foucault-and-the-iranian-revolution-janet-afary

Visits to Iran and Controversies with "Atoussa H." and Maxime Rodinson 71
the shah to resign and leave the country. On November 6, the government of
Sharif-Imami resigned. In a nationally televised speech, the shah reluctantly
gave a measure of recognition to the revolutionary movement. He appointed
General Gholamreza Azhari head of a new military government, but warned
him that he did not want another bloodbath in the streets of Tehran. Playing
for time, the government now arrested a few prominent officials and also
promised to change all laws that were " contrary to Islam" (cited in Menashri
1980, 491). On November 8, National Front leader Sanjabi visited Khomeini
in Paris, where he declared the monarchy "illegitimate" and gave conditional
approval to the idea of an "Islamic government." Khomeini was now becoming
the uncontested leader of the opposition to the shah, which weakened
the position of more senior and more moderate clerics like Ayatollah Shariatmadari.
During October and November, Khomeini's supporters in France were
coaching him on how to soften the harshness of his Islamist discourse. He
did so a bit, also calling for independence, freedom, and democracy in Iran.
Among those who coached Khomeini in Paris was Bani-Sadr. For his part, the
shah warned ominously of the danger of a Communist takeover, a possibility
that remained of serious concern to the United States. On November 26, only
a few days before the month of Muharram began, government troops shot a
group of protesters who had sought sanctuary at the Shrine of Imam Reza
in Mashhad. Khomeini and three other Grand Ayatollahs, Ayatollah Golpaygani,
Ayatollah Marashi Najafi, and Ayatollah Shariatmadari, declared a day
of national mourning. By late 1978, Khomeini began to put forward more
forcefully his demand for "an Islamic government." On the streets of Tehran
and other major cities, support for Khomeini intensified. A novel strategy employed
by protesters was to mount rooftops in the evening and chant "Allah
o Akbar" (God is great). The loud vibrating noise was a tremendous blow to
the morale of the soldiers, weakening their support for the shah.
In December, the Pahlavi regime began to crack. On December 2, the
month-long Muharram celebrations began, and, as we saw in chapter 2, the
clerics deftly turned it into a massive mobilization against the shah. The religious
mobilization reached its peak on December 10-11, when mass demonstrations
involving hundreds of thousands commemorated Ashura on the
streets of Tehran and other cities. During these days, strikes spearheaded by
oil workers also brought the entire economy to a halt. On December 13, in
his first public admission of defeat, the shah offered the prime ministership
to the regime's most prominent secular opponent, Karim Sanjabi of the National
Front. Sanjabi publicly spumed the offer. After several others also declined,
on December 28, Shapour Bakhtiar accepted the position. Bakhtiar