National Front (Iran)
Encyclopedia
The National Front of Iran or Jebhe Melli is a Democratic, political opposition group founded by Mohammad Mossadegh and other secular Iranian leaders of Nationalist, Liberal
, and Social-Democratic political orientation who had been educated in France in the late 1940s. It held power in the Iranian parliament for several years prior to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and continued as an opposition force thereafter.
Soon after its founding, the National Front opposed the existing Western domination and control of Iran's natural resources, and related revenues, which began with colonialist
concessions given during the Qajar Dynasty
. By the mid-1940s, Iran's oil assets were owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, whose predecessor company bought the concession from William Knox D'Arcy
. D'Arcy had negotiated the concession in 1901 with Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia
, who granted a 60-year petroleum search concession in a transaction in which no money changed hands. For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Iran's oil was the British government's single largest overseas investment; 51 percent of the company was owned by the British government. The AIOC, which later became BP consistently violated the terms of the agreement that had been updated in 1933, and was reluctant to change the terms of the agreement even as Iran's movement for nationalization grew in the late 1940s. Although AIOC was highly profitable, "its Iranian workers were poorly paid and lived in squalid conditions."
The goal of the National Front was to nationalize
Iran's oil resources and to counteract British dominance of Iran's internal affairs by initiating direct relations with the United States
. The National Front became the governing coalition when it took office in April 1951 with Mossadegh elected Prime Minister. Mossadegh's minister of foreign affairs Hossein Fatemi
enforced the "Oil Nationalization Act", passed by the Majlis
in March, 1953 and ratified by the Senate. The act, reluctantly signed by the shah, called for nationalization of the assets held by AIOC, from which the government of Iran then only received minimal compensation. This led to British counter-moves and the loss of nearly all income during the Abadan Crisis
.
Following Britain's request, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
authorized the Central Intelligence Agency
to overthrow the Mossadegh government in an event known as the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Prior to the coup, the National Front was made up of four main parties; the Iran Party, which was founded in 1946 as a platform for Iranian liberals, including figures such as Karim Sanjabi
, Gholam Hossein Sadighi
, Ahmad Zirakzadeh
and Allahyar Saleh); the Toilers Party of the Iranian Nation (a left-wing party that advocated a non-communist socialist Iran, led by Mozzafar Baghai
and Khalil Maleki
); and the Mujahedin-e Islam (an Islamic party led by Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani).
(who was paid by the CIA to help overthrow Mossadegh and strengthen the power of the monarchy. In an atmosphere of police repression, several former members of the National Front (mostly low-ranking leaders) established an underground network called the National Resistance Movement
. This group included future prime ministers Mehdi Bazargan and Shapour Bakhtiar and its aim was to reestablish democracy by campaigning for free and fair elections. Its activities were largely restricted to peacefully distributing flyers and attempting to regulate the 1954 Majlis elections (which in the end were rigged in favor of the pro-Shah candidates). Under pressure from the state, it fell apart. But in 1960, the Second National Front was formed, which consisted of prominent people such as Karim Sanjabi
, Mehdi Bazargan
, Allahyar Saleh, Shapour Bakhtiar
, Adib Boroumand, Asghar Parsa
, Dariush Forouhar
, Gholam Hossein Sadighi
, Mohammad Ali Khonji and others. Its aim was to return Mohammad Mossadegh to the premiership and to reestablish the constitutional monarchy. Initially, it seemed as if this organization was gaining in strength. However, the group's leaders fell into disagreements over questions such as the organization of the Front, tactics vis-a-vis the Shah's regime and the form of government the National Front should commit itself to. These disputes led to tension between the high-ranking leaders and the student activists and in 1961, Bazargan, Mahmoud Taleghani
(a prominent Islamic cleric) and others formed the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) which was committed to a democratic state in which the Islamic religion would play a substantial role in state and society (as opposed to the more secular orientation of the National Front).
Another issue arose over the appointment in April 1961 of Dr. Ali Amini
to the premiership. It was widely believed that the Shah had chosen Amini under pressure from the Kennedy Administration in the United States and it was partly for this reason that the National Front's leaders persistently refused to collaborate with or lend support to Ali Amini's government. But political turmoil grew worse and in 1962, Amini stepped down from the premiership due to his dispute with the Shah over the former's plans to reduce the military budget. The following year in June 1963, a huge religious uprising occurred in the cities of Tehran
, Qum, Mashad, Shiraz
and Varamin
, which was put down with ruthless force by the Iranian army. The unrest had been sparked by the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a vocal critic of the Shah and his program of land reforms and granting women the right to vote. Around this time, the Third National Front was formed, which consisted of the FMI (religious-nationalists; Melli-Mazhabis), the Iran Nation Party (the party of Dariush Forouhar; Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran), the Society of Iranian Socialists (led by Khalil Maleki, a prominent personality of the Mossadegh era who had been prohibited from joining the Second National Front due to his past history in the Tudeh Party) and the student activists.
The Second and Third National Fronts differed largely in its tactical approach to facing the Shah's regime. The former believed in patiently negotiating with the Shah and the higher officials in the hope of peacefully bringing about a democracy. In contrast to this passive approach, the Third National Front advocated a strategy of civil disobedience and protests in the hope of either forcing the regime to come to terms with the opposition or face collapse. But by 1964, Mohammad Reza Shah had consolidated his control of both his regime and the country and he quickly moved to further guarantee his position by increasing the powers of SAVAK (the state's intelligence agency), which was infamous for the torture and killings it inflicted on the opposition and even on ordinary Iranians who merely uttered any wrong words against the regime. In this new atmosphere of police terror, the National Front virtually ceased to exist (though exile branches continued to operate in the United States and Europe).
(former minister of education under Mossadegh and now the leader of the Front), Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar
(former deputy minister of labor under Mossadegh and now the leader of the Iran Party) and Dariush Forouhar
(head of the Iran Nation Party). The three signed an open letter which politely criticized the Shah and called on him to reestablish the constitutional monarchy, free political prisoners, respect freedom of speech and hold free and fair elections. For some months (under pressure from the Carter Administration), many educated and liberal-minded Iranians were now able to voice their grievances against the regime of the Shah.
In January 1978, violence erupted in the holy city of Qom
over the publication of an article in a pro-government newspaper which attacked Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
as a British agent and a reactionary. Despite the threatening existence of SAVAK and the harsh crackdown unleashed by the regime on the protesters, the unrest grew and spread to other cities such as Tabriz
, which was rocked by riots and briefly seized by rebels. By late 1978, almost the whole country (not just the organized opposition) was inflamed with hatred towards the Shah and rioting, protests and street clashes with the police and army grew in intensity and bloodshed. By this time, Ayatollah Khomeini was now recognized as the undisputed spiritual leader of the uprising.
Karim Sanjabi
, as representative of the Front, came to Paris, and emerged from his meeting with Khomeini "with a short declaration that spoke of both Islam and democracy as basic principles,"
and committed the National Front to the twin goals of abolishing the Monarchy and establishing a democratic and Islamic government in its place.
This was a diversion from the National Front's long-held aim of reforming the monarchy and it caused some friction in the high-council (although most of the rank and file and leaders supported the new orientation). The friction blew into open division when Shapour Bakhtiar
, one of the three top leaders, accepted the Shah's invitation to become the prime minister of Iran, but only on the condition that the Shah committed himself to reign and not rule. Bakhtiar's decision to collaborate with the Shah caused the National Front to denounce him as a traitor to their cause and to expel him from the organization. Only a few moderate and secular individuals among the leadership chose to ally with Bakhtiar and with the Monarchy.
In Jan. 16, the Shah left the country, amid rejoicing among the populace, and on Feb. 11, the regime collapsed
and Ayatollah Khomeini became the political leader of Iran. At first the National Front supported the new Provisional Revolutionary Government
and establishment of the Islamic Republic
. But the joint statement with Sanjabi notwithstanding, Khomeini "explicitly refused to put the same word, democracy, into either the title of the Republic or its constitution." Within a short time, it became clear that Ayatollah Khomeini's model of an Islamic society was modeled not on democracy, but on theocratic rule of Islamic jurists (or velayat-e faqih), and traditional Islamic sharia
law.
, aka blood revenge or "an eye for an eye"). The National Front called upon the people of Tehran to participate in a demonstration for June 15, 1981.
Khomeini declared that `The National Front is condemned as of today,`
that all opponents of the law of retaliation were apostates
and threatened the leaders of the Front with the death penalty if they did not repent.
In the mean time Hezbollahi
Leaders of the Liberation Movement and Bani-Sadr had to make a public apology for supporting the Front's appeal on TV and the radio.
By 1982, the secular National Front had been abolished inside Iran and a few of its leaders (including Karim Sanjabi) fled abroad.
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, and Social-Democratic political orientation who had been educated in France in the late 1940s. It held power in the Iranian parliament for several years prior to the 1953 Iranian coup d'état and continued as an opposition force thereafter.
The Mossadegh Era (1949-1953)
Founded in the late 1940s by Mohammad Mosaddeq, the National Front was a political coalition comprising a broad spectrum of parties and associations. The most important groups in the Front were the Iran Party, the Toilers Party, the National Party, and the Tehran Association of Bazaar Trade and Craft Guilds.Soon after its founding, the National Front opposed the existing Western domination and control of Iran's natural resources, and related revenues, which began with colonialist
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
concessions given during the Qajar Dynasty
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian royal family of Turkic descent who ruled Persia from 1785 to 1925....
. By the mid-1940s, Iran's oil assets were owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, whose predecessor company bought the concession from William Knox D'Arcy
William Knox D'Arcy
William Knox D'Arcy was one of the principal founders of the oil and petrochemical industry in Persia .-Early life:...
. D'Arcy had negotiated the concession in 1901 with Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia
Qajar dynasty
The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian royal family of Turkic descent who ruled Persia from 1785 to 1925....
, who granted a 60-year petroleum search concession in a transaction in which no money changed hands. For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Iran's oil was the British government's single largest overseas investment; 51 percent of the company was owned by the British government. The AIOC, which later became BP consistently violated the terms of the agreement that had been updated in 1933, and was reluctant to change the terms of the agreement even as Iran's movement for nationalization grew in the late 1940s. Although AIOC was highly profitable, "its Iranian workers were poorly paid and lived in squalid conditions."
The goal of the National Front was to nationalize
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
Iran's oil resources and to counteract British dominance of Iran's internal affairs by initiating direct relations with the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The National Front became the governing coalition when it took office in April 1951 with Mossadegh elected Prime Minister. Mossadegh's minister of foreign affairs Hossein Fatemi
Hossein Fatemi
Hossein Fatemi was a scholar, journalist, and famous politician of Iran. A close associate of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, he proposed nationalization of Iranian oil and gas assets. Initially a journalist, he served as Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953...
enforced the "Oil Nationalization Act", passed by the Majlis
Majlis
' , is an Arabic term meaning "a place of sitting", used in the context of "council", to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups be it administrative, social or religious in countries with linguistic or cultural connections to Islamic countries...
in March, 1953 and ratified by the Senate. The act, reluctantly signed by the shah, called for nationalization of the assets held by AIOC, from which the government of Iran then only received minimal compensation. This led to British counter-moves and the loss of nearly all income during the Abadan Crisis
Abadan Crisis
The Abadan Crisis occurred from 1951 to 1954, after Iran nationalised the Iranian assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and expelled Western companies from oil refineries in the city of Abadan .-Prelude:...
.
Following Britain's request, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
authorized the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
to overthrow the Mossadegh government in an event known as the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Prior to the coup, the National Front was made up of four main parties; the Iran Party, which was founded in 1946 as a platform for Iranian liberals, including figures such as Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
, Gholam Hossein Sadighi
Gholam Hossein Sadighi
Dr. Gholam Hossein Sadighi was the Iranian Minister of Interior in the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. After a CIA-backed coup d'etat overthrew Mossadegh, Sadighi was arrested and later testified in defense of Mossadegh at the latter's trial. Despite the loss of power,...
, Ahmad Zirakzadeh
Ahmad Zirakzadeh
Ahmad Zirakzadeh was one of the founders of National Front of Iran, an Iranian party which was considered the backbone of Mohammed Mosaddeq's government.- Early life :He was born in 1907 to a Yazdi father and mother in a religious family in Tehran...
and Allahyar Saleh); the Toilers Party of the Iranian Nation (a left-wing party that advocated a non-communist socialist Iran, led by Mozzafar Baghai
Mozzafar Baghai
Dr. Mozzafar Baghai is known best as an Iranian political figure of the 1940s and 50s. He rose to prominence during the national struggle against British control of Iran's oil industry...
and Khalil Maleki
Khalil Maleki
Khalil Maleki was an Iranian political figure, socialist and intellectual.During the early 1940s, Maleki had been one of 53 left-wing intellectuals who had been imprisoned by Reza Shah. After his release, he had been one of the original founders of the Tudeh Party Khalil Maleki (1903 Tabriz -...
); and the Mujahedin-e Islam (an Islamic party led by Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani).
The Second and Third National Front
In the aftermath of the 1953 Iranian coup d'état carried out by the CIA with support from the British spy service, MI6, the National Front was outlawed and its highest-ranking leaders arrested and brought before a military court. The military coup established Mohammad Reza Shah as the supreme ruler of Iran, although nominal power was held by Prime Minister Fazlollah ZahediFazlollah Zahedi
Mohammad Fazlollah Zahedi was an Iranian general and statesman who replaced democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq through a western-backed coup d'état, in which he played a major role.-Early years:Born in Hamedan in 1897, Fazlollah Zahedi was the son of Abol Hassan...
(who was paid by the CIA to help overthrow Mossadegh and strengthen the power of the monarchy. In an atmosphere of police repression, several former members of the National Front (mostly low-ranking leaders) established an underground network called the National Resistance Movement
National Resistance Movement
The National Resistance Movement , commonly referred to as the Movement, is a political organization in Uganda.Until a referendum in 2005, Uganda held elections on a non-party basis. The NRM dominates parliament, however, and is expected to continue to do so. The presidential elections of 12 March...
. This group included future prime ministers Mehdi Bazargan and Shapour Bakhtiar and its aim was to reestablish democracy by campaigning for free and fair elections. Its activities were largely restricted to peacefully distributing flyers and attempting to regulate the 1954 Majlis elections (which in the end were rigged in favor of the pro-Shah candidates). Under pressure from the state, it fell apart. But in 1960, the Second National Front was formed, which consisted of prominent people such as Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
, Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...
, Allahyar Saleh, Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...
, Adib Boroumand, Asghar Parsa
Asghar Parsa
Asghar Parsa was a member of Iran's National Front.After graduating from Tehran University's School of Law, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was elected to Majlis from Khoy in 1951...
, Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
, Gholam Hossein Sadighi
Gholam Hossein Sadighi
Dr. Gholam Hossein Sadighi was the Iranian Minister of Interior in the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. After a CIA-backed coup d'etat overthrew Mossadegh, Sadighi was arrested and later testified in defense of Mossadegh at the latter's trial. Despite the loss of power,...
, Mohammad Ali Khonji and others. Its aim was to return Mohammad Mossadegh to the premiership and to reestablish the constitutional monarchy. Initially, it seemed as if this organization was gaining in strength. However, the group's leaders fell into disagreements over questions such as the organization of the Front, tactics vis-a-vis the Shah's regime and the form of government the National Front should commit itself to. These disputes led to tension between the high-ranking leaders and the student activists and in 1961, Bazargan, Mahmoud Taleghani
Mahmoud Taleghani
Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani was an Iranian theologian, humanist, Muslim reformer, democracy advocate and a senior Shi'a cleric of Iran. Taleghani was a contemporary of the Iranian Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a leader in his own right of Iran's Shi'a resistance movement...
(a prominent Islamic cleric) and others formed the Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) which was committed to a democratic state in which the Islamic religion would play a substantial role in state and society (as opposed to the more secular orientation of the National Front).
Another issue arose over the appointment in April 1961 of Dr. Ali Amini
Ali Amini
Ali Amini was an Iranian politician and writer who was the Prime Minister of Iran from May 6, 1961 to July 19, 1962.-Early life:...
to the premiership. It was widely believed that the Shah had chosen Amini under pressure from the Kennedy Administration in the United States and it was partly for this reason that the National Front's leaders persistently refused to collaborate with or lend support to Ali Amini's government. But political turmoil grew worse and in 1962, Amini stepped down from the premiership due to his dispute with the Shah over the former's plans to reduce the military budget. The following year in June 1963, a huge religious uprising occurred in the cities of Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, Qum, Mashad, Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...
and Varamin
Varamin
Varamin is a city in and the capital of Varamin County, Tehran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 208,569, in 53,639 families.Varamin has an extensive history...
, which was put down with ruthless force by the Iranian army. The unrest had been sparked by the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a vocal critic of the Shah and his program of land reforms and granting women the right to vote. Around this time, the Third National Front was formed, which consisted of the FMI (religious-nationalists; Melli-Mazhabis), the Iran Nation Party (the party of Dariush Forouhar; Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran), the Society of Iranian Socialists (led by Khalil Maleki, a prominent personality of the Mossadegh era who had been prohibited from joining the Second National Front due to his past history in the Tudeh Party) and the student activists.
The Second and Third National Fronts differed largely in its tactical approach to facing the Shah's regime. The former believed in patiently negotiating with the Shah and the higher officials in the hope of peacefully bringing about a democracy. In contrast to this passive approach, the Third National Front advocated a strategy of civil disobedience and protests in the hope of either forcing the regime to come to terms with the opposition or face collapse. But by 1964, Mohammad Reza Shah had consolidated his control of both his regime and the country and he quickly moved to further guarantee his position by increasing the powers of SAVAK (the state's intelligence agency), which was infamous for the torture and killings it inflicted on the opposition and even on ordinary Iranians who merely uttered any wrong words against the regime. In this new atmosphere of police terror, the National Front virtually ceased to exist (though exile branches continued to operate in the United States and Europe).
Iranian Revolution
The National Front was revived in late 1977 by Dr. Karim SanjabiKarim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
(former minister of education under Mossadegh and now the leader of the Front), Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...
(former deputy minister of labor under Mossadegh and now the leader of the Iran Party) and Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar
Dariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
(head of the Iran Nation Party). The three signed an open letter which politely criticized the Shah and called on him to reestablish the constitutional monarchy, free political prisoners, respect freedom of speech and hold free and fair elections. For some months (under pressure from the Carter Administration), many educated and liberal-minded Iranians were now able to voice their grievances against the regime of the Shah.
In January 1978, violence erupted in the holy city of Qom
Qom
Qom is a city in Iran. It lies by road southwest of Tehran and is the capital of Qom Province. At the 2006 census, its population was 957,496, in 241,827 families. It is situated on the banks of the Qom River....
over the publication of an article in a pro-government newspaper which attacked Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran...
as a British agent and a reactionary. Despite the threatening existence of SAVAK and the harsh crackdown unleashed by the regime on the protesters, the unrest grew and spread to other cities such as Tabriz
Tabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, which was rocked by riots and briefly seized by rebels. By late 1978, almost the whole country (not just the organized opposition) was inflamed with hatred towards the Shah and rioting, protests and street clashes with the police and army grew in intensity and bloodshed. By this time, Ayatollah Khomeini was now recognized as the undisputed spiritual leader of the uprising.
Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi
Karim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
, as representative of the Front, came to Paris, and emerged from his meeting with Khomeini "with a short declaration that spoke of both Islam and democracy as basic principles,"
and committed the National Front to the twin goals of abolishing the Monarchy and establishing a democratic and Islamic government in its place.
This was a diversion from the National Front's long-held aim of reforming the monarchy and it caused some friction in the high-council (although most of the rank and file and leaders supported the new orientation). The friction blew into open division when Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar
Shapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...
, one of the three top leaders, accepted the Shah's invitation to become the prime minister of Iran, but only on the condition that the Shah committed himself to reign and not rule. Bakhtiar's decision to collaborate with the Shah caused the National Front to denounce him as a traitor to their cause and to expel him from the organization. Only a few moderate and secular individuals among the leadership chose to ally with Bakhtiar and with the Monarchy.
In Jan. 16, the Shah left the country, amid rejoicing among the populace, and on Feb. 11, the regime collapsed
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...
and Ayatollah Khomeini became the political leader of Iran. At first the National Front supported the new Provisional Revolutionary Government
Interim Government of Iran (1979)
The Interim Government of Iran of 1979 was the first government established in Iran after the Islamic Revolution...
and establishment of the Islamic Republic
Islamic republic
Islamic republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mauritania. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian...
. But the joint statement with Sanjabi notwithstanding, Khomeini "explicitly refused to put the same word, democracy, into either the title of the Republic or its constitution." Within a short time, it became clear that Ayatollah Khomeini's model of an Islamic society was modeled not on democracy, but on theocratic rule of Islamic jurists (or velayat-e faqih), and traditional Islamic sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
law.
1981 supression
Perhaps the revolution's climatic confrontation between Khomeini's theocrats and the National Front occurred in June 1981 after parliament approved the law of retaliation (qisasQisas
Qisas is an Islamic term meaning "retaliation," and follows the principle of an eye for an eye, or lex talionis, first set forth by Hammurabi, and subsequently included in the Old Testament and later legal codes...
, aka blood revenge or "an eye for an eye"). The National Front called upon the people of Tehran to participate in a demonstration for June 15, 1981.
The Front intended the meeting to serve as the focus for the middle classes, the bazaar, and the left wing. It distributed 4 million leaflets. For the first time it attacked Khomeini directly as responsible for repression and a reign of terror. ... Barely two hours before the scheduled rally, however, Khomeini addressed the nation over the radio. He treated the protest meeting as `an invitation to uprising, an invitation to insurrection.` ... He demanded the Iran Freedom MovementFreedom Movement of IranThe Freedom Movement of Iran is an Iranian political organization which was founded in 1961 by Mehdi Bazargan, Mahmoud Taleghani, Yadollah Sahabi, Mostafa Chamran, Ali Shariati, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh and some other political or religious figures...
disassociate itself from the National Front within the hour if they wished to escape retribution. ... His attack on [President] Bani-Sadr was equally uncompromising.
Khomeini declared that `The National Front is condemned as of today,`
that all opponents of the law of retaliation were apostates
Apostasy in Islam
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined in Islam as the rejection in word or deed of one's former religion by a person who was previously a follower of Islam...
and threatened the leaders of the Front with the death penalty if they did not repent.
In the mean time Hezbollahi
Hezbollah of Iran
The Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power...
"members of the Revolutionary Guard and committees, men and women from the wards of south Tehran organized by the IRPIslamic Republican partyThe Islamic Republican Party was a political party in Iran, formed in mid-1979 to assist the Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini establish theocracy in Iran...
machine poured into Ferdowsi Square, the designated meeting place for the rally. The large numbers of middle-class protesters and supporters of the National Front who also showed up were cowed into virtual silence. There was no organized demonstration, no speeches, no march."
Leaders of the Liberation Movement and Bani-Sadr had to make a public apology for supporting the Front's appeal on TV and the radio.
Leaders
- Mohammad Mosaddegh (1949-1967)
- Karim SanjabiKarim SanjabiKarim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
(1967-1988) - Adib Boroumand (1994-present)
Deputy leaders
- Karim SanjabiKarim SanjabiKarim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
(1950-1967) - Ahmad ZirakzadehAhmad ZirakzadehAhmad Zirakzadeh was one of the founders of National Front of Iran, an Iranian party which was considered the backbone of Mohammed Mosaddeq's government.- Early life :He was born in 1907 to a Yazdi father and mother in a religious family in Tehran...
(1968-1977) - Shapour BakhtiarShapour BakhtiarShapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...
(1977-1979) - Dariush ForouharDariush ForouharDariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
(1979-1980) - Parviz VarjavandParviz VarjavandParviz Varjavand was a notable Iranian archaeologist, researcher, university professor and politician who was a prominent member of Iran National Front . -Early and political carrer:...
(1988-2007)
By 1982, the secular National Front had been abolished inside Iran and a few of its leaders (including Karim Sanjabi) fled abroad.
See also
- Mohammed Mosaddeq
- Karim SanjabiKarim SanjabiKarim Sanjabi was an Iranian liberal political leader of the 20th century. He was born in Kermanshah, Iran.-Early life:...
- Shapour BakhtiarShapour BakhtiarShapour Bakhtiar was an Iranian political scientist, writer and the last Prime Minister of Iran under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi...
- Gholam Hossein SadighiGholam Hossein SadighiDr. Gholam Hossein Sadighi was the Iranian Minister of Interior in the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. After a CIA-backed coup d'etat overthrew Mossadegh, Sadighi was arrested and later testified in defense of Mossadegh at the latter's trial. Despite the loss of power,...
- Dariush ForouharDariush ForouharDariush Forouhar was a founder and leader of the Hezb-e Mellat-e Iran , a pan-Iranist opposition party in Iran and served as Minister of Labor in the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979...
- National Resistance Movement of IranNational Resistance Movement of IranThe National Movement of Iranian Resistance was founded in the early 1980s by Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of Iran under the Monarchy before it was overthrown in the February 1979 revolution. Even though he was an opponent to the Shah, he assumed the post of prime minister "to save...
- Khalil MalekiKhalil MalekiKhalil Maleki was an Iranian political figure, socialist and intellectual.During the early 1940s, Maleki had been one of 53 left-wing intellectuals who had been imprisoned by Reza Shah. After his release, he had been one of the original founders of the Tudeh Party Khalil Maleki (1903 Tabriz -...
- Mozzafar BaghaiMozzafar BaghaiDr. Mozzafar Baghai is known best as an Iranian political figure of the 1940s and 50s. He rose to prominence during the national struggle against British control of Iran's oil industry...
- Mehdi BazarganMehdi BazarganMehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...
- Ahmad ZirakzadehAhmad ZirakzadehAhmad Zirakzadeh was one of the founders of National Front of Iran, an Iranian party which was considered the backbone of Mohammed Mosaddeq's government.- Early life :He was born in 1907 to a Yazdi father and mother in a religious family in Tehran...
External links
- National Front official website (Iran)
- National Front website (USA)
- National Front website (Europe)
- National Front News Agency (USA)
Sources
- Liberal Nationalism in Iran: The Failure of a Movement (By Sussan Siavoshi) (Westview Press, March 1990)
- Iran Between Two Revolutions (By Ervand Abrahamian) (Princeton University Press: 1982)
- Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran Under the Shah and Khomeini (By H.E. Chehabi) (Cornell University Press, 1990)