Iran Holocaust

1979

1979 in Iran: 4 documented events and 2 named victims of state repression.

Documented events
4
Named victims
2

A year-by-year record of repression in Iran. Below are the events documented for 1979, followed by the people whose deaths that year are named in our database.

1979-02-11 — Islamic Republic established. Revolution overthrows the Pahlavi monarchy; the Islamic Republic is proclaimed with Ayatollah Khomeini as Supreme Leader.

1979-03-08 — First women's protest against compulsory hijab. Tens of thousands of women march in Tehran on International Women's Day against Khomeini's decree ordering women to wear the veil at work.

1979-05-09 — Habib Elghanian executed. Prominent Iranian-Jewish industrialist executed by firing squad after a two-hour tribunal, signalling the fate of Iran's Jewish community.

1979-11-04 — U.S. embassy hostage crisis begins. Students seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran; 52 Americans are held for 444 days, defining the new republic's foreign posture.

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FAQ

Where does this information come from?

Every record is compiled from published reporting by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Iran Human Rights (IHR), HRANA, the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran and the Boroumand Center. Each entry links to its source where one is public.

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Yes. All content on iranholocaust.org is published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). Cite the page URL and attribute iranholocaust.org.