January 1980.
He commanded a national following and pro-Bani-Sadr demonstrations
The president proved unwilling to mobilize his
constituencies against the IRP, though, and his window of opportunity soon closed.
1981, Khomeini denounced Bani-Sadr as an ally of the West.
The IRP-dominated parliament
removed Bani-Sadr from office in June 1981 and he fled from Iran the next month.
Realizing
their political options were dwindling, Bani-Sadr’s followers in the Mojahedin-e-Khalq “rose in
The Mojahedin were linked to a series of attacks that climaxed in the
bombing of IRP headquarters and the death of over seventy party leaders, including party
The regime responded with an overwhelming crackdown.
Hooglund writes:
“An estimated 7,000 persons, mostly young people, are believed to have been killed in 1981-
1982. The severity of the government’s reaction effectively eliminated as a serious internal
opposition the Mujahidin.”
IRP leaders hoped that by expelling Bani-Sadr and crushing the Mojahedin, they would
clearly establish that religious leadership, not popular elections, would underpin the Islamic
Republic. However, clerical leaders within the Shi’a hierarchy continued to challenge the IRP’s
course. From early 1979 many in the left-wing had advocated a larger role for public
participation, including that powers of the “republican” institutions should at least equal those of
the “Islamic” bodies. Yet those clerics who wanted religious officials to preside over government
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic, approved in November 1979
(and publicly approved on 2-3 December) subordinated the presidency and parliament to three
religious bodies: the office of faqih that Khomeini immediately filled, a twelve-member
Guardians Council, and an eighty-three member Assembly of Experts.
mention the word “democracy” at any point and inverted an earlier vision of representative
government and clerical consultation.
19
Convention