Iran: Progress at a Price

For three days last week, Teheran was a battleground; crowds shrieked, machine guns chattered, and smoke from smoldering rubble mixed with clouds of tear gas. Ironically, it was a battle against progress.

That most unusual, reform-minded monarch, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi has long struggled to turn his shaky, feudal nation into a modern, stable state. The opposition is formidable. Corrupt bureaucrats and operators are determined to preserve pishkash (a bribe) as a way of life. Big landlords try to sabotage the Shah's ambitious land re form drive; they even opposed his intention to eliminate the word "serf" from the Iranian language (to be replaced by "farmer"). Moslem mullahs (priests) condemn as heretical his plans to give women the vote, and more bitterly, preach from their pulpits against land reform, since it would deprive them of 10,000 income-producing " shrine villages."which the Shah wants to lease to landless sharecroppers.

Burning Bazaar. It was the mullahs who triggered last week's trouble. They timed their plans to coincide with the Muharram holy days. As the faithful jammed the mosques, the mullahs assailed "illegal" Cabinet decision, urged their followers to project your religion." Small-scale riots quickly broke out in the clerical capital of Qum, led by Ayatullah (roughly, cardinal) Rouhollah Khomaini, and in severalother cities. Police Struck back, arrested Khomaini and some 15 other ringleaders. With that, both sides declared open war and the battle was on.

Screaming " Down with the Shah," 10,000 barfoot, black-shirted Moslems joined by thousands of armed toughs for hire, swept through the capital, carrying pictures of Khomaini. Though the whereabouts of the Shah was kept secrets, rows of white-helmeted troops, backed by tanks, immediately sealed off access to royal places in the city and suburbs. In the heart of town green their fire for 40 minute. Finally, when the mobs, using young boys as shields, other key government buildings, the troops opened up at point-blank range. The crowd fell back in confusion, regrouped, and raced down main avenues. Armed with club, rock, and torches, Theran's ancient bazaar went up in the flames. The mob beat up every well-dressed man unlucky enough to be on the street, attached uneviled women. One was yanked from her automobile by the zealots, forced to undress, then was pummeled to death.

Closed Cemetery. Nearly 7,000 troops were called out to restore uneasy peace in Teheran; by then damage was estimated in the millions, at least 1,000 were injured, and the officially reported death toll was 86. It was undoubtedly higher, but since the public cemetery was closed and under heavy guard to prevent further clashes at the gravesides, the real number remained unknown. For the first time in a decade, martial law was imposed on the city, along with a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Hoping to preserve quiet for a while, Premier Assadollah Alam also announced that troops would remain on emergency duty. Their orders: shoot to kill.