Speech number Thirty-Eight
In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful
Whenever I meet those people who have relinquished all their desires, who have sacrificed their children and have suffered great hardships in the way of God, whenever I look upon those human faces, words fail me and a great sense of humility overwhelms me. I feel that I have not performed any service for the Iranian nation which is now sacrificing everything it has in the way of Islam, or for those fathers who have lost their children. I have not been able to pay my debt to those people who have risen for God and I can only ask forgiveness for my shortcomings from God the Exalted. We are all His servants, we all submit to His will and we are all ready to sacrifice our lives for His holy laws.
The Iranian people have risen today to revive Islam and Islamic laws. Their uprising is unique in the history of Islam and Iran, for it is so deep-rooted and fundamental. The dimensions of this uprising embrace all classes of society; it is not an uprising which belongs exclusively to one particular class. Previously, whenever there was an uprising or a movement, if it was led by the clergy, the political groups were not involved, or if it was led by political groups, other groups were not
involved. If the merchants of the bazaar made demands, other groups were indifferent. Today however, by the will of God the Blessed and Exalted, all groups have come together: political groups, the clergy, the merchants of the bazaar, school-children and students of the high-schools and universities, all have risen and have set off in one direction. They have one aim. This is an unprecedented event in history. They all ask for one thing, they all shout for freedom and independence and call for the abolition of this wicked dynasty, which from its inception has done nothing but harm to Islam and Iran, as the first step towards materialising this aim. Now, when the small children and youth leave their classrooms, their chant as they walk through the streets on their way home is "Death to the Shah."
This unity of purpose which has come about in Iran now and which has permeated every section of society, is not something that the hand of man could create; this has been brought about by the hidden hand of God and for this reason we should be optimistic. I myself am optimistic that this society, which is surging forward like a flood, will extirpate anything that stands in its way. When a nation has risen and its demands are just and are recognised as being just by all human societies then no power can withstand the power of the people. Others will ask you why you have gone on strike, why you are sacrificing your youth, why your clergy are being imprisoned and sent into exile, why your politicians are being arrested and imprisoned and the merchants of your bazaars persecuted and tortured. They will ask you what it is that you seek that makes you shout so. The people will reply: "We do not want to be the prisoners of the big powers; we want our own country to be in our own hands, we want to administer it ourselves; we want freedom." But they do not want the kind of freedom that the Shah gives, for that is only good for himself and his family. His kind of freedom is like the "reconciliation" of his government, it comprises of nothing but bloodshed, imprisonment and persecution. The people have all joined hands together and are shouting with a single voice: "We want freedom and independence; we do not want the Americans to administer our military, we do not want our army to be under the supervision of American advisers, we do not want them to create a parasitic army, an army which is fed from the wealth of Iran but which, under the supervision and training of American advisers, works for America." However, this is in fact the way things are, and we see that the Shah's army is such an army. Look at the Shah himself, he was installed by the Allies; he himself said that the Allies felt it was fitting that he should ascend the throne! His father too was brought to power by the British, as they admitted in a broadcast over Radio Delhi at the time of the Second World War, and when he disobeyed them, they carried him off to the island of Mauritius and then sent him to Hell.
When one looks at the culture of Iran, one sees that it is an imperialist culture, that is, a culture imposed on us by the imperialists. The Shah chose an apt title for his book Mission For My Country, for he indeed had a "mission", a mission that the Americans had given him! He had a mission to destroy the country and ruin the Iranian youth, to keep the country in a state of backwardness so it could not progress, so the youth could not develop into people who would stand up to America and ask them: "What do you want from us?" How many years have we had schools? It is more than seventy years since the founding of the Dar al-Fonun school. How many years have we had universities? Yet when the Shah or his child needs a tonsillectomy, doctors have to be brought from America or somewhere else to perform the operation. Other people too, if they fall ill and have the means to go abroad for treatment, they do so. This shows that we don't have universities, if we did then our own doctors would be able to treat the people. When they want to erect a building, build a dam, make a road or even asphalt a road, experts have to be brought in from abroad. If we have our own experts, then why does the Shah bring them in from abroad? If we have our own experts and he doesn't employ them, then he is betraying the people by not giving them the jobs. If we ourselves don't have the expertise then he is still being treacherous, he is still betraying our people because after all these years whenever we want to construct a building or a dam, or something else, still we have to bring in experts from abroad, from Europe or America.
Wherever you look, you see that there is something wrong. The economy is in ruins. According to experts, agricultural production in Iran now is only sufficient to meet the needs of the nation for thirty-three days of the year, foodstuffs have to imported from abroad to satisfy demand for the remaining eleven months, as is being done now. The result of the gentleman's "Land Reform Programme" was to turn Iran into a consumer market for America, so that the Americans could sell us all the things that they usually throw away! They are taking our oil now in such a way that in thirty years' time, according to the Shah, reserves will have run dry. However, this is not the case, the reserves will not have run dry, they will have exhausted them. They are extracting our oil now and sending it to America through huge pipes the size of a room, some of them are large enough to allow a human being to walk freely into them. In return, the Americans sell us the arms that they want for their military bases which they have set up in Iran to confront the Soviet Union. They should give something to Iran in return for being allowed to set up bases in the country. Of course the Americans should not have been allowed to do this in the first place, but now that this act of treachery has been committed and they have been given the permission, then we should receive something in return; instead they take our oil and then build bases for themselves. The Shah gives them our oil and then uses the oil revenues to establish military bases for the Americans or to buy expensive weaponry - which is of no use to us - from them and other countries such as France. They take our oil and in return they sell us aeroplanes worth three hundred and fifty million or five hundred and fifty million dollars!
This person, who is worse than his father - and his father was worse than Shimr - has damaged everything in the country from the religion to the economy, to social, cultural and military matters. He is a traitor. Our nation is now saying death to this monarchy, to this treacherous monarchy. The people are saying that they don't want this perfidious monarchy. Since its very inception, the Iranian monarchy has been a treacherous monarchy, its monarchs were all traitors. Even those who, because of the propaganda made about them, were reputed to be good and for whose souls prayers are said, were actually vile and wicked. But these Pahlavi monarchs have been the worst of them all.
Our call is that we want a government which is sympathetic towards the nation, we want a regime which is just. However, if we examine the nature of all regimes we see that, apart from that time when the government was a truly Islamic one, none of them has been just, they have all served their own interests. But there is one group which consists of those governments which act with moderation and temperance, and another which are extremist and excessive. Our country is amongst those which are ruled by extremists who want to destroy their homelands very fast and aggressively!
If this man remains in power, God forbid; if this sinister and decadent regime remains in place; if this ruling body which has governed us for all these years stays with us, then there will be nothing left for our future generations apart from poverty. This is because they are giving the country's oil away and are exhausting its reserves; they are giving the country's gas to the Soviet Union and exhausting supplies. Our pasturelands and forests have been given away to this country and that and are now ruined. Our agrarian economy is now in such a state that it cannot meet the needs of this nation. In thirty years' time this country will have no sources of wealth. If this regime remains in power, all our sources of wealth will be annihilated. We are shouting, the clergy are shouting, the politicians and those who care about the country, are shouting for them to leave the country so that it will remain for the next generation, so that future generations will be able to live there. In thirty years' time, if this regime remains, no one will be able to live in this country because everything will have been destroyed. In one of his interviews, the Shah said: "If I am to go, I will turn the country into a heap of dust and go." But even now that he still rules he has destroyed everything, he has not left us anything.
Of course the Americans have to help him, they have to support him because they won't find a servant better than him, one who offers them all the wealth of the country and builds bases for them with the money he receives in return. What better servant than this could they want? Of course he (Carter) must say that the Shah has given his people freedom and has created a progressive country. According to Mr Carter's logic, freedom comprises all these killings which are occurring every day now in Iran and all the crimes, savagery and repression the Shah practises represent efforts to find progressive solutions for social problems. Yes, what he does is very good for Mr Carter. It works to his benefit. The oil of the East, especially that of Iran and the Hijaz, is very profitable for the foreigners, of course Carter must announce his support for him. The Soviet Union too must announce its support, because they are taking the country's gas. They too have interests to protect.
Now the voice of the people has been raised, they are saying that they want their resources to be recovered sensibly and correctly and to be sold in a proper way. They don't want to put this oil into their pockets or to eat it; they want it to be sold, but they don't want it to be plundered. They want to sell their oil to whichever country will give them the better price for it, and they want money in exchange, they want currency for it not scrap metal, not aeroplanes which are of no use to them. They are saying that they want money so they can spend it on this nation - this nation which does not even have running water.
Ignore the northern section of Tehran where they have put things in order, go take a look at other areas, go look at the tents and the hovels that some people live in, go and see what kind of lives they have in this city which is the centre of this "great civilisation." In so many areas of Tehran now shanty-towns have been created the best houses of which are those which people have built for themselves and their families out of mud. Why have the people come and settled here? They have come here because of the "land reforms". When they implemented the land reform programme, the people could not remain in their own villages. Everything there was turned upside down and they had to leave. They swarmed into the cities; most of them went to Tehran and now these poor people have to endure a very unpleasant and difficult life there. Those who have migrated to the cities are not all young people, they are not able to earn money by carrying things around for people, they cannot simply get hold of a cart and work as a street vendor. Most of them are old men and women, and most of them are frail and poor and they are now living in these hovels. People have written telling me about these problems, I had noted down all that they said, but I don't have the notes with me now and I can't remember all the particulars. They told me that there are thirty areas or more in Tehran where these shanty-towns have been set up, some of them are situated near the shrine of Hazrat `Abd al `Azim and some are even to be found in the northern sections of the city. These places are full of these poor migrants, people who, because of the land reforms, had to move there and now have to suffer a poverty-stricken life. They have no water, no electricity, no lives. They have nothing! Not only do they not have electricity, other districts of Tehran don't either, every day a few areas of Tehran are plunged into darkness because of the shortage of electricity. Some of these poor migrants live in pits, in very deep holes, in dwellings you reach by going down scores of steps into the ground. In order to obtain water they have to take their jugs and climb up those steps until they reach a water tap. This is the life that they have made for them. The people from a village not too far away from Tehran who are in touch with me, have written asking for permission to use some of the money from the charitable funds to help them build a water storage tank so that they can collect the rainwater because the nearest water storage tank is about five kilometres from their village.
Don't be deceived by these cars that you see in Tehran which are owned by only a small portion of the population, those who own them are either working for the regime or are doing well for themselves, they do not give a true picture of the state of the country. Go look at the other cities of Iran; go to the areas of Tehran where people live in hovels, go and see the true situation of this nation, a nation which has so much natural wealth. The money from the oil should be used for the people. If we had an honest government which sold the oil in a proper way and spent the revenues from it on the people, then this nation would not be in the state it is today.
This is why we are shouting. We ask why does one group of people have to live in such poverty while another group spend five million dollars just for decorating their villas? I have received correspondence telling me that five million dollars have been spent on plants and flowers for the garden of the villa of the Shah's sister. Where did she get this money from? Riza Shah had nothing when he enacted his coup d'etat, but he confiscated the property of the people by means of force and later just a small portion of it was given back. Their wealth comes from the people. How is this Pahlavi Foundation administered? It is run with the nation's money. They take this nation's oil and its other sources of wealth, they plunder this nation so that they can live like this while others live in poverty. We are shouting that we shouldn't be plundered in this way, that this regime must be replaced. We shall continue shouting until our last breath, and when we have no breath left, well then we have an excuse before God the Blessed and Exalted.
Gentlemen, you too have a responsibility which you must shoulder. You must speak out, for the interests of a nation and Islam are involved here. You have a responsibility to propagate as much as you can against the ruling regime in Iran, and this means exposing the truth and realities of Iran. Let those around you know what is happening to your people. Tell them what is taking place in the universities, in the colleges, in the schools even. They have killed little girls, this year it's the turn of little seven- and eight-year-old girls. Tell them what goes on in the prisons of Iran, in Iran itself which is a prison. Tell these facts to those you are acquainted with over here, those you attend school with and to those you meet at the gatherings you are present at. If each one of you tells twenty people or even ten people about the realities in Iran, then a wave of public opinion will be formed and your actions will have been a service to the people who are giving their lives and doing you a service. You must propagate the facts, you must speak out. If you are able, get your views published in the press here, give interviews, let the people know what you have to say. You are not in the same situation as I am, I cannot be interviewed, but you can, so speak out.
I ask God the Blessed and Exalted to grant all of you peace and good health.
I hope and pray from God the Blessed and Exalted that if He wills, this roaring flood of people in Iran which is moving in one direction and which in my opinion has been brought about by the hand of God - for such a phenomenon cannot be created by man - will sweep away this profligate regime and your country will become your own for you to administer yourselves. (The audience says: God willing).
May God grant you success and assist you.
I apologise that my state of health does not permit me to sit here longer and speak to you further.
May God preserve you.
1- In the early days of October 1978 (Shahrivar 1357 AHS), Nasir Moqaddam, the head of SAVAK, delivered a message from one of the country's clergymen to the Shah. In the message, the clergyman requested the Shah to make some fundamental changes in his policies in order to calm the situation and preserve the regime. The changes suggested included the dismissal of the government and the formation of a new cabinet. According to existing documents, this clergyman was Shari`atmadari. Subsequently, the Shah dismissed the government and appointed Sharif Imami, who was the President of the Senate and was from a clerical background, to head the new cabinet. Imami called his new
government the "government of reconciliation," and in a speech given at the beginning of his premiership, he introduced himself as the pious son of a clergyman and a follower of Mr. Shari`atmadari. In an attempt to calm the situation, he embarked on a series of cosmetic reforms: limits on the activities of political parties were lifted; the imperial calendar foisted on Iran by the Shah three years before was abandoned and the Muslim (hijra) one was reintroduced; such people as Hojabr Yazdani and General Nematullah Nassiri among others were dismissed from their posts or arrested; casinos and gambling houses, which up until the previous day Imami had himself, as head of the Pahlavi Foundation, administered, were closed; and censorship was relaxed. In addition, steps were taken for getting Imam out of Iraq - this in fact was what the Iraqi regime itself wanted because of the increasing attention paid to Imam by Iraq's own Shi'i population, and the motive behind this particular move on the part of the Iranian regime was the supposition that changing Imam's place of exile would cut his ties with the Iranian nation. Sharif Imami worked on the assumption that by giving into enough of the people's demands he could mollify the opposition and thus save the position of the Shah. The appointment of Sharif Imami as new prime minister was a calculated move on the part of the Shah, Imami was the son of a clergyman, one Sharif ul-`Ulama Gulpaygani; he held the highest rank in the Freemasons in Iran and was the successor of Zaka ul-Mulk Furuqi; although he was connected to imperial groups, he was not a member of the Iran Novin or the Rastakhiz parties. During the crisis of 1960, Imami assisted the Shah and he was charged with forming a government in September of that year instead of Dr. Manuchehr Iqbal. However, Sharif Imami was seen as being too closely connected to the regime and he was among that group of people who had taken millions of dollars worth of foreign currency out of the country. Thus, his moves were lost in the momentum of the revolution and the slogan of "Death to the Shah" arose from every corner of Iran eventually forcing the regime to bring in a military government. 2- Refer to footnote 11 of Speech 31. 3- Refer to footnote 9 of Speech 31. 4- The British transported Riza Shah first to Mauritius, an island in the Indian ocean situated about 850 kilometres east of Madagascar to the south-east of Africa, and then to Johannesburg where he died on July 26, 1944. 5- Mission For My Country the ghost-written autobiography of the Shah that appeared in a number of languages in 1961. 6- In 1848, the country's first secular high school was established, the Dar al-Fonun (Abode of Learning). The Dar al-Fonun, whose students were mostly sons of the aristocracy, offered classes in foreign languages, political science, engineering, agriculture, mineralogy, medicine, veterinary medicine, military sciences and band music. 7- Refer to footnote 4 of Speech 31. 8- Shimr: the Umayyad general who martyred Imam Husayn during the battle at Karbala.9 9- Refer to footnote 5 of Speech 31. 10- Refer to footnote 3 of Speech 33. 11- The appointment of Sharif Imami as Prime Minister (October 1960 to April 1961 (Shahrivar 1339 - Urdibihisht 1340 AHS)) was a result of the open opposition of that time between Russia and the West on one side and Britain and America on the other, for the security of their respective interests in Iran. As a result of pressure from London and Moscow and through the political activities of agents connected to Britain in the Shah's court, Sharif Imami took control of affairs. During his premiership British infiltration increased considerably, Russia was granted certain concessions and negotiations between Tehran and Moscow got underway. America's reaction to this state of affairs and the pressure it thereby exerted upon Iran forced the Shah to dismiss Sharif Imami and replace him with `Ali Amini. During Amini's premiership (April 1961 to June 1962 (Urdibihisht 1340 - Tir 1341 AHS)) the Iranian Parliament was closed; a loan was received from America; for the sake of appearances a few military officials and the chief adviser to Sharif Imami were arrested; relations between Russia and Iran became strained; and American infiltration increased in the country. Refer to Siyohaft Sal, pp. 41-44. 12- The book Towards the Great Civilisation was published under the name of Muhammad Riza Shah in 1977 (or, as some contend, in 1976), by "The Centre for Research into and Publication of Political Culture Prevalent During the Reign of the Pahlavis." The false, mendacious and fanciful issues raised in this book even came under criticism from the Shah's own partisans and supporters abroad. Fereidun Hoveyda, who translated the book into French writes: "In my opinion, the book Towards the Great Civilisation is no more than a world of fantasy . . . and it is a far cry from reality." Similarly, the Iranian ambassador to England said that "in a way the book amounted to the depiction of an hallucination which was the outcome of the mental discharge of a demented, infirm individual." 13- Refer to footnote 22 of Speech 32. 14- Refer to footnote 21 of Speech 32. 15- Following the referendum of 1963, the Shah, on January 28, 1963 (Bahman 8, 1341 AHS) said: "By the will of God and with the endeavours of the people of Iran we will create a country in this part of the world which will compare with the most advanced of countries in all aspects." And on March 21, 1963 (Farvardin 1, 1342 AHS) he said: "In the future, Iranian society will be based purely on social justice, the equitable division and distribution of wealth...and a minimum standard of living will be guaranteed for all. I can see evidence now of the prosperous, happy society to come." A few years earlier, on October 4, 1959 (Mehr 12, 1338 AHS), the Shah had said: "Our efforts are aimed at eliminating social distances and bringing all the people of the country, from the cities and the villages, together in this caravan along the road of civilisation." (From the book A Selection of the Writings and Speeches of the Shahanshah Aryamehr). It is interesting that after sixteen years of the Shah's so-called "reforms," the Ittila`at newspaper on
October 15, 1978 (Mehr 23, 1357 AHS) reported that: "During a visit by the Prime Minister Ja`far Sharif Imami to the southern regions of Tehran, the Premier, greatly distressed at the prevailing situation there, ordered that steps be taken immediately to solve the problems and meet the needs of the southern city dwellers, especially with regard to asphalting the roads and providing them with water and electricity"! However, his show of concern came too late and the people of Iran, particularly those living in the southern slum areas of Tehran, had come to realise that their problems were caused by the policies of the Shah and the many years of American interference in Iranian affairs. 16- Refer to footnote 12 of Speech 31. 17- During the reign of Ahmad Shah Qajar, a contract known as "The Contract of Vusuq al-Dula" (the Prime Minister of the day) was concluded between Iran and Britain (1919), according to which Britain was obliged to pay a loan of two million pounds sterling to Iran and was to be responsible for organising and administering the Iranian army. In effect, this contract rendered Iran a subject of British sovereignty whilst also serving to protect the country from Russia. Ahmad Shah Qajar, for reasons too lengthy to mention here, opposed this contract and thus the British government decided to remove him from their path - a task not too difficult for he was not very popular with the people anyway. Therefore, in 1920 (1299 AHS), a coup d'etat was staged by Riza Khan Mirpanj which not only resulted in Ahmad Shah's dethronement, but also paved the way for the overthrow of the Qajar dynasty and the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty; and indeed, shortly afterwards, it led to Riza Khan being placed on the imperial throne. 18- Some of the Shah's economic activities were carried out through an organisation called the Pahlavi Foundation. One section of this organisation was independent and another was run in association with domestic and foreign capitalists and owned most of the private banks; the industrial factories; the production, construction and food companies; the agricultural and animal husbandry units; and the trading companies in Iran as well as dozens of hotels, restaurants, casinos and nightclubs. The administration of this foundation was for a time in the hands of Sharif Imami the President of the Senate. 19- The late Hujjat al-Islam wal Muslimin Hajj Sayyid Ahmad Khomeini writes on this matter: "When Imam first entered France, the authorities of that country asked him not to deliver speeches or give interviews and to refrain from going to mosques, holding prayer assemblies and attending gatherings. At that time, there existed an intense rivalry between the newspapers Le Monde and Figaro. Reporters from Le Monde had previously been granted interviews with Imam while he was in Najaf, and now the editor-in-chief of Figaro insisted that his publication also be given an interview with him. We took advantage of the situation and sent a message through Mr. Qutbzadeh to
the editor of Figaro, who was an influential figure in French politics and who was close to the government of Giscard d'Estaing, saying that were the ban stopping Imam from giving interviews lifted, Figaro would be granted the first exclusive interview with Imam in Paris. Figaro's editor, in a message sent to me, replied that he would meet with Imam and publish his report of this meeting under the heading of a "discussion." Imam was told about this and he agreed to the interview and set a date and time for it to take place, saying: 'What difference does it make if it's a discussion or an interview, we will still say what we need to say.' At the appointed time, the interview with Imam took place in the presence of Mr. Qutbzadeh and myself. The editor of Figaro asked many questions and in return received lengthy replies. A detailed account of what took place that day later appeared in the Figaro newspaper under the heading of a "discussion." Following this, the editors of other French newspapers raised objections as to why the French government had allowed a government-related newspaper to interview Imam while they were prohibited from doing so. This led to the abrogation, in practice, of the ban on interviews and subsequently Imam's numerous interviews given in France were to play a very prominent role in clarifying the aims of his movement and confronting the malicious propaganda of the Western press." 20- One of the idiosyncrasies of Imam Khomeini as a leader - which is not seen in many other leaders of revolutions in the world - was that he thought of himself as being very insignificant, as nothing, and he believed that everything came about through the will of God. A phrase he repeated many times was: "The Islamic Revolution was created by God and was victorious because of God."
