Dear Michael, quite a few of Iranian expats living here in Stockholm and other Swedish places are former members or supporters of the left wing political factions. During the time of the last Shah (Reza Pahlevi) they were sympathic with a progressive or even socialist future for the country. It was in fact their political activities as members of Tudeh or the Trade Unions that made ground for the 1979 abolition of the Shahs power. The Islamic clerics simply occupied quickly the void positions, and in particular they promissed the masses a social, free and righteous political system. But in fact the first concern they had was to eliminate the still present leftist groups, which after the 1979 revolution were “taking a rest” to sort out and do endless debates about the right social and economic plan for the country. The mullahs had less problems, their only concern was to grab all power and to introduces a system of totalitarian, islamo-religious oppression. To get rid of their most influential competitor, the left movement of Iran lead by the Tudeh party, they started in 1981 to round on the leftists and others who had come together with the Islamists to bring down the autocratic rule of the Shah two years earlier and gave them two choices: convert or be liquidated. Jduges at the Den Hague Human Rights Court issued a report recently, stating that “in the 1980s the Islamic Republic of Iran went about arresting, imprisoning and executing thousands upon thousands of Iranian citizens because of their “wrong” faith or their political opinion were in conflict with the regime…”.
You might read more about this events in an article published recently by The Independent.
Take Care,
/ghazal
