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Iran
POLITICAL PARTIES
During the final years of the Pahlavi monarchy, only a single,
government-sponsored political party, the Rastakhiz, operated
legally. Nevertheless, several legally proscribed political parties
continued to function clandestinely. These included parties that
advocated peaceful political change and those that supported the
armed overthrow of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. Among the former
parties were the National Front, which actually was a coalition
of democratically inclined political parties and other organizations
that originally had been founded in 1949; the Nehzat-e Azadi-yi
Iran, or the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), established in 1961
by democratically inclined clergy and laymen; and the Tudeh Party,
a Marxist party that had been founded in 1941. The two most important
guerrilla organizations were the Islamic Mojahedin and the Marxist
Fadayan (Cherikha-ye Fadayan-e Khalq, or People's Guerrillas),
both of which had been largely suppressed after carrying out several
sensational terrorist actions in the early 1970s.
The overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy allowed a full spectrum
of Islamic, leftist, and secular ideas supporting the Revolution
to flourish. With the exception of the monarchist Rastakhiz, which
had dissolved, the prerevolutionary parties were reactivated,
including the Mojahedin and Fadayan. In addition, several new
parties were organized. These included secular parties, such as
the National Democratic Front and the Radical Party; religious
parties, such as the IRP and the Muslim Peoples' Republican Party;
and leftist parties, such as the Paykar. All these parties operated
openly and competitively until August 1979, when the Revolutionary
Council forced the provisional government to introduce regulations
to restrict the activities of most political parties.
Data as of December 1987
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