Sociologist Chahla Chafiq was a 25-year-old Marxist activist during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Now in exile in France, she looks back on the tensions between socialism, feminism, and anti-imperialism that have roiled Iran’s opposition politics for decades.
  • fifthedition [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Uh...the entire premise is that such an organized Left did exist, it was a positive force in the Revolution, and after they helped the Muslims gain power they were physically removed from Iranian society.

    After the revolution began moving forward, Tudeh supported Khomeini. Fedayeen split into a number of different groups. When they started to break up, most of their members went and supported the Tudeh line and thus supported Khomeini also. Those leftists supported the imams because they thought that was the anti-imperialist line.

    Khomeini didn’t use the word “anti-imperialism.” He talked about “Big Satan” and “Small Satan.” The Big Satan was the United States. The Small Satan was Europe. The leftists who went toward him translated that as anti-imperialism in their minds. In their minds.

    Chafiq emphasizes this last point, raising her eyebrows and speaking in English to ensure that I get it.

    My group was independent. We were not supporting Khomeini or his line or his discourse, but we were not clear on it, either.

    One thing that the whole Iranian left agreed upon was this anti-Western, anti-imperialist line. It was the most important thing.

    How was there a "whole Iranian left" if the Shah's men had wiped them out?

    • GorbinOutOverHere [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      How was there a “whole Iranian left” if the Shah’s men had wiped them out?

      do you think "the left" would support Khomeini if they had 5x the numbers due to not being tortured to death by the Shah