Word: shahs
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...Shah averts a showdown as a parade of protest ends peacefully...
Hour after hour they marched westward along Tehran's Shahreza Avenue. In an extraordinary demonstration of solidarity, hundreds of thousands of Iranians last Sunday protested against the 37-year reign of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Men waved their fists and responded to their leaders' rhythmic chants of "Allah Akbar" (God is great). Women in traditional black chadors, some clutching children, carried banners ("We want an Islamic republic"). The marchers were militant in support of their exiled religious leader, Ayatullah Khomeini, but they were also disciplined and peaceful. Army and police were nowhere in evidence along the route...
...take to the streets in a frenzy of self-flagellation to mourn the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Husain, who was martyred in the 7th century. This year the critical days, Sunday and Monday, had a special meaning: they were to be the occasion for mass protests against the Shah. From his headquarters outside Paris, Khomeini called again for a general strike and the Shah's downfall. "Paralyze the regime," he urged the faithful. "Flee your barracks," he advised the army...
...current period of crisis could still prove to be Iran's Armageddon. But all last week there were encouraging signs that the Shah's desperate attempt to keep the situation under control might succeed. Manning a bank of telephones at Tehran's well-guarded Niavaran Palace, he ordered army commanders to keep down the civilian death toll, something they have not always tried to do in the past. He announced the release of 122 political prisoners, including Karim Sanjabi, leader of the opposition National Front, who had been arrested a month earlier after visiting Khomeini in France...
Since September, all political activity has been banned by the military government of Premier Gholam Reza Azhari, an army general. In an effort to avoid a bloodbath, the Shah finally decreed that the government would consider the protest parade a legal demonstration of national mourning. By exercising such restraint, he tacitly acknowledged that, for the moment, the opposition forces controlled the streets. More important, he averted the risk of having the huge parade turn into a battle. Whether he also increased the chances of his own political survival remains to be seen...