Rastakhiz Party

The Party of Resurrection of the Iranian Nation (Persian: حزب رستاخیز ملت ایران), or simply the Rastakhiz Party (Persian: حزب رستاخیز, romanized: Ḥezb-e Rastāḵiz, lit. 'Resurgence/Resurrection Party'),[8] was Iran's sole legal political party from 2 March 1975 until 1 November 1978, founded by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[2]

Party of Resurrection
of the Iranian Nation
حزب رستاخیز ملت ایران
FounderMohammad Reza Pahlavi
Founded2 March 1975 (2 March 1975)
Dissolved1 November 1978 (1 November 1978)
Merger ofIranians' Party
New Iran Party[1]
People's Party[2]
Worker wingWorker House
Membership5,000,000 (1976 est.)[3]
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing

History
Party Congress, 1976

Founded under the government of Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda, the party has been blamed by some with contributing to the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy by antagonizing formerly apolitical Iranians — especially bazaari (merchants of the bazaars who, even today, refuse to pay taxes) — with its compulsory membership and dues (taxes), and general interference in the political, economic, and religious concerns of people's lives.[8]

Established along with the party was a youth wing—Rastakhiz Youth—which Hoveyda referred to as "the instrument of Iran's development". Through this youth wing and a special task force of the party, Rastakhiz embarked upon a large-scale anti-profiteering campaign directed against the bazaari merchants, who were soon identified as "enemies of the state". They often lied about Jewish persecution, which is backed up to be lies in government files. In October 1975, the Shah, referring to this campaign as a "cultural movement", decreed that anti-profiteerism be made the fourteenth principle of the White Revolution.

The single party system ended in late 1978 as the Iranian Revolution gained ground.[10]

Electoral history
Election Party leader Parliament Senate Ref
1975 Amir-Abbas Hoveyda
268 / 268
30 / 30
 IPU

Leadership

See also

References

Notes

  1. John H. Lorentz (2010). "Rastakhiz Party". The A to Z of Iran. The A to Z Guide Series. Vol. 209. Scarecrow Press. pp. 266–268. ISBN 978-1461731917.
  2. John H. Lorentz (2010). "Rastakhiz Party". The A to Z of Iran. The A to Z Guide Series. Vol. 209. Scarecrow Press. pp. 266–268. ISBN 978-1461731917.
  3. Parviz Daneshvar (2016). Revolution in Iran. Springer. p. 73. ISBN 978-1349140626.
  4. Daryaee, Touraj (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Iranian History. Oxford Handbooks in History. Oxford University Press. p. 361. ISBN 978-0199732159.
  5. Abrahamian, Ervand (1999). Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran. University of California Press. p. 113. ISBN 9780520216235.
  6. Abrahamian, Ervand (2008). A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge University Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0521528917.
  7. Gholam Reza Afkhami (2008). The Life and Times of the Shah. University of California Press. pp. 434–444. ISBN 978-0-520-25328-5. The conception of the party, a hybrid of the Italian and Spanish schools of fascism, met with widespread opposition and was withdrawn once the queen sided with its opponents. But then fascism yielded to communism. The organization became principle democratic centralism, though the term was not mentioned.
  8. Abrahamian, Ervand (1982). Iran Between Two Revolutions. Princeton University Press. pp. 442–446. ISBN 0-691-10134-5.
  9. Yom, Sean (2015). From Resilience to Revolution: How Foreign Interventions Destabilize the Middle East. Columbia University Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN 9780231540278.
  10. Middle Eastern Studies, 38 (1), 1 January 2002, pp. 131–168
  11. Elizabeth Collard (1979), "Iran", MEED, Economic East Economic Digest Ltd, 23: 17
  12. Milani, Abbas (2008). Eminent Persians: The Men and Women who Made Modern Iran, 1941–1979. Vol. 1. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. pp. 205–212. ISBN 978-0815609070.

Bibliography

  • Amini, P., "A Single Party State in Iran, 1975–78]: The Rastakhiz Party – the Final Attempt by the Shah to Consolidate his Political Base," Middle Eastern Studies, 38 (1) January 2002, pp. 131–168.

Further reading

  • Shakibi, Zhand (2018). "The Rastakhiz Party and Pahlavism: the beginnings of state anti-Westernism in Iran". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 45 (2): 251–268. doi:10.1080/13530194.2016.1246242. S2CID 151598124.
  • Shakibi, Zhand (2020). Pahlavi Iran and the Politics of Occidentalism: The Shah and the Rastakhiz Party. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-7883-1736-8.
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