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During the months that preceded the flight of the last sah of Iran and the collapse of 25 centuries of monarchy, the merchant Ahmad Sheikh Mehdi witnessed the popular fervor that led his country to the Islamic revolution. Forty years ago, on January 16, 1979, Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, who proclaimed himself emperor, fled from Iran after months of massive demonstrations against his regime.
His departure allowed the triumphant return from France, on February 1st, of Ayatollah Ruholá Khomeini and the victory of the Islamic revolution. "Everyone was transformed by the revolution, we felt the hope", confesses Sheikh Mehdi, who at the time worked as a merchant's assistant in the Grand Bazaar of Teheran.
The bazaar was one of the support centers for the revolution, a traditionalist stronghold very close to the clergy which opposed what the religious described as secularization and westernization preached by sah.
Sheikh Mehdi keeps a vivid memory of this time. In particular, he recalls the repetitive songs of a dervish – an example of a mystical way of Islam – that ran through the rooms of the bazaar, the months preceding the flight of sah.
"Nothing will go well while we are not well, soon everything will change," says Sheikh Mehdi of 76, for whom this song sounded like a prophecy. "And everything has changed," he adds.
enthusiast
The sah and his wife first fled to Egypt, at the start of an 18-month journey that took them mainly to the United States and Mexico., before returning to Cairo, where Reza Pahlevi died of cancer on 27 July 1980, at the age of 60.
His fall began a year before he left Iran in January 1978 with the publication in the journal Etelat of an insulting article for the ayatollah Khomeini. Theology students took to the streets to protest but the demonstrations were the object of bloody repression.
The funeral of the victims gave rise to a spiral of new protests and repressions. The riots were accentuated during the year 1978. The Grand Bazaar often closed in support of the demonstrators.
"A young man came running towards the bazaar, whistled and shouted" Están aquí! ", And we closed all our stores to participate in the demonstrations," recalls Ebrahim Almassi, 77, who still runs a costume shop in the bazaar.
He says he is losing this exciting revolutionary spirit, inspired by Khomeini's charisma. "People were passionate in those times," he says.
Sheikh Mehdi recalls for his part that he bought eggs for striking workers, one of the examples of solidarity that prevailed then. "People came and asked us if we lacked something and gave us money, we helped people as much as possible", remember.
Moral corruption
Educated in Switzerland, Mohamed Reza Palhevi took the throne on September 16, 1941, at the age of only 21.
The young king obtained an authentic authority only after a coup, orchestrated by the American CIA intelligence agency, which overturned in 1953 its famous prime minister, Mhamed Mossadegh, who had started a project to nationalize Iranian oil.
Driven by petrodollars, Iran became one of the most important clients of the American defense industry and a shield against Soviet influence. But its reforms inspired by the West have caused social changes that have aroused the anger of the clergy, while his efforts to consolidate his power and his brutal secret police earned him a reputation as a tyrant.
Opposition to sah and the corruption of part of Tehran's elite led to the creation of an unthinkable but powerful coalition, which brought together radical Islamists facing the quietism of traditional clergy and leftist movements inspired students anti-colonial all over the world
The fortieth anniversary of the fall of sah comes in a difficult context for Iran.
The country is prey to an economic recession exacerbated by the restoration of US sanctions and mismanagement. For Sheikh Mehdi, it is time to return to the religious roots of the revolution. He claims to be inspired by Imam Ali, son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad and symbol of justice for the majority of Shiite Muslims in Iran. "We all need to remember that life is short and that we will all be judged"
AFP
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