Word: komitehs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...month under the Shah. Unable to find work, they eke out an existence on a $200 to $300 monthly dole from the government. They also congregate in the streets, where their demonstrations for jobs have triggered violent reactions from the Orthodox Muslims and in particular the "komitehs," the local administrative and security arms of Ayatullah Khomeini. As one of the unemployed put it: "We have fights with komiteh members almost every night...
...workers are beginning to object to the clergy's heavy hand. They gripe about the censorship of movies and TV, the ban on alcohol and the increasing powers of the komiteh. Complained one worker: "It is almost like having SAVAK [the Shah's secret police], maybe even worse. I am beginning to watch my words in the presence of my children, because they might tell on me as a duty...
...Khomeini komitehs. Returning from a meeting with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the three were abducted at gunpoint and taken to Tehran's Lavizan army garrison. Searching for the captives, another one of Taleghani's sons, Mohammed, spotted Mojtaba's car parked by the office of the Saltanatabad komiteh. Earlier, the komiteh's deputy chairman, Mohammed Qarazi, had repeatedly denied knowing the whereabouts of the prisoners. After Qarazi admitted authorizing the arrests, Taleghani ordered his men to seize the official and informed Khomeini's special assistant for revolutionary affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Yazdi...
...militiamen refused to obey either his command or the instructions of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan. Not until the following morning were the prisoners, who had been kicked and beaten, released. Taleghani, who had pledged to hold Qarazi until the arrests had been explained to his satisfaction, then freed the komiteh member. Qarazi was arrested on the spot at Yazdi's order...
...more than two hours after Bazargan's address, another kangaroo court was in session, and the prisoner was an international figure. The Komiteh, a group of activists around Khomeini who wield more effective power in Iran than the government, brought former Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveida from his cell in Qasr prison for a trial before an Islamic revolutionary court. Hoveida, who served as Prime Minister for almost 13 years under the Shah, was by far the most important official of the old regime to stand trial for his life. Ironically, he was jailed by the Shah late last...