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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
While adults pray, a boy holds up a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini
Courtesy United Nations (John Isaac)
During the final years of the Pahlavi monarchy, only a single,
government-sponsored political party, the Rastakhiz, operated
legally. Nevertheless, several legally proscribed political parties
continued to function clandestinely. These included parties that
advocated peaceful political change and those that supported the
armed overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Among the former
parties were the National Front, which actually was a coalition of
democratically inclined political parties and other organizations
that originally had been founded in 1949; the Nehzat-e Azadi-yi
Iran, or the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), established in 1961 by
democratically inclined clergy and laymen; and the Tudeh Party, a
Marxist party that had been founded in 1941. The two most important
guerrilla organizations were the Islamic Mojahedin and the Marxist
Fadayan (Cherikha-ye Fadayan-e Khalq, or People's Guerrillas), both
of which had been largely suppressed after carrying out several
sensational terrorist actions in the early 1970s.
The overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy allowed a full spectrum
of Islamic, leftist, and secular ideas supporting the Revolution to
flourish. With the exception of the monarchist Rastakhiz, which had
dissolved, the prerevolutionary parties were reactivated, including
the Mojahedin and Fadayan. In addition, several new parties were
organized. These included secular parties, such as the National
Democratic Front and the Radical Party; religious parties, such as
the IRP and the Muslim Peoples' Republican Party; and leftist
parties, such as the Paykar. All these parties operated openly and
competitively until August 1979, when the Revolutionary Council
forced the provisional government to introduce regulations to
restrict the activities of most political parties.
Data as of December 1987
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