Casualties of the Iranian Revolution

Iranian Revolution

Articles Timeline of the Iranian Revolution Background and causes of the Iranian Revolution Consolidation of the Iranian Revolution Casualties of the Iranian Revolution Revolutionary leaders Ruhollah Khomeini Ahmad Khomeini Hussein-Ali Montazeri Ali Shariati Mahmoud Taleghani Mehdi Bazargan Sadegh Ghotbzadeh Ebrahim Yazdi Mortaza Motahhari Mohammad Beheshti Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Mohammad Ali Rajai Abulhassan Banisadr Hassan Habibi Mohammad Javad Bahonar Mostafa Chamran Ali Khamenei Mehdi Karroubi Mir-Hossein Mousavi Zahra Rahnavard Mousavi Ardabili Mahdavi Kani Yadollah Sahabi Revolutionary parties and organizations: Islamic Republic Party Freedom Movement of Iran Combatant Clergy Association Tudeh Party of Iran Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization OIPFG IPFG People's Mujahedin of Iran Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line Guerrilla groups of Iran Revolutionary administrations and official institutions: The Interim Government of Iran Islamic republic Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Basij Assembly of Experts for Constitution Events Movement of 15 Khordad Black Friday Iran hostage crisis Cultural Revolution Ideology of Iranian Revolution Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists

Observers differ on how many people died during the Islamic Revolution. The number of casualties suffered by protesters and revolutionaries at the hands of the Shah's regime during the Iranian Revolution is either close to 60,000, or around 3000, depending on whether the estimates used are those of Islamic government or from historians in Western countries. The number of protesters and political prisoners killed by the new Islamic regime after the fall of the Shah is estimate by human rights groups to be several thousand.

Casualties of the monarchy

Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, stated that "60,000 men, women and children were martyred by the Shah's regime," and this number appears in the constitution of the Islamic Republic. A larger number of "70,000 martyrs and 100,000 wounded ... fought to destroy the rotten monarchy," has been given by a member of the Iranian parliament.

More recently, tabulation by Emad al-Din Baghi, a researcher at the Martyrs Foundation, (Bonyad Shahid) (at the time of his work, found a far lower number of casualties. Baghi found that between 1963 and 1979, there were 3164 dead among the anti-Shah movement. In Iran, the Martyrs Foundation, established after the revolution to compensate the survivors of fallen revolutionaries, could identify only 744 martyrs in Tehran, where the majority of the casualties were supposed to have occurred. The coroner's office and Tehran's main cemetery, Behesht-e Zahra, counted 895 and 768 martyrs, respectively.

The new low numbers indicate the Iranian Revolution "suffered remarkably few casualties" compared to contemporary events such as the South African anti-apartheid movement.

By date

According to one collection of `martyrs of the revolution,`

• 35 demonstrators died in the first eight months of 1978,
• 33 in Shahrivar (August–September 1978) and
• 18 in Mehr (September–October 1978), when the revolution turned to strikes instead of street protests.

When the military regime was installed in Mehr 1978, the number of deaths jumped to

• 45 in Aban (October–November 1978), then to
• 85 in Azar (November–December 1978),
• 137 in Dey (December 1978-January 1979), and
• 179 in Bahman (January–February 1979)."

19 Dey protest in Qom

The January 9, 1978 (Dey 19, 1356) protest in the holy city of Qom against a libelous story about the Ayatollah Khomeini was perhaps the first major protest of the revolution. The official death toll of monarchy was nine. U.S. diplomats first reported to Washington that 20 to 30 died, then fourteen. Rumors spread immediately that one hundred or more were killed, and "opposition estimates ranged up to 300." Public opinion at the time as reflected in "a small survey in Tehran the following week" found that "more people believed the opposition's casualty figures than the government's".

But a list recently produced by the Center for Documents on the Islamic Revolution, a "pro-revolutionary institute" found five people died in the protest.

29 Bahman protest in Tabriz

40 days later on February 18, 1978, (Bahman 29), groups in a number of cities marched to honour the fallen and protest against the rule of the Shah. The state brought in "troops and tanks from nearby bases." This time, violence erupted in the northwestern city of Tabriz, were according to the opposition five hundred demonstrators were killed, ten according to the government. "A recent pro-revolutionary review of the event, however, have stated definitively that the total was 13 dead."

"Black Friday," 17 Shahrivar

The clash between government and protestors that is said to have enraged anti-Shah forces and eliminated "any hope for compromise," occurred on September 8, 1978 (Shahrivar 17) in Tehran. The Shah introduced martial law, and banned all demonstrations but thousands of protesters gathered in Tehran. Security forces shot and killed demonstrators, in what became known as Black Friday.

The clerical leadership declared that "thousands have been massacred by Zionist troops," "Estimate of casualties on ... Black Friday, range from fewer than 100 to many thousands. The post-revolutionary Martyr Foundation could identify only 79 dead, while the coroner's office counted 82 and Tehran's main cemetery, Beheshte-e Zahra, registered only 40."

Explanation

One explanation for the low number of casualties is the shah's reluctance to use force. The shah "frequently" insisted to "foreign emissaries" that he was "unwilling to massacre his subjects in order to save his throne." `The instructions I gave were always the same: "do the impossible to avoid bloodshed."` While this claim was at odds with "the image of vast masses standing up to machine-gun fire" at the time of the revolution, various military officials have since "corroborated" it according to author Charles Kurzman

During the course of 1978, a martial law commander allegedly proposed to bomb Qom. An Air Force general supposedly offered to kill a hundred thousand protesters to quell the disturbances. A SAVAK general regaled a guest from the CIA `with some fairly bloodthirsty details of how he could have put an end to the demonstrations within a week if only the Shah had given him free rein.` The head of a neighboring country suggested the execution of 700 mullahs. .... The Shah vetoed all these plans.

Casualties of the Islamic government

Following the overthrow of the monarchist regime on February 11, 1979 (22 Bahman 1357), members of the old regime: senior generals, were executed by revolutionary leadership. In the first couple of months over 200 of the Shah's senior civilian officials were killed as punishment and to eliminate the danger of coup d'état. By January 1980 the number had reached at least 582. Critics complained that the brief trials lacked defense attorneys, juries, transparency or opportunity for the accused to defend themselves were held by revolutionary judges such as Sadegh Khalkhali, the Sharia judge. Among those executed was Amir Abbas Hoveida, former Prime Minister of Iran. Those who escaped Iran were not immune. A decade later, another former Prime Minister, Shapour Bakhtiar, was assassinated in Paris, one of at least 63 Iranians abroad killed or wounded since the Shah was overthrown, although these attacks are thought to have stopped after the early 1990s.

The pace of executions then accelerated leading to at least 906 executions between January 1980 and June 1981. After president Abulhassan Banisadr was impeached on June 20, 1981 (Khordad 30, 1360), a concerted effort was made to find and prosecute the erstwhile supporters turned opposition, primarily leftists. Bloodletting became much worse. According to Shaul Bakhash,

The number who lost their lives will probably never be known with certainty. Amnesty International documented 2,946 executions in the 12 months following Bani-Sadr's impeachment. A list compiled the following year by the Mojahedin-e Khalq cited 7,746 persons who had lost their lives through executions, in street battles, or under torture in the short period from June 1981 to September 1983.

According to historian Ervand Abrahamian, revolutionary courts executed more than 8000 opponents between June 1981 and June 1985. These were mainly members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq, but also included

Fedayins and Kurds as well as Tudeh, National Front, and Shariatmadari supporters. ... Thus the toll taken among those who had participated in the revolution was far greater than that of royalists. This revolution — like others — had devoured its own children.

See also

• Human rights in Islamic Republic of Iran
• Islamic Revolution

References

Bibliography

• Bakhash, Shaul, Reign of the Ayatollahs : Iran and the Islamic Revolution by Shaul, Bakhash, Basic Books, c1984
• Keddie, Nikki, Modern Iran : Roots and Results of Revolution by Nikki Keddie, Yale University Press, 2003
• Mackey, Sandra The Iranians : Persia, Islam and the Soul of a Nation, New York : Dutton, c1996.
• Moin, Baqer, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah, Thomas Dunne Books, c2000
• Taheri, Amir, The Spirit of Allah : Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution, Adler and Adler, c1985