Word: shied
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...whole country is buckling up for the big bash." So warned a senior Iranian analyst in Washington last week. The Administration, like Iranians themselves, anxiously awaited the start of Muharram, the month of mourning observed by Shi'ite Muslims. Expectations were that this tense, emotional period, which began on Saturday, would almost certainly be the gravest test yet of the Shah's ability to keep control of his troubled land, one of the West's most strategic allies...
From his home in exile near Paris, Ayatullah Khomeini, the 80-year-old spiritual leader of Iran's Shi'ite Muslims called for an indefinite general strike. Khomeini, who has vowed to oust the Shah, also urged Iran's oil workers to repeat last month's two-week strike that cost the country more than $1 billion in crude-oil revenues. As the holiday began, residents of Tehran broke the curfew and crowded into the streets to see if the new moon had appeared, signaling the start of Muharram. Government troops opened fire on the chanting...
...Muharram holiday is particularly significant to opponents of the Shah; it symbolizes the Shi'ites' struggle against an evil, corrupt leadership in the earliest years of Islam. The mourning, which culminates on Dec. 11, commemorates the death of the 7th century Imam Husain, a grandson of Muhammad who was beheaded by Sunni Muslims from Damascus intent on maintaining their rule over dissident Persians. Muharram is traditionally observed with huge processions through the streets, at which the faithful whip themselves with chains or draw blood with knives and swords in anguished enactments of Husain's suffering...
There were fears, however, that the relative calm might merely be a brief hiatus before a new round of violence aimed at driving the Shah from his throne. The next crucial test will come during the Islamic month of Muharram. The Shi'ite observance of this month culminates on Dec. 11, with the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husain, grandson of Muhammad. It is a time when all Shi'ites mourn for their dead, and emotions often reach a feverish pitch...
From his sanctuary in France, Ayatullah Khomeini, the exiled leader of Iran's Shi'ite Muslims, fueled those emotions by calling on his supporters to mount demonstrations "to denounce the crimes of the Shah." General Gholam Reza Azhari, Premier of the new military government, assured Iranians that they would be allowed to observe the holiday as usual so long as the demonstrations did not become political...