Black Friday (1978)
Black Friday is the name given to September 8, 1978 (17 Shahrivar 1357 AP) and the shooting of protestors in Zhaleh (or Jaleh) Square in Tehran, Iran. The deaths and the reaction to them has been described as a pivotal event in the Iranian Revolution when any "hope for compromise" between the protest movement and the Shah's regime was extinguished.[1]
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[edit] Background
As protest against the Shah's rule mounted during the spring and summer of 1978, the Iranian Government declared martial law. On September 8 a huge demonstration was held in Tehran. According to the anti-government sources, the military of Iran used deadly force, including tanks and helicopter gunships, to break up the largely peaceful demonstrators. Opposition and Western journalists reportedly claimed that the Iranian army massacred protestors and left between 88 and several hundred killed.[2][3][4] The clerical leadership announced that "thousands have been massacred by Zionist troops."[5]
The appearance of "government brutality" alienated much of the rest of the Iranian people as well as the Shah's allies abroad. Protests continued for another four months. A general strike in October shut down the petroleum industry that was essential to the administration's survival, "sealing the Shah's fate".[6] Support for the Shah in Iran and abroad dissolved, clearing the way for the Iranian Revolution, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, which saw the abolition of the monarchy less than a year later.
[edit] After the revolution
After the revolution official accounts dealing with the history wrote of "15,000 dead and wounded" on that day and the square's name was changed to the Square of Martyrs (Maidan-e Shohada).[4] However the non-Persian-speaking troops were later reported to have been Iranian ethnic Kurds, not Israelis, who had been fired on by snipers.[5] According to Emad al-Din Baghi, a former researcher at the Martyrs Foundation (Bonyad Shahid, which compensates families of victims) hired "to make sense of the data" on those killed fighting the Shah's regime, 64 killed were killed in Jaleh Square on Black Friday, among them two females – one woman and a young girl. On the same day in other parts of the capital a total of 24 people died in clashes with martial law forces, among them one female.[2] Another source puts the Martyrs Foundation tabulation of dead at 84 during that day.[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References and notes
- ^ Abrahamian, Ervand, History of Modern Iran, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 160–1
- ^ a b "A Question of Numbers". http://www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php#more.
- ^ "Islamic Revolution of Iran". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1257012838707054.
- ^ a b "Black Friday". Archived from the original on 2003-05-20. http://web.archive.org/web/20030520145212/http://www.internews.org/visavis/BTVPages/Theislamicrevolution.html#Black_Friday.
- ^ a b Taheri, The Spirit of Allah (1985), p. 223.
- ^ Moin, Khomeini (2000), p. 189.
- ^ E. Baqi, `Figures for the Dead in the Revolution`, Emruz, 30 July 2003, quoted in Abrahamian, Ervand, History of Modern Iran, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 160–1
[edit] External links
- 17 Shahrivar massacre in Tehran, Sep 1978 accessdate=2006-01-13
- BBC Article on Black Friday (in Persian) accessdate=2008-07-08
