. f'lie Shah said that force had its
limitations. “You can't crack clown on
one block and make the people on the
next block behave,” he said.
I asked him if the Army leaders
realized that. “I hope so,” he said. He
went on tt mention his soji and heir,
Crown Prince Reza, who, at eighteen,
iS 110W an air ca(let in Lubbock, Texas.
The Shalt said tlta t he might not he
able to pass all his powers tin to his
son, bitt 1 ie could at least pass on the
throne.
I remarked that I had never Seen
him so sombre, and asked when the
black on 4)1(1 hail begun.
‘tile unit- in so turner,” lie said.
‘‘A tiy 5l)& i 1I reason?''
veil us,'' lie said.
I iii tiniated that maybe he was over-
doing the blues to elicit sympathy atiti
perhaps sup,iort from tile United States.
‘‘//‘hi;tt could America do?'' lie asked.
I said that that depended upon what
hi:ippeticd , and asked him wh:it lie
thou gut that might be. “I don't know,''
lie said.
I asked him what his advise is
thought was going to ilithtl iet i. ‘‘Many
things,'' lie said, with it hitter laugh,
and he msc, indicating that that
all he had to say. - - —
‘] HE day after seeing the Shah,
I drove, with an Iranian friend w
had agreed to serve as an interpre
to Qurn, a religu)us ceri ter with a p°p
lation of roughly two hundred arid
ty thousand, about seventy—five mi
south of Teheran. Qum is the C .'tt..i
try's foremost training center for
priests—or mullahs, as they are kno
in common parlance—of Shiite Isian
the creed of ninety per cent of Ira
thirty-six million people. Shiism iv,
made the state religion at the hcg
fling of the sixteenth century by a ne
dynasty, the Safavids, who needed
dig in against the Ottoman Turks. T'
Shiites form the minority—--and larg.
Persian—branch of the Moslem ii
gion. As distinct from the ma o r
branch—the Sunnites (who for ci-;
tunes vested the line of authority fr,,i
Mohammed in a caliphate that
Iowed the tides of history frt.m l
Inascus to Baghdad and thence, tk.
the Turks, to Constantinople)—_ k
Shiites traced the line of desce”
through the Prophet's son—in—law, A
Au, according to Shiite law, was
first of twelve Imams, or holy lead.- ;
The twelfth Irnam withdrew from
world and is due to return some tin
as a Mabdi, or Messiah. Au was burii:
in An Najaf, and his son, Hossein,
Karhala, and those cities, now :
are, after Mohammed's tomb in Me
ca, the principal shrines of Sbiite is'
The eighth Imam, Rez ., d-
Meshed, which is a town some
hundred miles east of Teheran, an
the mist holy shrine in Iran. Reza'
sister, Fatima, died in Qum, so the
includes Iran's second holiest sh :nc
well as many madressahs, or sern::a.
The most renowned students
Islamic law in Qum, Meshed, an
other major cities ate referred c ; i y
the title Ayatollah, which means, lit-
ct-ally, “Sign of God.” Fc)r roughly th
past fifty years, the Ayatollahs of
have been the dominant religious lead-
ers in Iran. Ayatollah Khomei'i,.
though born in eastern Iran, was ecu-
cated in An Najaf, and then in Qu-
and subsequently taught in Qum. : :
achieved national stature between 196.
and 1963 as the header of the oppos'
turn to various features—including c:
education and, many say, land
form—of what the Shah called
“white revolution.” In 1963, Kbomc
was expelled, and moved to the s. t 'r
of An Najaf. The raiica gime -
Iraq, whic i in I 975. af:e: y a s
bickering, reai.hed ar a 'm
BP0005 88
LETTEft FftOM IftAN
, . -,!_
35
iwccd
( IZ ast
wl;cfl trouai s
€came intense 10 Iran,
and he moved to PZIfls.
He had been succeeded
as the dominant figure
in Qum by Ayatollah
Shariatmndari. lor
most of the past dozen
years, the ,nadressali
students have made
Qum a center of op—
position to the regime.
Professor Michael
Fischer, of I larva rd,
who spent mitch of
1975 in that city, ile—
scribed the atmosphere
at the time, in a mono-
graph lie called “Ihe
Qum Report,'' as ‘‘one
of siege and coura-
geous passive hostility
to a state perceived to
be the stronger, hat
morally corrupt, °PP°—
nent.” The p resc ut
wave of troubles was
Set in motion early
this yea r by vi o I e ii
demonstrations against
the Shah in Qiim.
I had telephoned ahead for an ap-
pointment with Shariatmadari, and lund
been connected with a Pakistani aide
of his named Seyyed Rivzi, Who sptike
English. Rivzi told me to be in Qium
by eight in tile morning, because his
Holiness, as he called Shariatmadari,
went to the mosque at nine and Spent
the rest of the day in prayer and medi-
tation. My translator friend and I ar—
rived before eight and, with the help of
directions from the local police, found
our way to Shariatmadari's quarters.
He lives in a narrow hack street, paved
with white brick and lined with yellow-
ish walls. There are doors in the walls
every ten yards or so, and, behind
the doors, courtyards leading to build-
ings that are used as offices and houses.
We were first shown into an office,
where we were received by Rivzi, a
fat, middle-aged man wearing specta-
cles and a black turban; he kept push-
ing the turban hack from his forehead
in order to scratch his scalp. Rivzi said
that I was in luck, for His Holiness
was feeling ill that day. Because he
was not well enough to pray, there
would he ample time for the interview.
Rivzi asked me to disclose my qiles-
tions in advance. He would write them
down in Farsi and then read them
off to I us hioliness—that way, there
would be no mistakes I heg:in read—
ing fri ni a list of p eSto ms I had P re—
p;trcd. lie repeated them in F. tiglisli,
then Set tiitin oiow,i iii larsi, tuutl 1e 1 (I
them back to my Iranian friend for
his approval tile translati on. A coo—
p!e of times, the I. nglish Version oil my
q estion differed Sign i fi ca ii tl y I m i ii t ic
ot-iginal, ao(l at length r pointed out
one of the (liscrCpaflc it -s. Rivzi Said, ‘‘I
was not trained as :i reporter, bitt in
the past few months I've been the in-
terpreter for sixty—eight difFerent in-
terviews. I've become quite good a
framing questions. I lit pe y
mind a little editing.”
After the questions had been given,
edited, and translated, we moved across
the Street to see Shariatunadari. lie is
a man of sev nty—six, with a white
beard, a frail frame, and a thinitisli
voice. He, too, wore a black turban and
glasses—in his case, thick glasses over
weak hut distinctly friendly eyes.. He
received us in a hare, whitewashed
room lit by a single electric bulb, which
dangled from the ceiling. There were
Some uninteresting rugs on the floor,
and a curtain hung across the window
on a string. Shariatniadari was lying
down on an opened Crimson l)ed roll,
with his head and shoulders raised nfl a
purple pillow. Rivzi arid another aide,
whose function I never discovered, sat,
legs crossed, facing His Holiness. I sat
: 11a lId t- hi III, :ilso C ross—i egged, hi it
wit Ii 111%' hack ag:uinst a wall. In the
C ‘ut-sc of our talk, which lasted sev—
ml hoi t rs, a riotis people came in to
see Sha riatinadari, kissing his hand,
preSsing petitions on him, often with
too ‘I1e between the pages, and then
hit rrving awa '. A telephone by the
bed roll rang frequently, hut it was an—
swei-eil only rarely, by tile non—Paki—
st:oni aide, who usually managed to pick
it up after the c:ihler had stopped trying
to get through.
Sha na tniadari began by asking about
my trip down to Qum. I said that it
had been easy hut that we had noticed
a lot of troops in the town and, on the
wail (if his house, a scrawled sign say-
ing “I )e:ith to the Butcher Shah.''
His Ho1ine s said, “I don't know
what is happening in Iran. I never saw
a nation in such a spirit of revolt. It is
cru pt in g like a v dcaiu i and, like a vol—
en no, after hi jib liii g ii i p rcSsuu ic for
years and years it is impossible to stop.”
My fit-st question had to do with tile
revival of religion iii Ira ii as :i political
Iou-c-c. Shiariatniada ri said, “Religion
used to he consideu--d marginal—_apart
ft-urn the ni:iioustreani of events. Now it
li;ts become ni uteh Stronger than before.
The reas 01 is that religo 01 provides ;i ii—
swet-s to pi-ohiems of Ci 'nscieuce. It pt- i
vides a Vantage P°i t lot- fighitiuig in—
‘J -er- '/ot/y'c hazing .cp;-i/z-crs.”
136
DECEMBER 18,1978
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UStiCe. In oti r Shiite religion, spiritual
k aders are reatly at all times to assert
the truth arid the right.''
I asked him what injustices he had
in mind. He said, “ Ve have never had
free elections. I he elections in the past
were all dominated by local magnates
or the consulates of foreign powers.
The consequence has heen that we
now have laws repugnant to Islam
and to the ptihlic interest. For example,
alcoholic heverages are permitted.
There is gambling. There is illegitimate
sex—by that I mean sexual relations
between people under twenty who are
not married. The authority to marry
is in the hands of civil oflicials. But it
should not he. Marriage is not a deal
or a contract. It is something spiritual,
and so it should he performed by the
religious authorities.''
At that point, there were sounds of
firing in the distance, and I started.
‘‘J)uzi ‘t he afraid,'' he said. ‘‘We're
used to that kind ( f noise.''
I asked him to tell me about the
tr nihies in QuilL I {e said, ‘‘From the
beginning of the (list it rhances in Qurn,
we have asked people to speak their
ininds, hut with calm and dignity, not
in a provocative way. But I renieniher
a few miiotiths ;Igo a company of sol—
(hers headed by a major general walked
into these lreme s :ind ailno (inc l.d they
were on a mfliSsi (ml from the govern-
ment. ‘l'hev st;u-ted breaking windows
:iod sliootiiig, ( )tie person was killed 0 (1
tile SJ t ;iii(l ;Iilotile r dietl in the lios—
pita 1. Later, th government apolo—
gii.c l. B Lit I ask, ‘How cati you apolo—
gite for killing people?' Had it been the
Prune V1ii iismer' house, would it have
heeti enotai ii inemelv to apologize? Such
an acti(•(ml ;iloiit- is i(leqii;tte for
tile to deJa r i ii liol ' war or
revolution ‘llt;mt might have
let ppc tied if I We ic ii , t dc v (teil
to til t Ca use of mn
I asked hiiii how he would
rectify tie ui ;iml% imi i5ti iiS antI
wrongs he had cited. lie said that he
favoriti it r ,tiirii 1 (1 tile CunStittitlon of
1906 a (luclimil('iit that a liberal move—
mci it wit Ii SLI 1 I lit fri IIII t Ii t' clergy had
wrum i from time Qajar dynasty, which
receded tile fairmily 1)1 tIle present
Shah. 1 'hic 1906 constitution provided
for, ;unoiig ((thi I things, a Supreme
council >f t v religiotis leaders who
— would have ii vct right over all laws.
‘‘If tile', foujitl tile l; WS repugnant to
l 5hii l l 01. II) piiImci 1 )les (If justice Om-
:igammist tile in temsts the majority,''
Shariatmitdat-j s;iid, “they could reject
asked .s' iat Wauki! haaaen if the
five religious leaders disagreed among
themselves. H said, “That would not
he possible, for they represent tue
highest spiritual authority.”
I persisted with the question about
a possible disagreement. “in that case,”
he said, “the issue would he referred to
the highest spiritual authority in the
I assumed lie meant himself, and
any doubts on that score were settled
by Rivzi. He said, “His Holiness
would have the final word.”
I remarked that many people in
rran, and in other parts of the world,
had different views from His Holiness
on such matters as religious liberty,
land reform, and the role of women.
He cut in before I could develop this
theme. “The journalistic community in
tile world,” he said, pointing a bony
finger at me, “has constantly made the
lihelluus charge that we religious lead-
ers are anti—progres.sive and reactionary
and anachronistic. That is not the case.
want science, technology, educated
men and women—_physicists, surgeons,
engineers. But we also want clean and
honest political leaders. Those who
make the charges against us are them-
selves reactionary, because their goal is
to stop us from instituting a govern—
mflent of hope. The government of God
is the government of the people by the
people.''
I said that I would still like to know
where he stood on the issue of equal
rights for women—coeducation, for
eXamj)le.
Very smoothly, as if there were no
break in the 1 ine of thought at all, he
asked me hoW many Presidents there
heid been iii American history. I said
that it wasn't altogether clear
whether tile figure was thirty—
eight or thirty—nine,
He said, “You come all the
way over to Iran to ask about
the rights of women here, and
you don't even know how
many Presidents you have had in your
oWn country.''
I explained that the matter was
complicated by tile fact that Grover
Cleveland had been President twice but
not consecutively. I said that for the
sake of argument we could assume
there had been thirty—nine Presidents.
“How many of them have been
women? “ lie asked.
I said that none had hut that that
seemed to me beside the point. What,
for example, did he think about coedu-
cation?
He said, “I'm not opposed to the
education of women for all kinds o
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137
We asked Rocky Graziano to choose his favorite Dakin.
The buff k. A tough decision, because the champ was just
like a.kid, crazy about all kinds of Dakins — bears, squirrels,
walruses, elephants, the whole menagerie
Of course, they say that the best prizefighters are just
old softies outside the ring, but almost anyone of any age is
a pushover for a Dakun Every Dakin is plush and furry
Every Dakin is created with care and quality And every
Dakin is irresistibly embraceable
There's a Dakin for everyone At leading stores everywhere
s. B it I do r a: want -oeduca& nJ
ir to separate the SC000jS 01 learn—
from the schoois of flirting. We
5lam d n't look on women as play-
gs, accepted as long as they are
ig and beautiful, and then cast
y. In Islam, the older the woman,
t iigher her status. We know that in
ucational schools there s a cor—
ion of moral values, which is re-
ed in the police records. The girls
lop certain relations, and some
illegitimate children, and others
abortions. The girl loses her self—
ct and her status in society. Either
uffers a great personal loss or she
up another way of life—prosti—
asked him his opinion of abortion.
aid, “In Islam, abortion is consid—
murder. Therefore, abortion is not
itted.”
asked him his views on hirth con-
He said, “Birth control depends on
in circumstances. In small, over—
Lated countries that have no land,
control is acceptable. But in our
try, where the population occupies
one-fifth of the land, there is
ced for birth control. Procreation
d he free unless there is a particu—
roblem. In our country, that prob—
loesn't exist.”
asked him whether there was
ity in Islam for people of other re—
s. He said, “In Islam, Christians,
and Zoroastrians are all accepted
ual—unless they become a Fifth
nn for foreign meddling in this
:ry. Jews are accepted as Jews hut
defenders of Zionist aggression.”
hen referred to the Baha'i sect,
began as a retorm offshoot of
Islam, and has been popular in
particularly among educated peo-
ho have done well in business and
:s. He said, “Baha'i is accepted as
‘i per se hut not as a clique divid-
p government posts among them-
and working for the foreign in-
s.,,
sked him where he stood on the
reform that the Shah had decreed
63. He said, “Land reform is a
on of the past. Even if there were
objections made at the time, there
no objections to the principle of
reform hut only to the means of
rnentation. The Shah could have
the same thing in accordance with
rinciples of Islam. That is typical
• regime. In order to build roads
treets, he destroys the house of an
oman and does not give her an—
house.”
that point, Shariatmadari re—
Rocky
:cnd hk
Dakin
I .
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priached rae for picking riot one is—
sue at a time instead of dealing with
the culture as a whole. ‘‘Culture is a
mixture of many interwoven tiungs,''
he said. ‘‘Yni cannot in fairness juSt
pick on individual matters as if they
were unrelated. For example, in the
/Vest you cannot COnCeIVe of a banking
system that does not charge interest on
loans. But in Islam, for many different
reasons, our view is that interest should
not be charged.”
I said that that was true; no one in
the /‘Vest could .unrlei 'stand how a guy—
e rnment without the power to raise in-
terest rates could control inflation. I
went urn Or say that his point seemed Va 1 —
ol, and so I would shift subjects. I asked
hint where he stood on the issue of meet—
iii gs with reptesciltatiVcs of the Shah.
lie lord tad some ‘‘ tinoflieial meet—
ric s,'' he said, and went on, ‘‘Bitt
we can't lriive uflicial meetings. The
religious aotlrrrrities will partiCipate I I I
ll offers of a solution to tire present
problems, hut only with ii Lair and just
ice ‘r i one n t m l par] ia inc n t. %Ve can
Cr rIpe ate frilly rrrt ly a fter free elections
rave returned a popularly chosen gOV—
I'll In Cit
I said, anti he acknowledged, that
the Shalt ir;r,i trier! Or institute Some re—
Irrruis riireeterl toward liberalizations of
tue regime. I rrhscrvi'd that onarny
;/nlericirrrs felt tlrat President Carter,
by iris It rtnn;ui—riglrts campaign, had
played a r lie iii frrstering thrrse refxrrnns.
Slrari rtin;rtiari said, ‘‘Carter's hri—
nirann—rigiits P hey has riot been a very
isnprrrtaist prirpellinig frrce, though it
has mr it bee ii tally without effect in
prmslrirrg liberalization. But itt Islam we
rave sr nine skepticism imhrrrmt tire sinccri—
tn' of Carter's irrminuntt—tights apprrraeh,
bee a u e lie d rresr ‘ t apply it tr r tite U nit—
cii Nirtirr is. In tire U.N., five countries
have tire veto. I i it means we are Hot
&‘qrmal. But the ;llnericans don't say
;mn lytiriiag about that.'' -
a magnificent central square, the May-
dan—c—Shah ; the exte ar rrdinary B ridge
of Thirty—three Arches; and a gen-
era] air of refined elegance. But even
ftom the air, I could see burgeoning
suburbs and smoke from factories—
signs that change had come to Isfahan.
A local oThciaI, who asked not to he
mentioned by name, rapidly brought
me up to date on rlevelopments in Is-
fahan. He said, “F'ive years ago, there
were five hundred and sixty thousand
people in Isfahan, and this was one of
the most beautiful cities in the world.
Then the Shalt decided that there. was
tot) much administrative and economic
concentration in Teheran, and that he
needed to decentralize. So he put a
steel mill here. And an airhase, with a
helicopter training center. Naturally,
foreign companies followed suit. Bell
I lelicoptc 'r came in with the . training
base. I)u Pont put a plant here. Now
we have more than a million people.
‘I ‘he doubling in five years of a J)opula—
turn that had been stable for three hun-
dred years has changed everything.
1'lnis used to he an educational cen-
ter, with a university, many religious
schools, and lots of music. Now it is
an industrial town, over three hun—
tired thousand workers have come in
from the countryside, most of them
without their families. They live five irr
six to a room in the poorer quarter of
town. They make good wages—a do]-
her seventy—five an hour—hut they
don't have their families, and they're
miserable. Everybody else has been af-
fected, tot). Tine bazaar merchants used
to he very important. NOW the banks
manage credit, and the engineers are
the big shots in town.
“Students have grown up under the
Shah, and they don't know what things
were like before development started.
All they know is that the Shah prom-
ised that Iran was going to be like
France or Germany. That isn't hap-
pening. The huge surge in population
means that services are spread too thin
and are constantly breaking down.
lucre aren't enough telephones. It's
impossible to buy a car. The schools are
jammed. Housing is scarce. During the
past three years, there has been a re—
cessiirn, especially in building, and
manly laborers as'e out of work. So tire
students are in a mood to reject every-
thing that has happened. They are
turning hack to the old days, and pur-
suing an idealized version of what
thtngs were like then. They are push—
rug tine mullahs to go back and re—cre-
ate the wonderful past. The mullahs
see a cbarsce eg a . : eir prestge
; d oowe'-, T'he provide be r
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139
with a power base for outting rcsstrc
orL the government to g:ve thc : ne
consideration and importance they have
been seeking for years. So the mullahs
o along. That's the dynamic of trou-
ble in Isfahan.”
I asked about the circumstances re-
lating to the declaration of martial law
in Isfahan back in August, a month
before it was declared in the other ma-
jor cities of the country.
The local official said, “That's a
perfect example. All through the Sprin
and summer, after riots in Qiim in
January, and in Tahriz in late Fehru-
ar), this town was seething with unrest.
The workers were (lemandintz hctt r
housing conditions, and more money to
meet inflation. The bazaar merchants
were bitching about the loss of their
old status, about price controls, and
competition from the big banks and
supermarkets. The intellectuals Were
complaining about the lack of freedom.
The students were telling the mullahs
to do their stuff, and the mullahs were
saying ‘right on.' About the first of
August, a mixed group of workers and
students occupied the home of the most
prominent local religious leader, A a-
tollah Khademi. The governor-gen-
eral and the local Army commander
went to Khademi and told him to get
them off the premises. He tried, hut
he couldn't, On the contrary, the
crowds got bigger and bigger. At one
point, maybe twenty thousand people
were camping there, Vhen Khadcnii
tried to cool them down, the students
turned ugly. They took down the post-
ers of the Shah and put up posters of
Ayatollah Khomeini. On August I I d i,
the military decided to clear the place.
rroops moved in, threw tear gas, and
pushed the crowd out at bayonet point.
The crowd then went on a rampage.
It burned down a bank and a hotel and
fifteen other buildings. It threw a bomb
into a bus for Bell Helicopter employ-
ees. That's when martial law was de-
dared. The bazaaris—the bazaar nicr-
chants—immediately went on strike
and closed down their shops in protest.
Fhe mad ressah students stayed in their
schools, but they demonstrated every
day, always making more radical (I C—
mands. On the night of August 2lst,
two high—school teachers, who had
built up a large following of anti—gov-
ernment young people, were arrested
and sent to Teheran, Next day, the
kids hit the streets, and there has been
trouble of one kind or another ever
since,”
I asked for and was given the names
of the teachers— wl i had been re-
leased after a mop tli in custody. They
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ThE NEW YORKER
Ii id no telephones, so my Iranian friend
and I picked one—Hassan Zehtah—
and drove mit to see him, lie lives Ofl
the outskirts of town, in a neighbor-
hood of n a r r ow, twisting u op nv e (1
streets. The car could barely squeeze
between the walls, and the puddles and
mud in the r ad reminded me anew
of the origins of the custom of remov-
ing one's sh es before entering a
mosque. Once we were in the neigh—
ho i-hood, we had no trouble finding the
house; everybody we asked knew Has—
san Zehtab, and where he lived.
Mr. Zehtah turned out to he a. partly
bald, moonfaced muddle—aged man
with a complexion slightly darker in
tone than that of most Iranians. He
was carefully dressed, in a suit, white
shirt, tie, and sweater. I saw only two
rooms of his home, and they were
modest in size and hare of ornament.
When we arrived, Zehtah was mcctii g
in one of the rooms with about forty
disciples. He agreed to see me. and we
moved into the other room, with ten of
his disciples coming along. I asked
Zehtah to tell mc a little about who he
was and what he believed.
He said, “I'm forty years old, and
I have been a schoolteacher here in
Isfahan ever since I graduated from the
University of Teheran, Tifteen years
________ ago. In all this time, I haven't seen one
truly free election, or one instance of
concern on the part of those in auithori—
ty for the happiness of the people. I
think the only way to bring about the
happiness of the people is through an
Islamic culture. We're given to under—
stand that the ruling clique is talking
about religion now, and putting on a
turban and the white garments of
holiness. But that is a mere pretense.
Even a child can see through that. It
is. like the ceramic facing on the wall
of a building. Everybody knows that
beneath the facing there is a real wall,
of a different material.”
I asked him if it was not true that
under the Shah the country had taken
large strides toward economic develop-
ment over the past fifteen years.
He replied, “I have to say with
great sorrow that our economic growth
is based on a windfall called oil. If we
consider where we are, and then where
the progressive States like Japan are,
we realize how little We have accom-
plished. When I think of Japan, I
think of a verse:
Leila and I were fellow-travellers on
the road of life;
She reached her home, and I am still
a vagabond.”
He said, “What we see here is infia—
tion—prices for food have gone way
op. What we see is the depletion of our
oil reserves. At the present rate, we
have only twenty years to go. /Vhat
we see is an agriculture worth zero. We
buy vegetables from Israel, wheat from
the United States, onions from :ç r_
key, meat from Australia, oranges
from six different countries. Our in-
dustry is just an assembly line for prod-
ucts made in other countries. We
would he poor fools indeed if we were
satisfied with that.”
I asked him what would satisfy him.
He said, “My ideal future is within
the framework of Islamic law. That is
the guarantee of happiness and a good
future for society. On particular reli-
gious questions, I don't find it in my
area of competence to make answers. I
leave that to the highest religious au-
thorities.”
Al! during the interview, Zehtab, his
disciples, my Iranian friend, and I were
sitting cross—legged on the floor. I was
extremely uinc on f mu ble , a nil it must
have been evident, for one of the disci-
ples asked if I would like a piece of
fruit. I said yes, and he took an apple
out of a bowl in the middle of the floor.
He began to 1 t l it for me, hut at the
first stroke of the knife the blade epa—
rated from its handle, He held out the
- broken knife. “There 31011 see it all,” he
said in disgust. “Our country owns
twenty-five per cent of Krupp in Ger-
many, hut in Iran we can't even pro .
duce a knife that cuts an apple.”
Everybody laughed, and I began
questioning... the disciples. All of them
were students or professional men be-
tween the ages of twenty and thirty,
and had participated actively in many
demonstrations against the Shalt. ‘1 ‘he
all supported Zehtah in his quest for
an Islamic society. I expressed surprise
that young men with professional train—
ing should he so drawn to a religion
that seemed—to a %Vesterner, at
least—not exactly with it. I went
around the room, asking the disciples,
One by one, a single question: “What
(Irew you toward Islam?”
The first to answer was a mullnh, in
robes and turban, who had a degree in
psychology from the University of Te-
heran. He said, ‘‘My love for Islam has
grown because I have studied it and
compared it with other religions.'' The
others—fouur students, two employees
uf the National Iranian Oil Company,
arm accountant, an engineer, and a
plìysicist—all gave nearly the same an-
swer. Two ‘)f them said that they had
compared Islam with the teachings of
a nineteen tim—cen tu my Eu 1-opea mm s ucia I
Pbfhos ph . —tj i t is, Marx, whose
I said that even if some countries had
done better than Iran, Iran had done
quite well.
p
jfth eM
C/WW&
1
Ut C T1b .IL I5 97
ThE EWYOI1I ER
has be n taboo in Iran—and
nd it preferable. Another offered
generalization “Islam offeis a solu-
1 o th.e complications of our life.”
we drove away, I remarked to
Iranian friend that the similarity of
answers was disappointing. “You
‘t understand,” he told inc. “They
followed the lead of the mullah. It
sn't make for interesting answers,
it makes them happy.”
SPENT the night in Isfahan at the
Shah Abbas Hotel. The clientele was
rely foreign—a sprinkling of Japa-
, Indians, Americans, and Europe-
Apart from the sight of a section
he hotel which had been damaged
ng the riots of August, and an
ed guard in the gardens, there was
.igri of trouble.
I lefore dinner, I visited Vanda
:e, an American psychologist em-
ed by the United States companies
king in the Isfahan region. Mrs.
:e reported that most of the Amen—
in the area lived in a compound,
ely removed from contact with the
tians. They had the problems usual-
ound in such communities. There
great boredom—especially among
children. Alcoholism was common
.ng the women, and man)' of the
iren had drug problems. There
a good deal of contempt for the
ians. “Because of their turbans,
y Americans call them rag heads,”
• Hake said. “That's the nicest
e they call them.”
Irs. Hake had some guests, and one
1cm was a bazaar merchant from
aid Isfahan family. “I could cry
it what has. happened here,” he
roe. “It used to he a paradise of Wa—
md gardens and beautiful
lings. Now the town is
of strangers. There are
people from the villages.
y live in shantytowns.
re are ten thousand
ricans. They drive up
price of everything—es-
Wy houses. A house that rented for
thousand rials per month live years
now costs fort)' thousand nials per
th. Many people are unhappy. One
ay interests is a building project.
workers were Afghanis—three
li-ed of them. The other day, the
rnment sent the Afghanis home.
ow why: There was a crime wave,
they did a lot of thc stealing. But
dy gave me any warning. Now
t do I do?
Lots of the young men come to see
about their problems. They don't
v how to deal with the young
ten sitting next to them iii their
classes. In the past, they had never
seen any women, even mothers and
sisters, who were not wearing a veil.
Now tlie see miniskirts and hare arms
and hare legs. The say to me, //That
do they want, these V men? //‘llat are
they trying to do to me?
“/Vlicn I go to Teheran, I feel as
though I were in Hell. Somebody could
die right in front of oii and floho(lV
would do an v thin tr. l)eep sadness
comes over me when r see the uses
to which we have pitt our oil wealth.
So it iS not SurJ)iiSing that t hcte has
been a political eruption. hve years
ago, Khomeini WflS nothing. Now he
is held up as the equivalent of the
Shah.”
At breakfast the next day, I met a
professor of religion at the university
who had been educated at 1 larva nI and
Oxford. His family arc memhcrs of
the Baha'i sect, and he is going hack to
Oxford, at least pa rtlv because of re-
ligious persecution. I Ic said he would
like to talk about the state of religion
in Iran, but nob on condition that I
not mentic'n his name. I agreed.
He said, ‘‘As a student of religion, I
rend wit Il gnat in te rest Toy n bee's ‘A
Study of History.' I always wondered
why he felt that the next stage of re-
generation in the world would he reli-
gious. I felt that religion had heen on
the ru 11 all (IVC r the world for centu ries.
In some places, there have been adjust-
ments, hut they have been made oniy
slowly and pain fully. Ci i ristia nit )' ac—
commodated itself to Darwin, b 1 1 t it
was hard even in a tolerant country like
Britain. Islam has experienced a nuttnher
of shocks and adjustments. lucre have
heen several efforts to update tile re-
ligion. But they have all failed. By
and large, the clergy remains
narrow, fanatical, and igno-
rant.”
He went on, “Tue mer-
chants of the bazaars worked
hand and glove with the
mullahs. They were the two
most conservative elements
in the cities. Tile hazaaris usually rent-
ed land from the religious foundations,
and made tile foundations big gifts.
But hoth the hazaaris an(l tue founda-.
tions have been outmoded by recent
developments. When I left Iran to go
abroad to school, in 1960, this was still
a backward country. Only a few Cities
in tile country had running water.
There were only about ten thousand
people who had heco or wet-c at muliver—
sities. Most 111(1 ustry was ha mimlicra Its,
and mho(m t eight 3 per Cent of time people
still lived in rural villages. In 1970,
when I came hack, it was a (life rent
country. All the %‘( mung pe pie—and
that s over fifty per cent of )7U
lation—were going to school. I ere
are a hundred thousand univers;ty
gra(luates 110W antI almost two him—
dred thousand people in universities.
On a normal weekend, between one
and two million people drive out of
Teheran in their own cars.
“Tile mullahs have been losing stead—
il 3 ' through these developments. Their
base was education. Now they have to
contend against state schools and urn—
versitics. They've lost the large land-
holdings they once had. Most of their
endowments have been nationalizet!,
and are controlled by tile state. No one
ever paid muell attention to them until
tile present wave of troubles. The ha—
zaaris have also lost great power. The
banks an(l big companies have taken
away their control over loans and credit.
‘There are shops out in tile streets—
across from your hotel, for example—
So pople don't go to tile bazaar as
irnuch. And for a while there was price
inspection as part of a campaign against
inflation. Ihat llit tile bazaaris very
hard.''
After a pause, lie continued, “Peo—
11(1W don't remember what it was
like in tile 01(1 days. As late as 1955,.
I remember going with my father to
a village in tile countryside. The local
khan—tlic head man—(Ii(l justice the
religious way. He cut off hands for
thievery, splitting people's tongues for
talehearing. There was a peasant in the
village with a beautiful wife. The khan
took her, and tile peasant complained to
my father. Tile khan went out riding
with my father, and they encountered
tile The khan took his riding
crop :mnd heat tiìe p cilSimnt SeilselesS.
‘“l'he oil hooi1 1 ended all tllat and
P t it out of mnini. But it also brought
lots of trouhle. Mainly inflation. I'here
are buses 110W, ti 1 vegetal)les, butt
most peoplc can't afford them. More-
over, a lot of the money has been
spent-—---I almost said wasted—on big
projects an(1 arms purcllases tllat don't
do ordinary people any immediate good.
And it has to be said that on the cul-
tural side the /Vestern world has not
(lone well in iran. Students coming
hack from Europe and tile United
States present tile cities there as Mec—
eas for drunks, whores, and illegitimate
children. They depict a total break-
down of morale. So to the di cuu1ties
of local imdjustinent there is added a
tarnishing of tile classic model. Ihe
Wcst is seen xenophohically, as some—
tiling frightening, and tile scarcll for
old values is jmitensified.
‘‘It a 15(1 iii IS t( I be ;m, un ittemi t Ii at tue
Silail, ill his c Ot 1 ) Imsiasni to build tile
U'3umltrv, ignored the people ill it. ho
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times, word went through the crowd
that soFdiers were coming. ‘I he ranks
broke and everybody rushed for CoVer
But that day, at least, no soldiers caine.
The professors, having no classes,
were available and talkative. By far the
most interesting was Karim Pakravan,
an economist trained at the University
of Chicago, whose father, a former
Iranian general, had at one time been
head of the security-police apparatus,
known as SAVAK, and was now work-
ing at tI)e Imperial Palace in a high ad-
ministrative position. He came to visit
me at my hotel room, and talked
ft-eely (if his own Situation and that of
his colleagues.
“Young professional people. want
to escape the establishment,” he said.
“The establishment is evei-yhody who
has i-cal power. In one way or another,
either morally or financially, it is cor-
rupt. Ve are not brave enough tO JO fl
the opposition, hut by being at the urti—
versity we maintain a passive opposi-
tion. Our case against the government
is lack of freedom. All creativity has
heeti crushed. I teach a course in eco-
nomies. I'm not allowed to say that
there's mainuti'ition or poverty, or that
we're underdeveloped. A doctor friend
of mine went to the countryside to look
at health problems. He found all the
diseases typical of underdeveloped
countries—trachoma, dysentery, that
kind of thing. He didn't find cancer
and hypertension—the diseases that go
with modern society. So he was never
allowed to make a report.
“A whole generation of Iranians has
been raised, educated, and given no
freedom. Young engineers, for instance,
have only a minor chance to take part
in technological development. The Shah
didn't develop a technology—he bought
a blueprint of technology from the
//Test. So there were very few major
jobs for Iranians. At least ninety per
cent of our people have been left out of
development. I have a small consulting
finn. I take only lm't'iIte clients. Unless
we were huge and foi'eign, we couldn't
get government contracts anyway. I
might be able to do a project for the
government at a charge of, say, ten
thousand dollars for a couple of months'
work. But people in the govei-nrnent
would i'ather hire foreigners at a thou-
sand dollars it day. That way, they get
a kickback.”
He continued, “Khomeini is merely
a symbol of Opposition. He is respected
as a Moslem, but he has no power. .Ten
years ago, no prayers were said in the
‘3mversines. Religious Stct aSs were
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masses were left out of his development
program. The hazaaris were left out.
The mullahs were left out. He thought
he could hring them along th rough ceo—
nomnic progress without any accompany-
ing change in ways of thought. The
heart of the difl culty, though, is the new
group of university students. From fifty.
to seventy—five per cent of them come
ft-urn pool' homes. They at-c very dis-
turbed when they sit next to a girl in
class. They feel a sense of guilt, a fear
of being polluted—of secularization.
All this takes the form of opposition to
the regime as the bearer of /‘Vestern
values. The sexual drive pushes the stu-
dents in the direction of religion, and
the mullahs latch on to them to main-
tain their position of importance.''
WCK in Teheran, I found mount-
ing turbulence and confusion. A
wave of strikes that had started in Sep—
timber with employees of the central
bank had spread to thie r ban ks, to the
telecommunications in(ltlstry, and to
the oil workei-s. One day, there was
a rutluor that the gas—station woi—kers
would go on strike. I saw hundreds (if
cii is lined up at several gas stations.
Angry motorists jockeyed for position,
oud in One place troops had to fire
into the air to maintain order. The
(university had been scheduled to reopen
at the end of Scpttmlc'r, ;iiitl then at
the cud of C )ctr ihe r. Each time, regis—
(ration had bee it S rppe ul hy st tid en
strikes and chemnoisstratioiss. ./fte r the
seeond effort, the authorities gave up,
and turned the camnp(us, iii dowfltown
‘1 ‘ehe ran, over to the tlcnu 0 1st rao irs.
‘1 ‘here wcre daily protests, amid rnc
niot-iming I went to w:utch, with a viSit—
ing American professor who spoke
l”;ursj. Ai'mnc'ul soldiers iii tanks and iii'—
mu (rrcd persurnmsel carriers patrolled the
gates, but we were allowed in without
an demand to show our credentials.
‘l'lme re we t'e two go nips of demnoust ra—
((Irs, mai'chiisg back and forth. ( )ne
group—of about seventy—five students,
almost all mnen—w;us clearly Marxist
in its political SentinlentS. ‘1 ‘he Stul(Ii'u Its
rm-ied placards denouncing inte ma—
tis in:ul Imperialism, and chanted s1 g;uns
calling for the unity of tIme workers.
‘I'he othie m' group, obviously Islamic in
orientation, bore pictu res (If Ayatollah
Khomeini and carried signs calling for
in Islamic republic. There were sev-
eral hundi-ed students in tile Islamic
g ro up, md U duig ma fly women. All tile
women wet-c veiled. Some wore the
cluidor, a garment that envelops the
body from head foot, while athet's
wr -e hleea .''s , i'S”S. arir: sci'.r”e
ve ed their heads a- d fac s. A few
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,co:me om r ' oCY families
inceS The ” nave to rent rroms, and
the financial burden is.unhearahle.
Ther e has never been a systematic study
made, SO we don't know hoW badly off
they are. But they don't have enough
money. They have to cluster six or
seven in a room. In the last few years,
there has heen an undoubted effort to
reform things. There's real talk in the
parliament. Those in SAVAN who were
corrupt and who tortured people h;ive
been ousted. There's an effort to bring
roads to villages, and water. If there
should he elections soon, I'd probably
vote. But I wouldn't join the govern-
ment. Next year is going to be had.
Already, because of the strikes and
the big wage settlements, it is t'lear
that the gross national product will he
down by ten per cent. There'll he an
incredible inflation. One good thing I
can say: At last, after twenty—five
years, Iranian politics arc becoming in-
teresting.”
Pakravan put me in touch with an-
other economist trained in the United
States, who divided his time between
teaching and working fur frail's Plan
and Budget Organization. Because of
his government job, he asked m c not
to mention his name. He said that econ-
omists at the Plan and Budget Or-
ganization had repeatedly (lone studies
showing that, while the national wealth
was increasing, many people, particu-
larly in the countryside, were relatively
worse off. He showed me a report that
indicated that the income share of the
top twenty per cent of urban Iranians
had risen from 57.5 per cent in 1972
to 63.5 per cent in 1975. The share of
the middle forty pet- cent dropped From
31 per cent to 25.5 per cent. The share
of the bottom forty per cent dropped
from II .5 per cent to 11 per cent.
/Vhile urban consumption per head
was about two times that of the rural
areas in 1959, it had by 1972 grown
to three times that of the rural areas.
But these studies, while circulated
abroad, were, he said, not published in
Iran.
The economist went on to talk about
the religious revival. “I was very ac-
tive in politics during my high-school
years,” he said. “At that time——the
early nineteen—fifties—there were only
two important groups: the Communist,
or Tudeh, Party, and the National
Front__which included the Pan—Irani-
ans, who wanted to take over parts of
Iraq, Turkey, and Pakistan. The young
had absolutely no interest in religion.
After that, the political situation calmed
fhc -re was a brief revival of poli-
tics in 1961 and 1962, when Au Amini
starteti the hind reform that the Shah
later claimed as his own. The Tudeh
Party was dead then, bitt the Natic miii
Front was strong. ‘l'lw religious people
did n't cmi nt. K horneini hecaine impor-
tant only after he was (li-i yen into exile
by the Shalt. The Shah's father, Re7.a
Shah, h;ul been very successful iii fi gut—
ing the mullahs. lie ill;ole ii di ed is—
sa ult on the clergy--- b leing Wi one ii u
take off veils, riding into tile shrines
and beating lie in uhl;i is lie hi:ul pub-
lic sympathy, because then the clertiv
-Were curiiipt and /Ve;tlt liv. They were
hated by everybody. Now they have
lost their lands anti tile iihigiouis foiin—
(lations. lhie ililillahis have hi 'eii puri-
fied. They have the power ttl puvl! tv.''
T HE economist at t lie plan iiiii t
agency introduced me to
Tehranian, an intellectual in i ns mid-
dle thirties who had been trained :11
Harvard and then eti—opted iiitu the
Shah's SyStem as the head f an institute
for the study of commit nications. I Went
to see hun itt the institute, where lie
looked every hit the lfuutopeati or
American intellectual in his cozy oys—
ter shell; he had a comfort;ible ofihe
with a couple of secretailes, ;uid word
a neat hlm suit, a silk tie, :uuid shoes of
soft Italian leather. lie talked briefly
ahiutit Iranian intihleeiiu;ils. lii ' s:i i,
‘ ‘1 lie great poihihem lacing -the
versity graduates once thit ' are (suit of
school is a lack of frecd,tn. Ve have
lots of intellectuals and technocrats who
have views, hut they a ri never allowed
to express them. Everything is dictated
from the top, and some of it is silly.
For instance, •the government tried to
build up the television network— -wit hi
which I was involved. It was extended
to the point where it reacheti Seventy
per cent (if the people in Iran. I lien
the palace intervened. They insisted
that we show pictures of urban giler—
rillas confessing their terrorist deeds.
‘They made us put Parviz Saheti, the
head of SAVAK's anti-terrorist cam-
paign, on the screen, giving his view (if
history. We have an intelligentsia, bitt
they have no chance to participate.
They're just supposed to support the re-
gime. But they don't like slavishly sup— I
porting the Shah, so they turn against
him. Yet, with all this, we have been
surprised by the hreadthi of tue move-
ment against the Shah. It reaches from
plush Teheran to the remotest vil—
lages.”
Tehranian was said to have been a
Marxist before he joined the govern-
ment, and I had gone to see him pri-
marily because I needed some help in
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Th ‘O 1 EFt
ascertaining the part that the Marxists
had played in what had been happening.
Clearly, the Marxists counted for some-
thing in the movement against the Shah,
hut I had been given the most diverse
estimates of their role, from the most
I surprising sources. The view around
the palace was that the religious move-
ment had been totally taken over iiv
the Marxists. That view was shared
by the economist who taught at the
university as a form of “passive re-
sistance” to “the esta blishmen t.”
“The resistance is run by the Com-
munists,'' lie had told me. “If you
want to buy weapons, there is a nuin—
her you can call and you get what you
ask for. I don't know exactly who sup-
plies the weapons—the Russians, tile
Cubans, or the Palestinians. But they're
the ones who have made the country
erupt.” An American official, on the
other hand, put absolutely no stock ii i
the theory of Communist manipulation.
He remarked to me that “the Army
and the police and SAVAI< have hecti
comhing tile country all year looking
for the Communists behind the demon-
strations. So far, they haven't found a
single one. /Vhy Because there aren't
any. The mullahs and the bazaaris be-
tween them have informal networks
that they've used for years to organize
processions and festivals. That's all it
takes now. 1'hat's all there is.''
I told Teli ranian (If tile confused
picture I was getting, and asked if lie
could p(it me in touch with ahy of his
former Marxist colleagues. He said that
it would he easy, and set up an appoiIit
ment for me witlì a friend holding a
high post in the Ministry of In n'rma—
tioti. ‘Ihe friend would organize an
interview with three officials in the
Ministry. I was not to talk about Marx.
Instead, I should use the euphemism—
“a European social philosopher of the
nineteenth century.”
At the last minute, I had to change
the appointment from tile morning to
tile afternoon, but that was no prob-
1cm. 1 went to see tue official, and after
a few moments he took me into a room
behind his office. Three men, all about
thirty, were sitting at a table with a
woman—a graduate student at the
University of Michigan, who acted as
translator. I asked them if thcy were
believers in the philosophy of a certain
well—known European social philos-
opher of the nineteenth century, and
all three smiled and nodded. I asked
them about their education and their
jobs. They were university graduates—
one from the Sorhonne, the two others
from the University of Teheran. The
man from the Sorhunne helped j)tlt to—
gerber pubIic—opin r .n t oi s for the Min-
istry, and tile two others had jobs as
engineers.
I asked what they found useful in
the works of the nineteenth—century
social philosopher. One said, “He ex-
poses the impci'ialists and their rape of
all the countries of the Third Vur]d,
including Iran.”
I asked how, specifically, the philos—
opher's theories were relevant to Iran,
and was told about the (lepletion of
Iran's oil reserves and the purchase (If
American WC OflS for open “use against
the people.'' I asked about Iran's prac-
tice (If selling natural gas to the So-
viet Union and they responded that
there was no shortage of natural gas.
I asked if they felt that tile Russians
hall ( IC 5 g OS on Iraii. All of tiieni
thought that compa red to the United
States influence, which was ‘‘all—perva—
SiVC,'' tile Russian influence was ‘‘so
small it d(IeSn't count.'' I asked what
recent works by followers of the well—
knowii nineteenth—century social phi—
losc lphiLr the li;ui read .Afte some
liusit a ti'' II, the man f n on the S rhon ne
Sai(l, ‘‘Jean—Paul Sartre.'' No Other
names were forthcoming.
I asked how tile)' felt ahotit the reli—
gi(o !s movement against the Shah. All
said that they agreed with its oh 1 ec—
tives, I asked if t here wasn't a con—
tr:iihiction somewhere. Vasn't religion
stlpp , osed to he ‘tue opium (If tile pco—
plc
‘‘Sometimes that is true,'' I was told.
‘‘Rot in (levClo )iIlg countfles it is ohif—
ferent. At times, religious feelings and
social 1l1I(V('Ffleflts go hand in hand.
Jh;ot is the way it is now iii Iran. /Ve
are all of (IS tInitc(i against the Shah.''
S I asked how they thought the go '—
crnmcnt o f the Soviet Union felt about
the Shah. ‘1 ‘lie)' said t i ey felt tilat thc '
ila(l thi hacking (If Moscow.
I asked whether they and their
leaders were working from within
tile religious movement. Ihere was a
silence. IhlCn One (If them said, ‘“Xe
arc in an Islamic country, and all So-
cial movements inevitably have a re-
ligious coloring. %Ve do not believe
there will ever he Communism here
as there is Conimunisrn in Russia or
China. VVe will have our own brand
Of soocialjsni.''
Later, the official who had arranged i
the interview told Iflo that I ShO(il(i
have asked him the same (]ItCStiOns. ‘ ‘I
believe that tile Communists arc ma—
iliptihating the religious movement,'' he
S tld. Still l;iter, an American official
showed Inc a translation (If an article in
A avid, a new, underground puhlica—
tHIn (If the Iiideli Party. Ihe article,
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entitled ‘‘J'he ‘T'odch Party and the
MIISICn1 MI)v& tnent, said, “/Ve are
ready to put at the disposal of our
friends from other political groups all
our political propaganda and technical
resllurces for the campaign against the
Shah.'' I was also shown an inter-
view with Iraj Eskandary, the secre—
ta i'y—gene ral of the ludch Party, now
living in exile in Moscow. Among oth
er things, Eskaiidary said, “As far as
the r cli gio us aspect of the present
movement is concerned, it should he
emphasized that the Shiite clergy can-
not he viewed as a force demanding a
return to the past, to the Middle Ages.
Fhe position of the clergy reflects, to
a significant e.xtent, popular feelings.
And the fact that the religious move-
ment is now pl;lying an important role
in the rnohili 'Zati (In of democratic and
nationalist forces against the dictatorial,
:i iiti—na tionalist, and pro—impe rialist re—
gime of the Shah can oniy he wel—
co r ne ll. . . . /Vc are in favor of a union
with all democratic forces, including
tile religious oneS.”
I I', tile role played by the Marxists in
the fomenting of trouble remains
obscure, tile role of the liberalization
I HS() red by the Sli a ii a nIl his ministers
looms larger and larger. ‘i'lie Shah ac-
knowledged when I saw him that he
ll:ld begun tO l(lOScfl things lIJ) ‘‘about
tw i years ago.” I was in Iran in the
spring of 1977, and I remember well
the widespread talk of relaxation. Jim-
my Ca rter's emphasis on ii oman rights
Was one of the reasons, hut oniy one,
anti not the moSt important. Iranian
SttlllCfltS in the United States and Eu—
o pe had focussed attention on the re—
l) 1 'e features ilf the rcgiine—partic—
ularly the practice of torture by SAVAK.
Ihe international press, lcd by Le
Month', of Paris, had picked up the
theme. Both the Red Cross and Ant—
I(CSEy International, the' private human—
rights group based in London, were
asking questions and proposing VISItS.
But by far the roost important reason
for the relaxation was that the rapid
development that followed the great
(il—price increase of 1973 proved too
complicated for direct control from
above. Dislocations and shortages were
universal. I recall visiting a new alumi—
n urn plant in an iitd ustrial area outside
Teheran. The plant was supposed to
accommodate several hundred workers,
hut they had no housing and no trans—
P(O 't, and there were no telephones in
the offices. All over the country, power
failures were frequent, and the pursuit
of scarce goods and services drove in—
th ri above :;‘ie twentv— ve -pe —cen-:-
per—year level. An effort to hold down
inflation hy fixing prices was faili n ill a
spectacular manner. It was clear that
the economy could he made to work
only if there was Some freeing up,
some devolution of authority.
Signs of reform were ahu ndant that
spring. Batches of prisoners were re-
leased, and were allowed to talk to the
press. The Shah declared that torture
would cease—an admission that it had
been going on. Corruption, which had
never been far below the surface—as
witness the Persian origin i f the word
“baksheesh”—becarne public in the
wake of a scandal that involved payoffs
to high officials of the Iranian Navy.
The National Front, the chief opposi-
tion party, was allowed to circulate let-
ters highly critical of the regime. Sni-.
dent demonstrations went forward
with only token harassment. Even the
television appearances of Parviz Saheti,
the director of SAVAK's political see—
tion, were part of an effort to prove
that the organization had a human
face.
‘The direction of policy, to he sure,
remained ambiguous. Low-level agents
of SAVAK continued to stage raids on
opposition meetings. Investigation of
corruption at the highest levels was sys-
tematically blocked—reputedly by the
Shah's entourage. But a key figure in
the entourage, Amir Assadollah Alam,
the Minister of the Imperial Court,
fell ill in 1977, and died in New York
early this year. His departure from the
Court Ministry opened the way for a
political change that signalled an un-
doubted commitment to reform. In
August, 1977, the Shah appointed a
new Court Minister, Amir Abbas Ho—
veida, and a new Prime Minister, Jam-
shid Amouzegar. I saw both men at
their homes in ‘Teheran in late Octo-
ber of this year, along with the Infor-
mation Minister in the Amouzegar
government, I)ariush Hornayun. They
all talked freely, but not for mdi—
- vidual attribution. /Vhat follows is
my interpretation of their accounts
of what happened during the twelve
months beginning in August, 1977—a
period of sweeping reforms that boom-
eranged to injure them, and the Shah
as well.
H OVEIDA, an affable and highly in-
telligent man, with degrees in
history, economics, and political science
from the Universities of Paris and
Brussels, came to the Court Ministry
after nearly thirteen years as Prime
Minister—the longest term in modern
tin es. He hac . :‘. ma c-r baod m the :‘ap—
:d c1eveoumer that c.ha ged the face
153
of ‘Ira i ar Q sciiretl so mriiy o ts peo-
ple. Though he wa said to have been
tolerant of corruption in the past, he
was reputed never to have been on the
take himself, and he certainly did not
live on the grand scale. He had realized
•as early as 1975 that the pace of de-
velopment had to he slowed down.
‘°sVe're in orbit,'' he had told me at the
time, “and we have to come down to
earth.” He brought to the Court Mii i—
istry a determination to achieve eco—
norniC slowdown and political rcfo
As he saw it, the key to both was end-
ing corruption at the highest levels.
From the beginning, he worked with
the Shah on a code of conduct for the
royal family. That project brought him
into conflict with many members of the
family who had been active in private
business affairs. In July, 1978, after a
long and hitter battle, Hoveida finally
won the Shah's approval for the code
of conduct.
The code was not published, for
fear that the spelling out of what was
henceforth prohibited would he re-
garded as a confession of past guilt.
But the fact that it was adopted was
made known, and caused virtually
every member of the royal family to
leave Iran. Here—published for the
first time, I think——is the code that the
Shah approved last summer:
CODE OF CoNnucr FOR THE
IMPERIAL FAMILY
In order to maintain the high status of
the Imperial family, which is respected by
all Iranians. the following principles are
instituted as the Code of Conduct of the
Imperial family:
I) Refraining from conduct considered
distasteful by social custom.
2) Refraining from any acts or actions
not in keeping with the high status of the
Imperial family.
3) Refraining from direct contact with
public officials for the purpose of handling
personal business. These matters will he
handled through the Ministry of Court
or His Imperial Majesty's Special Office.
4) Refraining from contacts with for-
eign companies or organizations which
are parties to contracts and deals with
Iranian public organizations.
5) Refraining from receiving comnuis-
sions for any reason whatsoever, from
companies and organizations, foreign or
Iranian, which are parties to contracts or
deals with the Iranian government.
6) Refraining from receiving valuable
gifts from persons, companies, or organi-
zations.
7) Refraining from deals of any kind
with public organizations, he it the gov-
ernment, organizations associated with
the government, municipalities, or public
organizatiOns.
8) Refraining from direct or indirect
(through third person or persons) part-
nership or holding shares in companies or
orgaiiizatWfls that are parties to deals
:;.e gpv ;r er c. punliC orgaluza-
tions.
9) Rdrairting from founding or hold-
ing shares in organizations or companies
whose activities are not compatible with
the high status of the meiflt)CrS of the
Imperial family, such as restau rants, cab—
a rets, casinos, a iid the like.
10) Refraining from the use of facili-
ties and properties belonging to govern—
me ot and pu 1)1 IC org aniz a ti otis for p ri v ate
use.
11) Refraining from tile use—for pri-
vate or commercial purposes—of the
services of the eniplovees of the govern-
men t and associated org mhz a ti otis tv ho
also have respotisihi Ii tics and lu ties in
fou ndations :issocj ateil with the I mpe ri al
family, or related organizations.
12) Ref raining rom asking for special
favors or ma k i tig reconi mend at h ins to
public officials in the in te rest of ni em hers
of the un pt ri I family ii r otlie rs.
13) Ref raining f rofli the use of legal
exemptions for persons outside of the liii—
penal family.
14) Refraining from the use of nation-
al i zed It mis he longing ti t the gov e r OmenS
Or pu hI it o rgani z at ii i tiS for the pit nit se of
profiting, for example, t Ii rough c inst r uc —
tion projects or establish itig conime rci a I
service, or industrial organizations.
15) Ref r ai Iii ng f toni receiving ally thing
from persons (natural or legal) in lieu of
influencing public officials in order to le
pa Ii ze acts which would not otherwise be
eligible for prolit—niaking (such is part-
nership in ownership of large pieces of
land in return for registering such lands
for the purpose of making profit
16) Refraining from the use of nation—
alizeti lands for agriculture anil dairy
proj ects.
17) Ref raining from accepting positions
on the hoards of I tint r aoce, hati king, :t nil
other companies.
18) Voluntary compliance with secliri-
ty regulations and wi atever relates to
public order.
19) Protecting the prestige and respect
of national values and beliefs outside of
the country.
20) Refraining from contacts with for-
eign embassies in frito unless through the
Ministry of Court.
Amouzegar came to the office of
Prime Minister with a reputation as a
brilliant public servant. Hc was cdii—
cated at the University of Teheran, at
Cornell, and at the University of
Washington, and has a Phi). in civil
engineering. Before becoming P rime
Minister, at the age of fifty—four, lie
hati successively headed four Minis—
tries—Lahor, Ag nc nIt tire, F'inance,
and Jnterior—-—an(i had also served as
Iran's chief ncgotiator ii the price—
fixing sessions of the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Though less supple than Hoveida in
political matters, Arnouzegar was
thought to h equally free of Corrtip—
hon arid far more competent in ceo—
florfliçs As Prime Miiiister, he set his
to curtailing infi atino anti runt—
Ing hut Corruptu in at the ministerial
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level. 3 y squeezing hard on the money
supply, he Cut Jn ation from thirty—five
per cent in August, 1977, to ten per
cent in August, 1978. In the process,
he earned the enmity of mans' of those
dependent on credit, including most of
the bazaar merchants and the high
rollers in the construction field. As for
corruption, he pushed General Nema—
toilah Nasseri out as the head of
SAVAK and off into a corner as Am-
bassador to Pakistan. He forced Fl 1 1 -
shang Ansari, the Minister of Finance,
to step out of the Cabinet and become
head of the National Iranian Oil Corn-
pan; . He obliged Mayor Gholarn Reza
I Nikpay, of Teheran, to quit. Those ac-
tions put him at odds with both the
Shah and Hoveida, who had close ties
to several of those who had been shunt-
ed aside. In the recesses of the Imperial
Court, an intrigue was concocted which
came to engulf everybody.
The starting point was tile death,
late in October of 1977, of Sevyed
Mustafa Khomeini, the son of the ex-
iled Ayatollah. Tile Son, a mullaii, was
forty—nine at the time, and he (lied,
according to supporters of the Shah, of
a heart attack. His father suspected foul
play, and, during the Shiite days of
mourning for the dead, which fell, in
late December last year, circulated a
number of letters throwing blame on the
_______ Shah. Early in January this year, there
was sent from the office of the Court
Minister, Hoveida, to the Oulice of the
Information Minister, Homayun, the
text of an article. Homayun, as was
the custom, passed tile article on for
publication to the editors of a leading
Teheran daily, Ela'alaat. The editors
at the paper were sufficiently disturbed
by the text to check with Homayun. He
told them that it came from the Court
and they should go ahead and publish
ole!, it. The editors then apprised Amouze-
zaif gar of what was in the works. Arnou.
zegar called Homayun, who repeated
I c the explanation that the article came
from the Court and was supposed to
he published. Exactly who wrote the
‘rId, article is not known to me, hut the un-
willingness of those involved to name
a the author suggests that it was either
the Shah himself or somebody acting
is, on his orders. My impression is that
part of the motive was to embroil the
Amouzegar government with the re-
ligious opposition.
The article appeared on January
7th. It boi-e tile title “Iran and the
Red and Black Imperialism,” and con-
tained a harsh Personal attack on Aya—
tollaii Khomeini rt started obliquely,
7 with references to tile recent days of
moo riling in which Ayatollah K u 0 —
ji
meini hau cu 'cuiateci his grievances
against tue Shah. Ft iiinvetl ()fl to a
discussion of forces designated as Red
and Black Imperialism, meaning the
Communists atiti the clergy. It said that
cooperation between tile two lad been
“rare” hut 111:1 t a ii exception was ‘‘tile
rinse, Since re, and honest cooperation of
both vis— t— “is the ‘Iranian revolution,
especially tile progressive and reform in
Iran.'' The article went on to recall
the opposition to land reform hack in
1963, including the ‘‘riots of June 5th
and 6th,'' which had precipitated the
expulsion of Avatol Ia ii Khomeini. It
said that tile opposition to tile reform
had conic from the Comm u nists
grouped in the Jioleil Party and from
‘‘tile lalulowilers who had been robbing
the peasants for many years.” These
groups, the article continued, had
turned for “succor to tile clergy
since the clergy enjoy great respect
among Iranians.” Most of the clergy,
the article said, proved ‘‘far too intel—
ligen t to act against the Sha h's—people's
revolution,” so at tllat point the oppo-
nents had decided to “recruit someone
from tue clergy wilt) would he adven—
ttirous.'' Ihat ‘‘someone'' had turned
(lilt to he A atol1a II Khomeini. Accord—
in g to tile a rticle, he had “an unknown
past,” hut apparently llad lived for
maIl)' years in India, where lIe had ( 1 C—
veloped contacts with centers of Brit-
ish imperialism” Ihe article concluded
by denou llcing Ayatollah KIlotlic ini OS
‘‘Someone who had taken the initiative
in carrying out tile pla OS of Red 011( 1
Black I mpcrialisin . . . who fought land
reform, tile Wc Ollell ‘5 v i ite, the nation—
ali7ation of t he foi-ests who would
sincerely serve cOilspirators and Fiftil
Columnists.''
On Ia ii ua iv 9th, two ilars afte
the article ;upjlc:ired, the religious StIl—
(kilts in Quiii went iflt(l tile Stree,,
to piotes the att;ick on Khomeini A
I I 500Moa
I L3At HARBOURt
L
I I
Now in p perback
A c1a sic n turns!
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cilill With h 111(1 eti iic 'd. Nine peo 1 )lo
were killed 1 it I thuu IV Were IflJ ii red.
loi 'ty daVS later, ii Juihiiz, a mt_iniinal
service WaS held for those killed in
Qum. Ag:siit, thee was a clash with
(lice. I his time, thirteen people Were
killed . After that, trouble came in Te—
Iier;i it and Isfahait and Meshed, and
tin-n iii Qtiiuu once more. August 5th
tn iked ri-in's Constitution I)ay, and
the eve of Ramadan, the Moslem
month of abstention. The Shah de—
live ie (1 a ililtil I I, wiii C te Ic visa h i sad —
cast, pledging that he would go ahead
with the liberalization p 1og im But
all tii rough that month, in city after
city, there were :issaiilis on the symbols
of /Vc tein fir tdernity associated with
tinS Shah's ruic——hanks, casinos, and
cincittils. Jiie c;in1 )aigit reaChed a hor—
rihin. climax i ii Ahadan, the Site of the
colli ltr)'s largest oil iehuiery On Au-
gust 20th, tile Rex Cinema was de—
stro -v i by Irsurit, and SOInC four hun—
dr c 'd and thirty people lost their lives
ii t lie blaze.
After that, Ammni 'iegar had had
ciiougll. lie resigned as Pt-line Minister
:uoi was ie 1)1 : (ec(l by [ aa far SI i a rif—
I '.ii t;iiuti, a political 5-etc ‘au from a re—
ligloils f:i ittilv WhO) hul worked closely
with the Shah is, tit Ioilg (Oiler things,
h r-ui of thu J 'iilia Vi lu iiuidation, a in ul—
tiitiillioii—doll:i r St mi—li I II I V enter—
pnsc-, which iS the owner of most of
I ran's funrc ' gii holdings. Sitaril—Emami
nioved swiftly huh (cross tii board to
make cu Incessu ni to tile trouhlen iake rs.
lie lifted tensorsiuii) and arranged
for live radio broadcasts from thuc pre—
v orislv lining Mijic's, tue lower house
of thic 1 iarhiamuutiit. //hthi tile wraps off,
i 'esi 'hitmeiit foiiiud tongue. Iii the par—
liamnent and in the press, there was a
Sn rge of ci ruiplaints ihoiit corruption
and ciisciiinhitatiniuu against the middle
and working classes. 1 he new govern—
mt-itt met he strikes wit ii gene n ms
(((ii t'c 'tSi))i iS oil Wages amiti In
rein use tO eIi;ur es of corruption, in-
vest ig:utiomus Were opened into the eaSeS
of (jeiteril Nasseri (who was recalled
from Pakistan ) and former Mayor
Nikpav. Iiiirtv—four leading OfllcOtls
rI AV '/ ‘ , including Puirviz Sibeti,
we ic tiisntiSieii in One div. At every
ul 1 ipnurtiuilitv, Siiaiif—Ernami sought to
pl:ic:hie tue mullahs, lie closed down
‘;usira s, and eiiuemas showing foreign
tilms. Provincial and university oflieials
whirt it ad ti ke ii a St ruIng sta nd agai mist
religion were replaced by milder men.
Most important of all, Sharif—Einamni
e itt e re ci in tt I eu 01511 tata inS wit ii rd igo (us
le;uin.i's, mci tiding Ayatollah Shariat—
m:ulari, and with the lay opposition, in—
:?. ilg K :im San abic t e head ,f the
National Front, full' : broad understand-
ing about new elections.
I /VENT to visit Sliarif-Emami in
his () CC, just before the end of Oc—
toher. I found a large, bluff, partly bald
man in his sixties who exuded COflfl—
deuce. He said that there, were many
“dissatisfied and unhappy people in Iran
who turned to the mullahs to voice
their'grievances.” His strategy was “to
establish a good relation with the cler-
gy.” As he saw it, the clergy was di—
vided into two groups. “One group,
which follows Ayatollah Khomeini, iS
radical hut very small,” he sai t i. ‘‘The
other, which follows Shariatmadan,
is moderate and very large. A split be-
tween them exists in every city and
every village.” He was negotiating
with Shariatinadari for some kind of
convocation where the majority could
prevail. “They must do it,” he said of
his plan for forcing a decision. “Some—
hcidy must he the head of our clergy, a
Pope.”
He told me he was sure that lifting
tile lid on censorship and on the Majies
debates was the right thing to do. “A
free press is much better than pres-
sure,” he said. The economic conse-
quences of the stiikes and the high
wage settlements were, he thought,
“utot serious.” There would be a cost
to the state in higher wages and pen-
sions, but that could easily he made
tip by a cutback on expensive military
projects and plans for nuclear power
plants. He favored the allocation of
more money to the villages, for “by in—
cl-easing c i-edits for machinery, electrici-
ty, atit! water, rural life can be made
mote attractive and agriculture more ef-
fective.” He said lie hoped to “draw the
men who came to town back to the vil-
lages.” He acknowledged that inflation
might he a problem, bLit he hoped to
keep it down by subsidies on basic corn-
mnrdities—rice, bread, sugar, tea. He
did not fear a military coup. “If they
come in, there will be killing and shoot—
lug,” he said. “Nobody wants that.”
He did sense that a test would be com-
ing within the next six weeks, and he
hoped to put together a large political
grouping that would help open the
way to fm-ce elections. Among other
people, lie mentioned former Prime
Ministers Floveitia and All Amini. “I'm
a patient man,'' he said. ‘‘I do not in-
tend to leave this oflice until there is
calm in Iran.”
S HARIF-EMAMI had begun the inter-
view by saying that that day Te-
heran, at least, was cairn. But driving
From his oflice back to nv . ‘uotel I had
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S it happened, nobody's plans—not
those of the Shah or those of
Prime Minister Sharif—Emami or those
of former Prime Minister Au Amini or
those of opposition leader Karim San—
jahi—carried the day. On Wednes—
day, November 1st, the Shah, appar-
ently convinced that Sharif—Emami
cc uld not continue, received Au Amini
for the first time in years and began
con versations concerning the formation
of a coalition regime. According to the
local press, Amini told the Shah he
needed support from Sanjahi, and the
Shalt agreed to receive Sanjahi on his
return from Paris. On November 3rd,
after seeing Sanjabi, Ayatollah Kho—
mcmi said in an interview on the Paris—
based Radio Luxembourg, “WTe have
told the representatives of the opposi-
tion, such as Au Amini and Karim
Sanjahi, that if they agree to negotiate
with the regime they will be banned
from our movement.'' Karim Sanjabi
came hack to Teheran and called a
press conference to announce his terms
for negot ating with the regime. The
press conference never took place. By
that time, events had pushed another
set of actors, the military, to center
stage. J'wci months before, on Septem-
ber 4th, there had been large demon-
strations in Teheran to mark the end of
Ramadan. Though the demonstrations
were peaceful, thousands marched, and
the military feared that matters might
get ou r of hand, on September 6th, the
government banned unauthorized gath-
erings, and the next day there was an-
other large rally against the Shah in
‘l'eheran. That aftem-noon, the military
leaders went to the Shah and asked for
a proclamation of martial law. The
Shah told them to clear it with the
Prime Minister and his government.
The issue was argued between the sol—
diers and the Cabinet late into the night
of September 7th. Toward midnight,
the Cabinet gave its consent, and early
the next morning martial law was de—
cre ' d a Tehe aa a: e .even ot. er
c ti s. . 3 u' t wi s - : r a pubEc
the Shah. Tic detains all the liberals
and keeps down men of integrity. He
likes thieves. He has sexual weaknesses.
He is not sincerely for liberalization.
He wants to gain time, divide the re-
ligious from the lay opposition, and
go hack to his old system, which is
essentially military rule.” Of his
isit to Paris, Sanjahi said, “I am not
worried about my coming encounter
with Khomeini. I am an optimist.
A y atoll ali Khom eini doesn't want
chaos. We have to turn to Ayatollah
Khomeini.”
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pr( ‘clamation to reach most people. Lat—
er that niorttiug—F'riday, September
8th—a large crowd gathered in Jaleh
Sc 1 oare, a central meeting Spot in down—
town Teheran. After repeated orders
to hsperse were ignored, the security
forces opened fire. More than a hun—
trying to c w tr, and man; hund i 'cds wounded
, I he shock of that massacre caused
C er everybody to draw hack. l'rime Mm-.
ister Sjiarif-En-iami was able to ne-
gotiate a lOoSe understanding
whereby martial law was not
cnforr'ed to the letter. Strikes
by civil servants, which had
hegun in September, were
not broken up, though they
Were illegal. Nor were stu-
dent ilemonstra tions, though
th niartial—law proclanlatoun
forhade :tiiv gatherint of
more than three persons. ‘‘There was
niarti :ti law without there exactly he—
iiig martial Jaw,'' th Prime Minister
observed to inc.
‘J'h:tt f(e/.J.y ciundition put dO ohVi—
‘015 S(l:uiIt Oil tile military leaders. ‘J'op
$8.95 con mantle is were unsure of their
At bookstores spt usihil ties. t one point, in October,
the commander of the ground forces,
79 Madison Avenue, N.Y. 10016 M ADIII (; iiet-al (..fliolaiii Au ()veisi, sent an
officer to warn th staff of th Log—
Nearly all originally lisllla I igIa , ' daily against ar—
tides lie cojisitlertul inaccurate and in—
Ii a nina 0> ry. ‘I ‘lie rep rtc rs the rc Lip iii
This Christmas Ii ie end to go ‘it strike, and the
Give a Friend (orYourself) Prime Minister hacked them up. Unit
continande is lie ye r knew exactly when
The Magazine ‘ ‘ riters Read -
to intervene. At least some of the rank
‘Th.e Paris Revie v nd file, and p' rhaps stone of tile jun—
Now celebrating twenty-five ior ofliccrs, sided with (!emonstrators.
years of fiction, p l1T and inter- ( )n two oCcdSioIls, provincial police of—
views on the craft of writing. iiccrs Were shot by enlisted men in the
Issue 74 includes !nterzitw.r .‘ riny.
:viih Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Moreover, the military leaders had
Oates, & Margarct Drabble; trouble re;ichiiug a consensus on what
Ficilni by Max Apple & Alex- to do. Ihe Shalt, to assure his suprerna_
ander Theroux ; Poetry by cy and to guard against coups, had set
Charles Wright & Vinçcnte lines of eofllml inicatiuin
Aleixand - with many ulifli rent security orgaitiza—
O $11 for6 issues 0 $ni fr 12 n tiolls and their lealers. Ilk' Shalt him—
0 $ tUO fur bk self is Sulli-eme Connnandet- of the
o t enclose $— 0 ISill a rmetl fi rces. lie has a personal chief
— of stall, General Cholain Reza Azlìa 1 -i,
Name who oversees :11 the branches of the
Address military, anti meets tetc—a—t te with the
City State Zip Shalt twice a week. There are the
Mail to: The Ps,i, Rcvieu ' chiefs of the three separate services—
45-39 171 Place, Flushing, NY. 11358 General Oveisi, commander of the
grou nil forces, with two hundred and
CruisebeautifulFrenchcanatson eighty thousand men; Admiral Kania—
hotelboat! Superb French cuisine. leddiri llal)ihollalmi, commander of the
Relax on sundeck or cycle llas';ll Ilees with thirty—two thousand
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Burgundy. Visit picturesque vi!— llk 'ti and General Amnir Hossein Rahu,
ages and chateaus. Individuals or - coninm;inder of the Air Force w t
charter groun (maxirnurr-12 . °ar s ç - , -, . -
pic¼u -4C ON 2 5 / 5t* -t 1 ° ‘gl t ( O( ‘ ‘ I ---W ) ,
Belleville, tL 52223,618-397-7524 etd ' t Ow vir.ua y to the hab. .t here
iS tile head ui tile rural poliec,_ or gen-
darmerie, which is some seventy—five
thousand strong and exercises adminis-
trative control >ver all villages with a
population of less than four thousand,
General Abbas Gharahaghi, who was
also Minister of the Interior in the
Sharif—Emami government. There is
the head of the secret police, General
Nasser Moghaddam. There is, finally,
the head of procurement, General
Hassan ‘Toufanian, who also serves as
Vice-Minister of War to a
figurehead Minister of War,
General Reza Azimi.
Tile differences in mili-
tary specialty are compound-
ed by variations in personality
and experience. The corn-
manders of the Air Force
and the Navy are relatively
young men—hoth are forty-
six—and do not carry a lot of weight
in the system. Air Force General Rabii
is known as a typical fly-boy, weak in
political and geopolitical understand-
ing. General Oveisi, a former class-
mate of the Shah at the military col-
lege, is particularly close to the ruler.
General Azhari, the Shah's chief of
staff, is sixty—nine and is noted for his
deliberate ways and lack of ambition.
“He is underwhelming,” an American
who worked with him once said. “He
always gives the impression that lied
rather climb a mountain or read a
book than command an army. He's
exactly the right man when tensions
run high.”
Toward the end of October, I went
to the Army headquarters, northeast
of Tehe ran, to visit General Oveisi. I
found a solidly built, plainspoken man
wllose chest was covered with ribbons.
lie was in a distinctly unhappy mood.
He did not like one bit the messy poli-
tics associated with the Shah's liberalj—
zation campaign, which he felt played
directly into the hands of the Commu-
Ilists. He said, “Two years ago, the
Shah decided to let people be really
ft'ee. Iranians who had fled the coun-
try—writers and people like that—
came back here. The National Front
began speaking out. The Communist
Party began acting up. The religious
people asserted themselves. Basically,
there were two types. One group was
very religious. They followed Shariat-
inadari, and they didn't meddle in
politics. The other group specialized
in politics. They were the followers
of Khomeini. They started to organize
People ilgailist the government and its
iflstitutjofls. The Communists took
adv tntage of the si .atic . , They
made s ro, g statements. They burned
banks a.oci schools. Swre s ' dents and
165
many instructors in high schools and
cofl th s are Commurilsis. The instruc-
tm-s persuaded all the students to
go on strike, and so all classes were
postponed.
“Most people in the United States
and Europe are against our government.
You send journalists here who see only
leaders of the opposition. Then the
journalists produce stories that are
broadcast by the radio here and printed
in the press. So the people here think
they are not free.
‘“We have a well—disciplined and
well—trained Army. The forces arc
ninety-nine per cent loyal to the Shah.
Maybe there's one per cent not loyal—
I don't know. I just say that to he care-
ful. So we are not worried. WThat does
worry me is that there is a Communist
Party growing stronger. What worries
me more is that when the Communists
use freedom to write or to speak to un-
dermine the government, the govern-
ment is silent. When people strike and
make difticulties for others, it is not
coriect. It jeopardizes security.”
General Moghaddam, the head of
SAVAK, who is a tall, pleasant-faced
man with receding iron-gray hair, ex-
pressed similar ideas when I called on
him in late October at his headquarters
in Teheran. He said that the demon-
strations were “organized one hundred
per cent by the Communists, working
through students and religious leaders.”
He said that he himself had talked with
Shariatmadari. He was convinced that
Shariatmadari “supports the regime hut
is afraid to speak out”—afraid be-
cause the government offered no pro.-
tection. It was too weak to take action
even against the Communists. “Two
weeks ago, we identthed a writer who
was very active in provoking people
to demonstrate against the govern-
ment,” he told me. “/Ve asked the
government's permission to arrest him.
We were told no. Ve did arrest sev-
eral press people for instigating rebel-
lion with false stories. /Ve vere obliged
to release them all. The military and
the police now have things under con-
trol. But there are dangers. It is dim—
cult for our security forces to attack
young people. If the students keep
pouring into the streets, they will para—
lyze our security forces. If we had a
powerful government that met di-
culties in a powerful way, we c.uld
deal with the troubles. But we now
lieve the government is not stroTig
enough. We in the security forces—in
the Army, the police, and SAVAK—
feel handcuffed.”
The security forccs''SC315e of heintr
handcuffed by a weak goverflfllcflt n-
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PAPERBACK
The
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fl(3veI
“It has so much ide. so much imaginative
and intellectual eflergy .. marvelously
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both sly and tantalizing.”
— i. ss evie vs
T}i E V i IN( R SS
evit;tbly intensified in late October and teetor of the conStitUtion and undertake
c:triv I/ovemher. I)emonstrati ns grew that past mistakes not he repeated anti
I hej compensated. I hereby give assur-
ever larger in Scope, and strikes spread, arice that government will do away with
caching the oil industry and threaten— repression and corruption and that social
i&i0 to cripple it. Negotiations fur a justice will be restored, after the sacri-
widet- coalition picked up steam. In the fices you have made.
first week of November, the two series At the present juncture, the Imperia
Army will fill its duties in accordance
of events moved in counterpoint to a with its oaths. Calm has to be restore
showdown. In Paris, on Novembei with your cooperation.
3rd, Ayatollah Khomeini refused t i invite the religious leaders to help
play at coalition—making and ordered restore calm to the only Shiite country in
the world.
his followers not to stop demonstrating I want political leaders to help save
until they had, forced the Shah from our Fatherland. The same goes for work-
power. In Teheran, on November 4th, ers and peasants.
the university students, sallying forth Let us think of Iran on the road
fi-om the campus, toppled a statue of against imperialism, cruelty, and corrup-
tion, where I shall accompany you.
the Shah at the entrance. The troops
there forced them hack onto the cam— By validating the revolution and
pus. But the next (Ia>', November 5th, pledging early free elections, the Shah
there was another (lemonstration. This presumably hoped to put a straitjacket
time, the troops fired first into the air on the soldiers even as he handed over
and then inu the crowd, killing several power to them. He named as Prime
stu(lents. The students went on the Minister of the new government the
rampage, burning banks, theatres, and mildest of the military chiefs, General
the British Emhassy. The (lay after Azhari. But the military, once in of-
that, Prime Minister Sharif—Emami fice, acted with brisk confidence. So!-
submitted his resignation, apparently in diers were moved into the refineries,
protest against the breach of the under— and the striking workers, threatened
standing about limited use of martial with the loss of their jobs, gradually
law. The military, with General Oveisi went hack to work. I)emonstratious
in the van, sei etI time opportunity, were repressed with heavy force. Sev—
They insisted that the resignation he eral leading officials—including former
accepted anti that a military regime be P rime Minister Hoveida; General
appointed. Time Shah consented. Nasseri, the former SAVAK head; and
former Mayor Nikpay—were olaced
O N Monday, November 6th, at tinder arrest. %Vhen Sanjabi, the Na-
fl(mn Teheran time, the Shah tinnal Front leader, after his return
went on national television and radio from his meetings with Ayatollah Kim—
with an extraordinary statement, lie mcmi in Paris, tried to hold a press
announced the appointment of a mili— conference, he, too, was arrested. In—
tary government, hut at the same time vestigations were opened into two high-
he recognized the legitimacy of the op— ly sensitive matters—corruption in the
position, and pi-omised to deal with royal family, and corruption in the
grievances and to imive toward free Pahlavi Foundation. Either investiga-
elections. He spoke with contrition, and turn could he conducted in a way that
referred to himself as the Padeshah of might implicate the Shah himself.
Iran——a term meaning simply “King,” The opposition reacted very strong—
amid far less exalted titan Slmahanshah, ly. Both Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris
or King of Kings. He said: and Ayatollah Shariatmadari in Qumn
denounced the military government.
Dear People of Iran: Khomeini exhorted Iranians to “broad—
In the open political atmosphere, en their opposition to the Shah, and
gradually developed these two recent
years, you, the Iranian nation, have risen force him to abdicate.'' In a series of
against cruelty and corruption. This rev— fiery statements, he called for a cam—
olution cannot but. be supported by me, paign of mounting demonstrations dur—
the Padeshah of Iran. ing Moharram—the Shiite month of
However, insecurity has reached a
stage where the independence of the mourning, which began this year on
country is at stake. Daily life is en- I)ecemnher 2nd. He singled out as a
dangered and what is most critical, the special target the holidays of Tasua and
lifeline of the country, the flow of oil, Ashura, which this year fell on I)ecem—
has been interrupted. 1 , 10th and 11th, and which corn—
I tried to form a coalition govern—
mnent, but this has not been possible. memorate the deaths of Hossein, the
I'lierefore, a temporary government has third In iarn and the grandson of Mo—
been formed to restore order and pave hammed, and his followers, at the Bat—
the way for a national government to tIe of Karbala, thirteen hundred years
carry out free elections very soon.
I am aware of the alliance that haS Normally on Ashura, ‘religious
ex stcm1 between ‘htica , m m c i anemic iranians dress themselves n b acl,
I co-runtion. I renew my oath to he t're- gather at the urincipmt bazaar, and
4
fris Murdadi
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rd I to the main n c scjiie. As they
march, Si ;n ie cot their h-eads with
swords and whip their b dies with
chains in an ecstasy of atonement. The
processions, with blood drenching the
garments of frenzied believers, are a
revolutionary's dream.
Sensing peril, the military govern.
ment on November 28th banned “pro-
cessions of any kind” during Mohar—
am. Nevertheless, crowds demonstrat-
ed in Teheran during the rst two
days of the holy montlì, and there were
violations of tile curfew on a large
scale. Oil production dropped from 5.8
million to below 2 million barrels a
(lay. An exodus of Americans got un-
(icr way. But even as high noon ap-
proached, the major protagonists drew
hack. The Shah ordered that a bun-
tired and twenty political prisoners he
freed on Sunday, December 1 0th. On
December 6th, Karim Sanjabi, the
National Front leader, was released
from custody. On I)ecember 8th, Aya.
tollah Shariatniadari, at a press confer.
ince in Qum, urged his followers to
avoid violence. That same day, the
military government announced it
would permit the religious processions,
and the next (lay pledged to keep
troops only in tile northern sections of
I cheran, our of the line of march.
On Sunday and Monday, December
I 0th an(I 11 til, crowds of several hun—
tired thousand paraded through the
downtown streets. They shouted Is-
lamic religious slogans, and showed
hostility toward the Shah, the military
government, and the United States.
But there was no serious violence, and
hose who tried to make trouble were
constrained by more responsible ele-
lileiltS fl tile i)rocession. the troops
d ‘awn up in the northern section of
ti two, in the vicinity of the Niavaran
Palace, were not even tested.
Obviously, there had been put into
ticet at the last moment a typically
Persian compromise. The palace and
tue military government—working
tllrougil former Prime Minister Au
/ inini—had struck a deal with Shariat—
_____________________________ mu mdarj to avoid a violent showdown.
But, though the testing time has passed,
all the contending forces are still in
idace. The moment seems ripe for
steps toward a regime that limits the
role of tile Shah, in keeping with the
1 906 constitution. But the moment is
mutt going to last very long. Just be-
fore the peaceful processions began,
Shariatmadari indicated that he was
prepared to renew pressure if COnCeS—
smons were not forthcoming. He was
asked When the screw would he turned
again. He sau , “ w il be soon.''
—JOSEPH r RitF r
UEr ' -tl!(ER ‘i , O78
I, ‘.
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