The Fall of Heaven

by Andrew Scott Cooper

  On the afternoon of that terrible September day, Princess Ashraf went to the palace to comfort her brother. By her own account, the Princess described him as “completely calm on the surface, but I could see that he was extremely anxious.”

  “What will you do?” she asked him. “How much danger is there?”

  He avoided direct answers to her questions. “It is not wise for you to be here right now,” he advised her. “You know how often you are made the object of attacks against the regime. I think you had better leave at once.”

  “I won’t leave you alone,” she retorted. “As long as you are here, I’ll stay with you.”

  The Shah “raised his voice” at her for the first time “in our adult lives”: “I am telling you that for my peace of mind, you must go.”

  She left after an hour.

  “His Majesty asked me to leave,” the chastened Princess told her private secretary. He was shocked at her decision, which he thought was so out of character. “This is not the time to go,” Reza Golsorkhi told Ashraf. “We have to put up a fight. Either we all die or we can win.”

  The Princess was in no mood to argue. “No,” she told him. “My brother is in control. And if he wants me to leave then I must go. We will leave.”

  * * *

  THE SHOOTINGS AT Jaleh Square finally concentrated American attention on the crisis engulfing its Iranian ally.

  On Sunday, September 10, President Carter phoned the Shah to offer his condolences and support. The call from Camp David was placed to Saadabad at 7:56 a.m. and lasted all of six minutes. Gary Sick, who listened in, described the Shah’s “flat, almost mechanical voice.… [He] sounded stunned and spoke almost by rote, as if going through the motions.” The Shah restated his commitment to democratization. “We shall have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of demonstration according to the law, freedom of the press,” he told the president. “The next elections will be free, there is no other way. The country must be prepared for democracy.” He asked Carter to issue a public statement of support as “it would have a good effect. Otherwise, his enemies could take advantage of it.” He added that if Carter “wanted a free independent friendly Iran allied to the West, he believed that he would have to come forward very clearly and very frankly. The President said he understood.”

  * * *

  THE ISRAELI OFFICIAL responsible for organizing the evacuation of his country’s nationals arrived in Tehran. Military attaché Segev and Mossad chief Eliezer Tsafrir took Nahum Navot out onto the streets so he could “smell the burning tires and sense the atmosphere.” They told him that Iran’s Jewish community was thoroughly panicked at the prospect of a takeover by Muslim fundamentalists, and Navot agreed the evacuation plan should be expanded to include any Iranian Jews who wanted to leave. Within one week the Israeli presence in Iran was reduced by a third, to around a thousand people. Those who chose to stay behind were given detailed instructions on how to conduct themselves during riots and where to go in an emergency. Embassy staff were taught how to defend themselves if the embassy was attacked by mobs, and as a precaution they began burning sensitive documents.

  * * *

  THE ARMY PRESENCE restored calm to the streets of Tehran. “In many parts of the city, martial law had a benign appearance yesterday, with the usual traffic jams clogging the streets and shoppers crowding the stores in the smog-covered central part of the city,” reported the Washington Post. “No serious incidents were reported yesterday in the capital or in provincial cities, and the government continued to encourage the appearance of a city returned to normalcy following the aberration of social unrest.” The weekend after Jaleh Square marked the official end of summer, and forty thousand travelers flocked to Caspian Sea beaches. Football fans had a chance to watch the Valiahd Cup games in Bandar Pahlavi. Hundreds of visitors flocked to Tehran from around the world for the conference of the Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, while corporate executives jetted in for the sixth Tehran International Trade Fair. The underlying mood was skittish. “Traffic was chaotic on many roads and there were also many accidents as residents of the north set out for home around 7 p.m.,” reported Kayhan. “Those who left it later only just got home in time and in many cases were unable to collect bread and other commodities they needed for their families.”

  The combined impact of an evening curfew and the new mood of Islamic obeisance dealt another blow to Iranian nightlife, arts, and entertainment. Canceled were the Shiraz Festival of Arts, the Isfahan Festival of Popular Traditions, the Kerman Traditional Music Festival, and the Tehran International Film Festival. Rudaki Hall abruptly pulled its production of The Merry Widow and sent the Austrian cast home. The magazine Rangeen Kaman was banned “because in its latest issue it printed material contrary to Islamic tenets.” The mosques were quiet, too. “Sentries in battle dress were posted on the main avenues around the mosque,” reported Joe Alex Morris of the Los Angeles Times. He visited the Shah Mosque in downtown Tehran for noontime prayers and found it deserted. “They were reinforced by armored cars and other vehicles at crossroads. The mullahs—Moslem priests—have decided for the moment, to cool it.… there were no fiery speeches on Friday. The mullahs asked people to pray at home. Only a few old men prayed in the courtyard, unable to break years of tradition.”

  Martial law was supposed to instill fear and discourage dissent and lawbreaking, but by the end of the first week Tehranis were back to displaying their usual contempt for authority. “People hardly glanced during the day at the occasional trucks full of soldiers at the ready who were there to remind us of the martial law situation,” reported the local press. “The Tehranis’ natural sense of humor was more noticeable again, as drivers and shopkeepers exchanged their more usual badinage.” Those with money weren’t about to wait for the next crisis. Outbound flights were booked up through the rest of the month, and the flow of capital to safe havens abroad picked up. “As previously reported,” Ambassador Sullivan wired the State Department, “numerous Iranians readily voice to us their intent to migrate [sic] if they become convinced that the future is with conservative Muslims.”

  21

  STATE OF SIEGE

  Evil has come to our great house; I weep

  That all our foes are wolves, and we are sheep.

  —THE PERSIAN BOOK OF KINGS

  I am fighting for my son.

  —QUEEN FARAH

  The Shah refused to accept—indeed, he could not accept—that martial law and liberalization were incompatible. He astonished observers when he insisted there was no need to postpone national elections planned for the summer of 1979, then announced new legislation to guarantee freedom of the press and assembly. By now the Imperial Court was in full retreat before the forces of Islam. Another round of concessions followed. The Shah replaced Amir Abbas Hoveyda as his Imperial Court minister with a former foreign minister, Ali Qoli Ardalan, and announced a code of conduct that banned members of the Imperial Family from involvement in state affairs and business deals related to government. He was so anxious to buy peace that he even offered to scrap his beloved social reforms. “We have always thought that our major decisions [for reform] were taken in accordance with the spirit of Islam. If it can be proven that they are against those principles, this is something that can be discussed.”

  The Shah may have seen these concessions as tactical but to friend and foe alike they amounted to a straightforward policy of appeasement. Prime Minister Sharif-Emami took his cue and proceeded to dismantle the entire edifice of the Pahlavi state on national television. He allowed broadcasters to film live debates from the floor of the Majles, where deputies accused him of graft and incompetence and demanded his resignation. To satisfy the complaints of shopkeepers, he shortened curfew hours. Anxious to placate the ulama, the prime minister quietly suppressed the military investigation into Jaleh Square that revealed evidence of Palestinian involvement. He likewise made no attempt to prosecute several religious fanatics arrested on suspici
on of involvement in the Rex Cinema arson. The blizzard of concessions included lifting all restrictions on hajj pilgrimages, freezing electricity and water prices, and extending the national health insurance plan. The prisons became revolving doors, and Sharif-Emami boasted that in the space of two weeks the police had arrested 1,106 people and released 981 of them. Three hundred political prisoners were released in a single day to make room for former government officials and prominent businessmen rounded up as the regime began sacrificing its own to buy time and placate the mobs.

  The Shah issued explicit instructions to General Oveissi that there should be no repeat of Jaleh Square. “I don’t want any Iranian to even have a bloody nose,” he ordered. If the troops had to fire in self-defense or clear the streets, he insisted they first fire rounds in the air and only in extreme situations aim at protesters’ legs. “I overheard the Shah say to Oveissi, ‘No, no, no one should be hurt,’” recalled one of the Shah’s counselors. “I told the Shah, ‘We are in a revolution, Your Majesty. People will die.’” Oveissi and the generals felt that the Shah distrusted them and wanted two very different things, ordering them to prevent an insurrection with one arm tied behind their back. “What kind of general was I?” asked Oveissi. “The army had to smile to the people. They shot in the air.” But the Shah was insistent. Again and again, courtiers overheard him reminding this general or that colonel to hold fire. “How many times have I said to you?” he told one officer. “No blood from the nose of an Iranian.”

  The Imperial Family spent September ensconced at Saadabad Palace. Before they returned to their winter residence, Colonel Djahinbini and his security detail swept Niavaran and the offices of both the King and Queen for electronic bugging devices. The escalation of unrest in Tehran over the summer had presented Djahinbini with a new and unnerving set of challenges, not least of which was Khomeini’s public call for the Shah’s murder. The colonel was aware that members of the Imperial household staff emulated Khomeini as their marja: the women among them had started covering their hair and the men were becoming more withdrawn. “There was a lot of pressure amongst the staff who tended to be religious,” said Kambiz Atabai, who managed the household. “They were torn between Khomeini and the family. I could feel and I knew that some of the staff were struggling with their loyalties.” In this fraught atmosphere no one could say for sure where the line between religious observance and political fanaticism began and where it ended. Djahinbini also worried that foreign powers were trying to take advantage of the unrest in the streets to step up efforts to infiltrate the palace and eavesdrop on conversations. Starting in the early autumn “we checked His Majesty’s office regularly. We were suspicious. There were so many rumors outside the palace and I was not sure where the information was coming from.” The Shah and Queen Farah assumed they were under surveillance and made sure to never discuss sensitive matters over the phone. Despite the advent of Xerox machines and the telex, the Shah’s preference was to always use back channels and personal envoys to ferry handwritten messages to his interlocutors. His wife followed his example and told her friends to assume that if they phoned the palace their conversations were likely being recorded.

  The Queen agreed with her husband’s decision to avoid bloodshed at all costs. She also made it clear that her main priority was to stay strong and secure the throne for her son. “She is the one with guts,” Hoveyda told Britain’s ambassador Parsons. Hoveyda stayed in touch with Farah over the phone, though after his dismissal he was careful not to venture near the palace. In an interview with Paris Match magazine shortly after Jaleh Square, Farah said she was “gripped by a deep sadness” at the tragic turn of events. “I think our country is at a crossroads,” she said. “Iran has reached one of the most important pages of its history, one of the most important in the past 2,500 years. We are entering a new era. This requires that we gather all our forces to fight and work. As for me, I consider that my first priority is to protect my mental and physical health in order to devote myself to my country, my people and to democracy to which we all aspire.”

  Farah made no mention of her husband—they both knew he was finished—and focused instead on the Crown Prince and the prospect of her regency. “I am fighting for my son,” she said. “The most essential quality he can have is faith. Faith in his country, his people, faith in the task—he has to perform for the good of all. And he will have to remain close to his people. This has never been easy for those who have such heavy responsibilities.”

  “All observers are struck by one fact,” her interviewer pointed out. “While many criticisms are directed at the government and against the Shah, none are aimed at you.”

  Farah tapped the top of her desk. “Touch wood,” she murmured. “I am trying to do everything I can to find a solution to the problems. A whole set of issues have arisen at the same time in our country. We are going through a crisis of growth that is the inevitable price of progress. It is a crisis of culture, society, politics, and spirituality. Iran can be compared to a man of vigor who has been taken ill with a fever. My hope is that the sudden pressure will decrease so we can see more clearly the path to follow.” Her greatest source of strength and pride, she said, was “to have won the hearts of a large part of our population.” Farah was trying to control her fear and apprehension of the future. “I force myself to overcome my anxiety, to forget my fear. Each mother is preoccupied with the future of her children. This is what I do, too, for my son.”

  All hope was not lost. The Pahlavis believed they still had one last arrow left in their quiver: they still had Musa Sadr, whose charisma and moderation posed the greatest threat to Khomeini from within the ranks of the senior clergy.

  * * *

  ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, a Lebanese radio station broadcast a short news item informing listeners that Imam Musa Sadr “had been kidnapped in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.” President Elias Sarkis ordered an immediate inquiry and dispatched a team of investigators to Tripoli, Rome, and Paris where the Imam’s wife and children had fled to escape the civil war. Interpol issued a worldwide bulletin asking for information about his whereabouts, and governments in the region mobilized their resources. Colonel Gadhafi’s government insisted that Musa Sadr had left for Rome on August 31, a claim swiftly refuted by Italian authorities, who checked “hotels, boarding houses and the homes of Lebanese in Rome.” Rumors surfaced in the Arab press suggesting that Musa Sadr had secretly returned to Iran to join the fight against the Shah or that he had been kidnapped by Savak. “Certainly he is no friend of the Shah,” commented Britain’s Guardian. The stories were plants and his supporters were quick to rubbish them. “We strongly believe the Imam is still in Libya,” declared Lebanon’s Shiite Council. “If he really departed from Libya, as Libyan officials claim, then we demand conclusive proof.”

  Musa Sadr’s boyhood friend Dr. Ali Kani was in Tabriz trying to marshal support for the Shah with Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai, one of the most prominent Shia clerics, when the King’s valet telephoned him at ten thirty at night. “According to Your Majesty,” said the caller, “you should return immediately to Tehran.” With the curfew in force, Kani telephoned Azerbaijan’s governor-general “to send someone to protect me if I ventured outside. I asked him to send me two officers to bring me to the hotel where my pilot was located. We drove to the airport with a military escort.”

  Early the next morning, Kani drove to Niavaran where he found the Shah “very upset.” The Shah got straight to the point: “I ask you to save your friend.”

  “Majesty, which friend?”

  “Your friend Musa Sadr.”

  Kani felt “quite astonished. I was speechless.” What was going on?

  The Shah gravely looked at him: “You know, we have discovered that Musa Sadr was not a traitor.”

  Kani couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I am awfully sorry, Your Majesty, are you joking or pulling my leg?” For the past several years, whenever the Shah had mentioned the Imam in Al
i Kani’s presence he had described him as a traitor. But now Kani listened in stunned disbelief as the Shah explained that Musa Sadr had not been seen in two weeks and had missed a secret meeting with a palace envoy set for September 5–7 in West Germany. The dates eerily coincided with the crucial end of Ramadan protest marches and street unrest.

  The Shah impressed on Ali Kani the importance he placed on locating and rescuing Musa Sadr. “A plane is at your disposal,” he instructed. “If to save him you need money, we are okay—there is no limit on the price. And I have arranged a meeting for you with Crown Prince Fahd [of Saudi Arabia]. After Fahd you will see King Hussein [of Jordan]. And then [President] Sadat is waiting for you in Cairo.”

  In Qom, Grand Ayatollah Shariatmadari called reporters to his home and read out the text of a telegram he had sent to Colonel Gadhafi demanding an explanation: “Islam holds the Libyan government responsible for his disappearance and demands information on his well-being.”

  * * *

  THE HAMMER BLOWS kept coming. Iranians were still absorbing the shock of Jaleh Square and the imposition of martial law when the northeast of the country was struck by a devastating earthquake. The ground broke open at the dinner hour on Saturday, September 16, when a temblor measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale tore through Iran’s Great Salt Desert. Worst hit was the oasis town of Tabas and forty surrounding villages. “Tabas is a mound of rubble,” reported an Iran radio correspondent. “There is nothing standing except the palm trees. All houses have collapsed, burying thousands of people.” Picturesque Tabas, the “Gem of Kavir,” was one of Iran’s most important historic settlements. The King and Queen agreed that he would stay in Tehran to manage the political crisis while she flew to the scene of the disaster, but Prime Minister Sharif-Emami was hesitant to approve Farah’s trip. “Mr. Sharif-Emami did not know how I would be received; he doubted how the population would react,” she recalled. “The government had in fact lost direction. It was bombarded with differing opinions from politicians, clerics, and the army.”