Speech number Fifty
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A matter about which we have spoken repeatedly was made public by the British Foreign Minister. From the very beginning we have said that the previous Shah (Riza Khan) carried out a coup d'etat on the orders of the British and came to power to preserve their interests; he was thrown out of the country and taken off to the island of Mauritius only when he transgressed their bounds and broke their rules. The present Shah also came to power in Iran to protect the interests of the Allies: the Russians, Americans and the British, and throughout his rule he has worked for their interests. A few days ago the British Foreign Minister confirmed this
saying that they could not remain silent while someone who was in Iran to preserve their interests was in such a situation! The Iranian nation which has risen now has done so because of this matter of which the British Foreign Minister speaks.
The nation of Iran - a nation which has been dragged into so much bloodshed and whose youth have been killed in such great numbers - all the important cities of Iran, the towns and large villages of Iran are now in the grip of revolution. They have written that Zanjan is aflame with fire and every corner of Tehran is seething with revolt. The situation is the same in Qum and other cities. A full-scale uprising is taking place which I am afraid may result in a revolution that no one will be able to stop.
The British Foreign Minister and those foreign ministers of other exploiting countries do not have the sense to realise that they cannot treat a nation in this way. The heads of the superpower nations think that because they are superpowers they can devour the whole world! But when a nation rises and gives everything it has for the sake of its freedom and independence then this fire cannot be quenched with bayonets, martial law or a military government. They are mistaken by thinking it can.
If they want to set up a military government for instance, what good is it actually going to do them, for twelve cities are already under martial law, indeed the whole of Iran is unofficially under martial law. The government in Iran now is like a military government, but the people have not succumbed to it. Someone who is ready to sacrifice everything is not worried by a military government. Suppose that a military coup d'etat does take place and a military figure comes to power, he will be no different from this person. As it is now the Iranian government is (like) a military government, and yet the people have stood up and are demanding their rights. They are not calling for something which is illegal, they are calling for something to which they are legally entitled.
It's been more than fifty years! Our forty and fifty-year-olds were born into suppression. The people have two things to say: firstly, that this Shah is not a constitutional monarch, he is a despot, and secondly that the crimes he has committed are unforgivable. Even if we suppose that he is truly repentant now, as he says he is, and that when he promises not to do such things again and to act in accordance with the Constitution from now on, he is speaking the truth - which he is not, but let us suppose that he is - could the people ever accept the repentance of someone who has committed all these crimes and has killed so many? According to Islamic law, the penalty for someone who orders the killing of someone else, even though he does not actually carry out the killing himself, is life imprisonment. Now someone who has ordered the killing of a multitude of people turns around and says: "I will reign, not govern!!" The hell you will! Rule is for he who is legally appointed to rule and who then rules according to the Constitution and does not govern.
We all know that the Pahlavi rule is not at all legal. The Pahlavi dynasty came into being through the power of the bayonet. It began with Riza Shah who carried out a coup d'etat, he was an army commander, then he became Minister of War and then temporary governor, and all this took place through the force of the bayonet. Initially, the Iranian nation was not aware of the kind of man he really was, so they said nothing. Later, however, he gradually began to show his true face, that of a person who respected nothing. He destroyed Iran's dignity, he formed a Parliament at bayonet point and this Constituent Assembly that he created in order to depose the Qajar ruler and put himself on the throne did not have any connection with the people, the people were not aware of what was going on, they had no say in the matter. It was created at bayonet point and he himself was a bayonet! Those who were a part of it voted for him, it was set up only to give him the vote! Articles were removed from the Constitution and others put in their place so that the Qajar monarchy could be disposed of and the Pahlavi monarchy brought in its stead: this was all done through the power of the bayonet, it was not lawful. These articles which are now in the Constitution are not constitutional articles, originally the Constitution did not contain such articles. They were put there by force of the bayonet, and the people were not aware of what had happened.
So Riza Shah came to power against the wishes of a nation through the might of the bayonet in an un-constitutional manner. After him, rule was passed onto his son who himself said that the Allies had told him that he must rule! An unlawful rule! From the beginning his rule was unlawful! This Shah is a criminal, it wasn't only his father who was a criminal, he is one too. The people could not speak out, but now, praise be to God, they can, now they give lives and speak out.
In sum, everything that our nation is saying is that this man is a traitor. Let us suppose that his rule has been legal - which it hasn't and according to the rightful law it has always been invalid - but let us suppose that it has been legal and that he has ruled according to the Constitution, when he betrays a nation, when he diverges from the constitutional law, then he should be dismissed, he should no longer be the ruler. Throughout his rule this man has deprived the people of freedom. He even admits this himself. When he says that he will give the people freedom, it means that he had taken their freedom away from them. He had it in his pocket and now he wants to give it to them! This is admitting a crime. If he is tried in court, which God willing he will be, the fact that he says he will give the people freedom is confessing to a crime, for according to both the constitutional law and the shari'a (Islamic) law the nation is supposed to be free; the constitutional law has granted the people freedom so when he says he will give them freedom it means that he had taken it away from them and thus he is admitting a crime.
One of the things that the people are shouting is that they have never had freedom, neither throughout his rule nor that of his father. Our youth have never tasted freedom, when they first opened their eyes (on this world) there was a policeman standing over them, a military agent, a government agent or a plunderer, they have not witnessed a day of freedom and neither have we. From the time of Riza Shah to the present there has not been a hint of freedom. One thing that the people are shouting for is their freedom. The young children are shouting for freedom, the old men are shouting for freedom, the people from the universities and others are all shouting for freedom, everyone wants freedom. He has deprived a nation of freedom, he is not fit to rule, so even if we suppose that his rule was once lawful, it is no longer and he is the ruler no more.
Moreover, even if he were the legal ruler, the whole nation is now saying that they no longer want him, they are saying death to this Pahlavi monarchy! This is itself a referendum, all the people from all over Iran are shouting that they don't want him, they are shutting down the bazaars, they are showing their opposition in governmental institutions. The people don't want him, and even if on the basis of the Constitution and the votes of the nation this man was once the shah, as soon as the people refuse him their vote, he is shah no longer. Now our people are saying that they don't want this man, and one of the reasons why they don't want him is that he has deprived them of their freedom, for fifty years he and his father have deprived them of their freedom and now they are saying that they no longer want him.
Another reason why they want to be rid of him is that he is selling off their resources to foreigners. Whatever the nation had he has given to others! God forbid that his rule should be perpetuated for a few more years. If his rule continues for a few more years he will give all of our oil to America, Britain and other countries! At present he is recklessly giving away our oil without us knowing what the oil money is being spent on. Yes, we know that the regime buys arms from America, arms which are used only for creating American bases in the country. America wants to create military bases in Iran against the Soviet Union, so it takes our oil and builds bases for itself in the country with the money it pays for the oil! It takes our oil and uses the money it paid for it for itself! So this too is to its benefit! What need does Iran have for these sophisticated weapons which the Iranian army knows neither how to use nor what they are good for? Only their own experts know how to use them. He is a person who has disrupted our economy. On the one hand he is giving our oil away to others such that if he remains in power, in a few years' time there will be neither oil nor other resources left for us; and on the other hand, in the name of "land reforms," he has destroyed the agriculture of Iran and has turned the country into a market for the consumption of American goods. So now everything we need we have to get from abroad, and if they ever stop the imports, Iran will be left with no food supplies. If he remains in power for a few more years, he will exhaust the oil reserves, he has already destroyed the agriculture so how will the future generation live? What will they have to live off? Nothing!
So this is the state of our country's economy. Now, what of its education? The hands of foreigners will not allow our children to receive a proper education, they prevent them from being educated properly. Today, the call of all the teachers and students is that they want to be independent, they want to be in control of their own affairs, they are shouting: "You don't allow us to live our own lives." They (the foreigners) have a mission to keep our education in a state of backwardness, they do not allow our educational system to train true human beings, they do not permit our youth to receive a proper, independent education for fear that they will become independent thinkers. They don't want a generation to be produced which will think independently and which will grasp the reins of power in their own hands. Our educational system must produce only parasitic individuals whose sole concern is with the policies of America, Britain and the Soviet Union, so that these countries can take the advantage!
So we have no education now, he has destroyed both our education and our economy. What is there then left for us? When we look at the army we see it is an army which is under the control of American advisers. So do we have an army? An army which does not enjoy independence, an army which cannot do anything for itself, is not independent in its actions. Sixty thousand American spongers have gone to Iran under the name of "military advisers," I have no idea what they are actually doing there, but our army is under their control. So we have no army either. What then do we have? What does Iran have? This Iran that he says has reached the gates of a "great civilisation!" Is this his great civilisation?!
Carter says that the cause of opposition to the Shah stems from the fast freedom that he has given the people! According to Carter's logic, all this shouting by the people is because they have had their fill of freedom, he has given them so much freedom that they can't digest it, it is giving them indigestion! That's why they are shouting, so they say! Carter said this just a few days ago. It was reported in our newspapers that he had said the Shah had given the people a "fast freedom" and that this was the source of the people's opposition to him! This is why the people are shouting out so much for freedom!
Now, as we sit here, I don't know exactly what is happening in Iran. I know that incidents are taking place, but I have no information on where or on how many people have been killed in them. Any newspaper which comes from Iran now reports on some incident or other, and even though the press may not be able to give all the facts, we can get an idea of what is happening there from their reports which speak constantly of people being killed in one place or another. In Kabutar Ahang, a village in the vicinity of Hamadan, the newspapers reported five people killed in incidents there. Five people in one village! This fire which has been lit in Iran now is spreading and is engulfing all the villages of Iran, all the towns of Iran, and all the Iranian cities, both large and small. It bears glad tidings for us, for it shows that the disaffected have raised their voices. They are being killed and not without reason, they are being killed because they are shouting out that they don't want this man. If they don't shout "death to the Shah" they won't be shot at. The agents are ordered to shoot at them whenever they utter the name of the Shah without saying "His Excellency Aryamehr!" All the people of Iran today, from the small children to the elderly gentlemen, are shouting just one thing and that is: "We don't want this man, he has to go."
Such a nation cannot be anything other than victorious. Rest assured that this nation will be victorious (the audience says "God willing"). A nation cannot be trifled with. Do not be afraid of the support that Carter, the British Foreign Minister and the Kremlin have said they will give the Shah. This is all talk, don't let it scare you. When a nation, no matter how weak, says "no" it means "no," and no one can make it into a "yes," the military cannot do this and neither can the armies of America and the Soviet Union, it simply cannot be done.
The Shah and his government keep talking about how they must sit down and find a solution to this impasse which they themselves have created, but the solution does not lie in the hands of a minister or a representative of the Parliament, it lies in the hands of the Shah, nobody but he can quench this fire, he holds the key and that is for him to go, to leave the country and let the people be! When he goes, then there will be peace, and when those who supported him gather their forces and leave after him, the country will be calm. And why shouldn't Iran be calm? The Iranian people are a peace-loving people, but when they are put under so much pressure, then they raise their voices, otherwise they are a peace-loving and noble people. It is because of their noble nature and their strength of character that they are shouting out now.
May God assist you all, all the people of our country. Every night, gentlemen, I repeat that we all have a duty to perform, you who are here have a duty to perform. We are indebted to the Iranian nation. There are those in Iran now who have sacrificed their children, mothers and fathers have seen their children killed, we are indebted to them, for they have risen for the benefit of the whole nation, they are not doing this just for their own benefit they have risen for the (whole) nation. We too are a part of the Iranian nation, so they have risen for us too. So now wherever you are, here, America, Britain, elsewhere in Europe, you should serve this country, and the service that you can do is to propagate the Iranian nation's cause. You can all do this, each one of you has contact with a few individuals and can tell them about Iran's problems.
These people (in the West) have been misinformed about the circumstances surrounding events in Iran by the evil propaganda that has been disseminated. It has been said that they (the clergy) are reactionaries, that they want to put the clock back, they want to take the country back to how it was some one thousand and odd years ago. No, they don't want to do this, you (the Shah) are the one who wants to put the clock back, you are the one who changed our current calendar, adopting one of two thousand five hundred years ago: a Zoroastrian calendar! This is reactionary, not that which we say. We want our history, our own vital Islamic history. They say that the Iranian people are reactionaries. This is not so, they are not reactionary, they are progressive, they want freedom and independence. Is someone who wants freedom and independence a reactionary?! He who deprives the people of freedom and he who wants to go back to the time of the tyrannical kings is reactionary. The reactionary is he who takes away freedom, he who betrays a country and a nation, not the people who ask why he betrays them, why he deprives them of freedom.
I hope that, God willing, you will all serve your country and tell the people in your universities about the situation in Iran, tell them how this man has oppressed us. If we suppose that every one of ten thousand Iranians (and there are more than that number here) tells ten people of the facts, then a large number of people will be informed about the situation in Iran and even if they are already informed you can enlighten them further. Thus, the problems from which this nation suffers will be made clear to them and they will realise that this nation wants to be free. God willing, a wave of support will be found over here for the Iranian people's cause which will bear fruit soon. There is no doubt that it will eventually bear fruit, but let us pray that it will happen soon. May God keep you all.
Peace be upon you, and also the mercy and blessings of God.
1- Refer to footnote 17 of Speech 38. 2- Riza Khan viewed the progress made by Germany in the First World War with great interest and admiration and he considered siding with the victorious party in the war. Towards the end of his rule and at the beginning of the Second World War, he invited a number of German specialists to work in Iran. This did not conform to the policies of the Allies who had put him in power, so they ordered him to expel the German specialists immediately. Even though Riza Shah obeyed the orders of the Allies, they still did not agree to the continuation of his rule and in his stead they put his son, Muhammad Riza, on the throne. 3- Refer to footnote 11 of Speech 31. 4- Refer to footnote 2 of Speech 44. 5- Refer to footnote 9 of Speech 45. 6- Refer to footnote 7 of Speech 32. 7- Sharif Imami. 8- In Mehr 1357 AHS (Sept/Oct, 1978), during the opening ceremony of the National Consultative Assembly, the Shah said: "It goes without saying that in our endeavours to fortify the foundations of religious faith, the sublime mores and principles of Islam will always be our greatest source of guidance and inspiration. An outline of the resolutions which are to be passed during the coming year can be clearly defined from our overall objectives and proposed policy . . . Obviously as a Muslim country, one of our prime objectives and aims is to strive for the advancement of the Islamic world and for its ever-increasing development and greatness."(!) Again, on the occasion of the seventy-third anniversary of constitutional government, he had said: "From the beginning of my childhood, religion and Islam were an integral part of my life. That is to say that I am a devout Muslim. And as the nation's leader I state with conviction that a society needs to have a spiritual faith, and most essentially it needs to have a religious faith, for it is this which affords order and stability. So I, who have sworn to preserve the Constitution, to defend the country's frontiers and boundaries, and to safeguard the twelve-Imami religion of Shi`ism, have certain obligations to fulfil - obligations which the people must also fulfil in another way."(!) 9- Refer to footnote 2 of Speech 41. 10- Refer to footnote 21 of Speech 32. 11- An American researcher writes: "24,000 Americans were reported to have been working in Iran in July 1976, and even then this figure was rising. Some of these, such as the 1,700 American workforce at the Bell helicopter manufacturing company, worked directly under the supervision of their own American bosses, and had little contact with Iranians. The majority of Americans however, worked with Iranian officers and workers, whether they were employed in military organisations or in technical and administrative sectors; and here the difference in the salaries, fringe benefits, and material comforts enjoyed by the Americans was a cause of Iranian discontent." A report made by the Foreign Affairs Committee in the American Senate, stated that the number of American residents in Iran was expected to rise from 24,000 in the year of the report (1976), to 50-60,000 in the year 1980." 12- Refer to footnote 20 of Speech 32. 13- The Ittila`at newspaper dated October 30, 1978 reported: "The demonstrations of Kabutar Ahang in Hamadan province were marred by bloodshed yesterday, five people were killed and eighteen people critically injured." At the end of this report the names of the five martyrs were mentioned. 14- Refer to the introductions of previous speeches. 15- Pravda newspaper in an attack on the religious leaders of Iran wrote that in the Kremlin's opinion the best reforms in Iran were those carried out by His Excellency! The uprising against the Shah should have been greeted warmly by the Communists in Moscow, but instead the Russian leaders expressed concern about the outcome of this movement. A high-ranking Russian official in this regard told Muhammad Hassanain Heikal, the famous Egyptian journalist and political analyst, that the Iranian revolution was guided by the religious leaders whereas Marxism saw religion as intrinsically reactionary and an obstacle to revolution.
