Iran routinely employs gangs of paramilitary thugs to control the populace and intimidate the opponents of the Islamic Regime. The main group of these strong-arm gangs is the Basij Force, founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. At first the Basij Force was employed as auxiliary troops during the Iran-Iraq War. They were given limited training and equipment and used for human wave attacks and clearing Iraqi minefields by walking across them, thus saving regular troops and armor. After the war, these militiamen were used to control the population of Iran because of their extreme loyalty to the theocratic leaders. During the Presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad they were the backbone of the regime - enforcing dress codes, suppressing dissidents and doing the government's dirty work. In 2002, 17 people were murdered in Kerman, central Iran, for such "immoral" actions as walking together before marriage. Eventually, six Basij Force members were arrested and charged with five of the muders - they were convicted in a lower court but appealed to Iran's Supreme Court. In the hearing, the militiamen freely described how they had killed their victims - "Then they stoned them to death or drowned them in a pond by sitting on their chests." (New York Times, April 19, 2007). In spite of these admissions, the supreme Court overturned their convictions because they "considered their victims morally corrupt and, according to Islamic teachings and Iran's Islamic penal code, their blood could therefore be shed" (the same Times article). Later that same year, on May 23rd, another group of vigilantes prowled through the Molavi Street district of Tehran looking for "Alvats" (undesirables). In full view of the public they siezed and beat to death 23 people they suspected were homosexuals, protitutes or drug addicts. No one was punished for these deaths. The Basij Forces is most famous, however, for its actions against demonstrators in 2009. On June 13, the government announced the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Many people suspected voter fraud and immediately began to protest the results. On the night of the 14th Basijis raided Tehran University, where protests had been especially strong, and beat many of the students. On June 18th, more than 100,000 people marched in Tehran to protest. The next day Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kameini called Ahmadinejad's re-election a "divine assessment" and stated that protests would no longer be tolerated. Nevertheless, groups of protestors turned out on the 20th. Basij Force members harassed them by riding motorcycles among the crowds, with men on the backs striking them with clubs. Other Basij members were videoed firing shots at random into the crowds. One shot killed 26 year-old music student Neda Agha-Soltan on Kargar Avenue in Tehran. An amateur video of the killing was shown on the internet and caused international outrage. I remember seeing her fall backwards with an amazed look on her face, then blood pouring out of her mouth over her face as she gasped out her last few breaths. Dr. Arash Hejazi, who had tried to help Neda as she lay on the ground, fled the country when he saw that he was in the video out of fear that he wound be killed for trying to help her. When the protests ended, the Iranian authorities adnitted that 25 people had been killed. Protest organizers put the number of demonstrators killed at 72. Hundreds were injured and 3,000 arrested. The Basij Force remains the go-to guys for the government's dirty work. In 2018, they participated in suppressing more demonstrations. This time 26 people were killed, hundreds injured, and 7,000 arrested. At least nine of those arrested died under unknown circumstances while in police custody.
The same thing happened in 1953 when such thugs overthrew Iran's first democratically elected prime minister. The problem is that the thugs then were supported financially, militarity and intelligence-wise by a western country. Guess which one? It was called Operation Ajax and was led by the CIA's Kermit Rooseveld, the president's grandson. https://wiki2.org/en/1953_Iranian_coup_d'état And THAT was the REAL start of of the on-going U.S.-Iran conflict. Bet Faux News doesn't tell you that.
And then the US emplaced the Shah back on the throne, like in the pre-1953 dictatorships And THEN the Shah unleashed his SAVAK thugs on the Iranians --> torture rape and mayhem to prop up the US puppet. https://wiki2.org/en/SAVAK And THAT is why the U.S. embassy was invaded in 1979. The US was the thug nation. REAL facts DO matter. So who was the real terrorist state that started this flagrant violation of international law? Come on .... heads out of the sand. REAL facts DO matter
So are you arguing that Iran's use of thugs to intimidate the opposition is justified by the Shah's use of them in the past? No one here has ever tried to defend the Shah as far as I know.
In fact that was not my point, which was that - in many countries around the world - the U.S.A. has been happy to employ thugs to remove regimes that did not think like the 'Murkins in power at the time. So the current Iranian regime is behaving badly, just like the U.S.A., except that they do it in their own country, not in someone else's, the latter (as opposed to the former) being in violation of the U.N. Charter, forumated originally by the same U.S.A.