Speech [Impoverishment of all strata of the nation at the hands of the Pahlavi regime]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Since the time we have established some communications with the various tribes of the nation and various sections of the society who come to visit us, we have noticed that every section in whichever part of the country they reside, says that they were treated worse than all other places. The Bakhtiyari tribesmen have come and told us that the worse treatment was meted out to them and they are more impoverished than all others are. From every part of Iran that they come from, from towns and villages- especially from the various tribes that are present in Iran- all of them mention that there is no place worse off than their own region. Moreover, this is because each individual sees his own region. All the regions are in the same situation. You consider Tehran, which is the capital of Iran, and the best of everything should be available there, about thirty neighborhoods- or perhaps a few more- are present in Tehran and on the outskirts of the city, who are slum-dwellers, who live in tents and are more than five persons to a family; they live in dungeons and have neither water nor electricity or asphalted roads. I have been told repeatedly that they are housed in dungeons that are fifty or more mud stairs below the street level. In those places the poor, wretched womenfolk who live in the dungeons must climb fifty to sixty steps in winter to fill their earthen pot with water and then climb down fifty to sixty more steps to take the water home and slip several times in the process until they are home with the water. There are no signs of civilization such as water, electricity, or asphalt in those places. This is how the situation of their homes that you see. That is in Tehran. Other cities are also the same. Towns, villages, and tribes are worse. Do not think that it is only you who were and are deprived; the regime of Shah brought deprivation to everyone. All cities, towns, villages, and districts were under pressure; everyone was under pressure; everyone lived in hardship. Do not think that these city and town folks have homes and so forth and were living in comfort in those times; no, they too were under pressure; they were faced with problems; imprisonments and tortures. In the prisons, they would saw off the limbs of our clergymen! Our clergymen who we can point out who had their feet saved off. Do not presume that only your clergymen were in trouble. They roasted some of the prisoners alive in huge frying pans and gave them electric shocks.

They did this to human beings who were alive. This is how the regime behaved. Moreover, they tormented you, the whole nation, and us for fifty years and more in this way. Prior to being the source of your miseries, we were ravaged by their all-out troubles.

I have two reminiscences of my own experiences of these troubles. One of them was narrated to me by my friend- God bless his soul- the late Haj Shaykh `Abbas Tehrani when he was in the town of Arak and wanted to go to Qum. He recalled that he went to hire a cab but was told by the driver that they had pledged not to transport two types of passengers, namely: prostitutes and the clergymen. This was during the reign of the foremost evil- Rida Khan Pahlavi; that is how he treated the clergy. The second one was when I myself was sitting in a car in which several passengers were sitting. The car ran out of gas on the way. I was a Sayyid and another Shaykh cleric was accompanying me. The driver remarked that the car had run out of gas because of the presence of the Shaykh cleric. He regarded the presence of a cleric in his car as ominous and blamed the running out of gas on the presence of a spiritual cleric. This is how the situation was gentlemen.

Do not assume that you, our Sunni brethren were only affected; we too were afflicted. The city, the villages, the hamlets everywhere was afflicted. There are so many unspeakable facts. Pay attention! Pay attention! We had some shocking information. Our women had knowledge of information that was a disgrace to the history. You do not know what events have taken place here. Here in Qum itself- the center of spirituality- you cannot imagine what they did and how they brought out the women to celebrate on the streets. And forced them to celebrate the abolition of the veil. You cannot imagine what they did to us!

Now it is by the grace of God, by the Divine power and with the courage of all sections of the people that nobody can say," It was me" alone; everyone was present, everyone hand in hand. Nor can everybody say," it was us"; it was faith; it was the power of God. If the power of God were not present, it would not have been possible to smash the big powers. The nation had nothing; it had blood and fists, and nothing else. Thus, it was the power of faith that caused the people to regard martyrdom as a great victory. This power, which regards martyrdom as a great victory, was responsible for Iran's triumph over the superpowers of the world. All the powers of the world supported him. I was aware of things. I received a continuous stream of messages from America, and everyone was fully behind him. However, it was the power of faith of the people that triumphed.

Now the nation of ours, our nation of 35 million people, has been set free from a prison. Moreover, if there were a prison of 35 million people whose doors were closed and had walls of such and such height and construction, if this cage was to break open and people were to rush out, what would be the situation like? It would be a situation of anarchy and chaos. This is how Iran is now. It is a situation of anarchy; it is a situation of chaos. They destroyed our everything and decamped. In other words, they emptied the treasury. They emptied all the banks and departed. Now every bank is each owed a few hundred million dollars by this family. They took away everything. They took away our culture; they weakened our spiritual institutions and left; they destroyed our culture; they ruined our economy and departed; they destroyed our agriculture and went away; they took away our everything. Now that they have decamped with our everything, we like prisoners who have suddenly broken free from the cage and have come out and each is running in a particular direction, and in a particular place, we have become aware of our own predicaments.

We should note that such a problem could not be solved immediately. It is not possible to solve such a problem that was created in a century, half a century, fifty or more years by them who ruined our institutions, in one, two, or four months. It is not that they are not thinking about you; rather it is because right now they cannot think of anybody. You perceive that they did something for other lands and did not do anything for you. No, they cannot, the issue is an important one; we must all unite hand-in-hand; we must give ourselves some time; we must cooperate with one another. If I, a cleric, do not co-operate with these respected theologians, with you gentlemen and do not support the government and do not unite together, then we cannot rebuild these ruins. It is a ruin now; it is all in ruins.

The major subject of Iran was agriculture. In the name of" Land Reform", «1» they completely destroyed our agriculture and Iran became a market whose hands are perpetually outstretched toward the foreign governments- especially America- to give us wheat, barley, and whatsoever. While, if Iran itself engages in agriculture, it should be in a position of exporting product to other countries and not buying from them. They destroyed everything of ours. They destroyed our animal husbandry; our pastures, pastures that in the opinion of the foreigners themselves, were supposed to be the richest pastures for animal husbandry; and the very best pastures for animal husbandry that are located in a place whose name I cannot recall were given to the Queen of England and some of her friends, and I do not know in what condition they are in now. They destroyed all our pastures in the name of nationalization. They deprived the people of their own rights, plundered everything, and left the country. Likewise, they sold our forests, in the name of nationalization, to the foreigners and earned huge profits. Regarding crude oil too, you all know how they took all our oil and gave us nothing in return. Now our government has not received the payment for the oil it has exported. Oil has been exported but the money shall be received later.

It is not that the government is not thinking about you now and is concerned about us; or, it is not for example thinking about Balouchistan province but is only concerned about Tehran; or is not concerned about Kurdistan province. No, they are thinking about everywhere but the issue is still premature; it requires patience. We were patient for more than fifty years in relation to these catastrophes and grinned and bore it. Now also we must bear in patience, and allot time spans and help to set things right. Labor should be set right. Now they pour into the factories and prevent the labor from being corrected; they invade our agriculture and subvert it; and they pour into our schools and prevent them from re-opening. They have ruined every place. Now also, the last vestiges that have remained are not leaving us alone in peace so that the government can carry out its duties in peace.

You should know that Islam is not for a single stratum; Islam is not for a single clan; Islam is universal; Islam is for humankind, for the human being, for all. Do not think that there is discrimination in Islam; in Islam, there is no discrimination. Do not presume that those who are at the centers or theologians who are at the centers of learning are discriminative. It is not so at all. We all are together and are brothers. Moreover, this uprising offered the scope to you brothers and we brothers to be all seated together and present our various points of view. However, you should not think that we are not concerned about you and are sitting down and doing something for ourselves and not for you. Not at all! Such a thing is absolutely out of the question in the Islamic Republic. However, the situation is one of chaos and anarchy that needs time to resolve.

I assure you that when our government comes to office, all of you will ascertain your own fate; at present we are in the midst of our path and do not have a government in office, right now it is a provisional government «2» that is in power. We should seek an independent government in which you all can vote; all of you should ascertain your own destiny. After we have ascertained our own destiny by voting for individuals of our own choice then they will form a government comprising of individuals who have been elected by us; a government that belongs to the whole nation. The government of the whole nation is one that is legitimate and God willing, Islamic. God willing, it will incorporate Islamic power and Islamic tenets. Then you will see that the question is not at all a question of discrimination, separatism, and so forth. This was not an issue at the advent of Islam and neither will it be now. If someone entered this country illegally for some days and made sabotages, it should not be associated with us. God willing, when the Islamic government comes to power, then God willing, all of us, all of you will live in welfare. Moreover, I send my greetings to the brothers on whose behalf you have come here, and I ask them to be a little more patient. May God bless all of you.

May God's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you.