Iranian catastrophe: Khomeini’s false promises

Ali Ragab

After the fall of the regime of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, Iranian media sought to show the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini, as the supporter of the oppressed and defender of the rights of the Iranian people. But on the 42nd anniversary of the revolution, Iranian media has reported that “the promises made by Khomeini during the post-revolution period” were “false promises,” none of which were fulfilled during the rule of Khomeini or his successor, Ali Khamenei.

From free water and electricity to housing the disadvantaged, and from the rights of religious and ethnic minorities to reduced military budgets, more than four decades have passed since the 1979 revolution, but none of the promises made by Khomeini or the ayatollahs who formed the Iranian leadership after the revolution, as the Iranian people suffer from the deterioration of infrastructure services, living conditions and the spending of the Iranian people’s money on Khomeini’s projects and plans in the region with the support of armed militias and terrorist groups under the slogan of exporting the revolution.

Reviewing the promises and words of Ayatollah Khomeini on the eve of the 42nd anniversary of the revolution, and in a situation in which the Iranian people are going through the most important days of their lives in terms of economic and health problems, is a bitter irony.

IranWire posted extracts from Khomeini’s speeches and promises, which have not yet been implemented and which constitute dreams for Iranian citizens who suffer from obtaining services such as electricity, water, roads and food.

The first promises made by Khomeini a few days after his arrival in Iran were to achieve freedom, democracy and the people’s choice of representatives in government, but the clerics soon took control of state institutions with the spread of corruption.

Khomeini suppressed popular protests during his early years, most notably the hijab protests and the 1988 massacre, in which an estimated 30,000 political opponents of the Khomeini regime were executed according to the estimates by the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI).

The Khomeini regime has continued to suppress demonstrations over the past forty years, as well as the 2009 demonstrations in which more than 1,500 people were killed, according to a Reuters report, followed by the 2017 demonstrations.

On March 31, 1979, Khomeini acknowledged the victory of the revolution as a result of the people’s struggles and promised to build homes for the oppressed, saying, “We are building homes for the weak all over Iran. Confiscating the money and wealth of the Shah and his brothers are sufficient to build a state. The revolution is obligated to build homes for workers and the poor, and make their lives prosperous.”

In the same speech, he promised free water, electricity and buses. “We are not happy that we are only building housing. We provide water and electricity for free to the poor. We provide free buses to the poor. Do not be happy with this amount. We glorify your spirituality and your souls. We will bring you to the status of humanity,” he said, but none of these promises have been fulfilled. According to official Iranian reports, about 50% of the Iranian people are living in poverty.

Data monitored by the US State Department reveals that the total wealth of Iranian officials implicated in suspicions of corruption exceeds billions of dollars. Former Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani (residing outside Iran) was accused of seizing about $2.7 billion in export revenues from Iranian crude oil and gas condensate years ago.

The Iranian Assistant Minister of Intelligence for Economic Anti-Corruption considered that economic corruption in the country threatens Iran’s national security, saying, “We must know that there is an important relationship between national security and combating economic corruption, and that the issue of corruption constitutes a serious threat to national security.”

Likewise, none of the promises of fighting discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities in Iran were fulfilled. In a speech Khomeini gave on April 29, 1979, he referred to the rights of religious minorities, saying, “All the Iranian people share rights with the nation, and everyone will be granted their rights. Religious minorities in Islam are respected and have rights.” However, reality says otherwise, as Khomeini carried out executions against Kurdish leaders, Sunni clerics, Shiite dissidents, Sufi groups, and Ahvazi Arabs.

Khomeini also reversed his promises of freedom for women by restricting their rights, imposing the compulsory hijab, and reviewing their rights and status in the field of public work, as well as early marriage for girls. This led to massive demonstrations in the 1980s known as the anti-hijab protests. The struggle of Iranian women to obtain their rights robbed by the Khomeini regime continues until now.

The most prominent of Khomeini’s promises was also to stop assassinating opponents of the regime. In May 1979, he said that his regime did not accept assassination, but then hundreds of opponents were assassinated inside Iran and abroad.

The report finds that Khomeini’s promises in the field of livelihood and freedoms, combating corruption, achieving justice and prosperity are all promises that have been fulfilled, but in the opposite way, with the spread of corruption, the suppression of freedoms, the spread of poverty, and the deterioration of living conditions and infrastructure.