MER Article "The Americans Played a Disgusting Role" Shahpour Bakhtiar served as prime minister in the last weeks of the Shah’s regime. Since escaping from Iran after February 1979 he has been living in exile. Fred Halliday spoke with him in Paris in August 1981. Mr. Bakhtiar, what is your estimation of the current strength of the Iranian regime? (Author not identified) • 12 min read
MER Article "We Are the Only Real Threat to Khomeini" Masoud Rajavi was the only one of the original leadership of the Mojahedin-e Khalq to escape execution by the Shah. Imprisoned from 1971 until December 1978, he emerged to reorganize the Mojahedin. He ran for president in the election of January 1980 but Khomeini declared him ineligible. He escaped (Author not identified) • 11 min read
MER Article "I Defeated the Ideology of the Regime" Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr was elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran in January 1980, but was subsequently impeached in June 1981. Fred Halliday interviewed him in France in August 1981, several weeks after he escaped from Iran. He has formed a government in exile, and is part of the Council (Author not identified) • 10 min read
MER Article Year Three of the Iranian Revolution The third year of the Iranian revolution saw the final breakup of the political coalition that initially brought Khomeini to power, and the emergence in exile of an opposition that groups together many of those who played a part in the overthrow of the monarchical dictatorship. On the basis of evide Fred Halliday • 7 min read
MER Article From the Editors (March/April 1982) When the history of the Iranian revolution is compiled, the third year of the Islamic Republic may stand out as particularly decisive. The alliance of left-leaning lay political elements with the Islamic Republican Party ruptured completely. Iranian forces scored important gains on the battlefield w The Editors • 2 min read
MER Article Approaching the Islamic Revolution Shahrough Akhavi, Religion and Politics in Contemporary Iran: Clergy-State Relations in the Pahlavi Period (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1980). Michael M. J. Fischer, Iran: From Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980). Michael Gilsenan • 7 min read
MER Article Ali Shariati: Ideologue of the Iranian Revolution Westerners commonly perceive the Iranian Revolution as an atavistic and xenophobic movement that rejects all things modern and non-Muslim, a view reinforced by the present leaders of Iran. They claim that the revolution spearheads the resurgence of Islam, and that the revolutionary movement is an au Ervand Abrahamian • 15 min read
MER Article Religious Ritual and Political Struggle in an Iranian Village The villagers of Aliabad do not presume political stability. They were not especially surprised at the fall of the Shah, nor at the demise of the most powerful person in the village, Seyyid Ibn Ali Askari, some months after the Iranian revolution. “One day the saddle is on the horse, the next day th Mary Hegland • 25 min read
MER Article Capitalism in Rural Iran Parvin Ghorayshi: Fred Halliday has suggested in the chapter on agricultural development in the first edition of his book, Iran: Dictatorship and Development, that the Iranian state successfully imposed capitalist relations on the rural areas by means of a land reform. While I agree that rural Iran Fred Halliday, Parvin Ghorayshi • 12 min read
MER Article Government's Nabavi on Inflation and Labor Unrest Edited text of Tehran Radio interview with Behzad Nabavi, minister of state for executive affairs and chief government spokesman, February 23, 1981: What practical steps has the government taken to combat inflation? What you mean in fact is the high cost of living. Incidentally, we have been follo (Author not identified) • 3 min read
MER Article Khomeini Workers' Day Message Text of message by Ayatollah Khomeini on the occasion of Workers’ Day, May 1, 1981, as read by announcer on Tehran Radio: In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. Blessed be Workers Day for the ranks of the valuable workers, for the nation in general and for the oppressed the world over (Author not identified) • 2 min read
MER Article Mojahed: "At the Beginning of the Third Year" Edited text of lead article in Mojahed (February 12, 1981), the organ of the Mojahedin-e Khalq: Having celebrated the second anniversary of the revolution, we are at the brink of the third year. The anniversary of the revolution and the days of Bahman remind us of...the days of great victories and (Author not identified) • 4 min read
