Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution

Aftermath of the Iranian revolution
	Part of the Cold War
Date	11 February 1979 – December 1983
Location	Iran
Result	Islamic Republican Party victory Ruhollah Khomeini consolidates power; Referendum and establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran; Iran hostage crisis and resignation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government; Rebellions in Kordestan, Khuzestan, Khorasan and Baluchistan suppressed; NEQAB coup d'état failed; Impeachment and exile of Abolhassan Banisadr; Crackdown on opposition and political opposition parties banned; Implementation of the "Iranian Cultural Revolution"; Hijab for all women by law; Iran–Iraq War commences (and continues until 1988); Armed opposition largely marginalized; low-level insurgency continues;
Belligerents
Political: Islamic Republican Party; Combatant Clergy Association; Islamic Coalition Society; Armed groups: Army; Revolutionary Guards; Revolutionary Committees; Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization; Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line;	Political only: Freedom Movement; National Front; JAMA; Movement of Militant Muslims; Nation Party; Muslim People's Republic Party; National Democratic Front; National Resistance Movement of Iran; Pan-Iranist Party; Azadegan; Armed groups: MEK; Tudeh Party; Peykar; Furqan; NEQAB; Union of Iranian Communists; Union of Communist Militants; Workers' Way; Fedaian (majority); Fedaian (minority); Fedai Guerrillas; Laborers' Party; Turkmen People's Cultural and Political Society; Separatists: KDPI; Komala; DRFLA; PFLA; AFLA; Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Ruhollah Khomeini Morteza Motahari X; Mohammad Beheshti X; Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; Abulhassan Banisadr; Mohammad-Ali Rajai X; Mohammad-Javad Bahonar X; Ali Khamenei (WIA); Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani; Mir-Hossein Mousavi; Qasem-Ali Zahirnejad; Mohsen Rezaee	Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi # Dariush Forouhar (POW) ; Ahmad Mirfendereski (POW) Other revolutionaries : ; Mehdi Bazargan; Abulhassan Banisadr; Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari (POW); Sadeq Qotbzadeh ; Karim Sanjabi; Kazem Sami; Habibollah Payman; NEQAB : ; Shapour Bakhtiar ; Saeid Mahdioun ; Hadi Izadi Forqan : ; Akbar Goodarzi ; Abbas Askari Turkmen rebels : ; Abdollah Soureshi (POW) Far-Leftists : ; Massoud Rajavi; Mousa Khiabani †; Ashraf Rabiei † ; Ashraf Dehghani; Mansoor Hekmat; Mohsen Fazel ; Alireza Sepasi-Ashtiani (POW) ; Hossein Ahmadi-Rouhani ; Alireza Sokuhi ; Hosayn Qazi ; Kak Ismail ; Noureddin Kianouri (POW) Kurdish separatists : ; A. R. Ghassemlou; F. M Soltani †; Sadeq Sharafkandi Arab separatists ; Oan Ali Mohammed † ; Supported by: ; Saddam Hussein
Strength
Total forces : ; 207,500 (June 1979); 305,000 (peak); 240,000 (final); Theater forces:; 6,000–10,000	~10,000–15,000 ; Paykar : 3,000 ; 5,000 (Fedai factions in total) ; 25,000–30,000 ; 5,000
Casualties and losses
3,000 killed (conservative estimate)	~1,000 killed ; ~4,000 killed ; ~105 killed At least 2,665 executed
	10,000 estimated KIA (total); 3,500 killed in the 1981–1982 Iran Massacres 2,000-4,000 Army personnel arrested or purged following the failure of the Nojeh coup plot
	1 2 Abulhassan Banisadr was President of Iran until June 1981, thus a member of the ruling group. After he was deposed by the Islamic Republican Party-dominated parliament, he went into exile, fighting against the system.; ↑ Sami was assassinated in 1988; ↑ Bakhtiar was assassinated in Paris in 1991; ↑ Ghassemlou was assassinated in 1989; ↑ Sharafkandi was assassinated in a Berlin restaurant in 1992; ↑ 100 killed in the 1979 Khuzestan insurgency and 5 in the Iranian Embassy siege; ↑ excluding Iran-Iraq War casualty figures;

Following the Iranian revolution, which overthrew the Shah of Iran in February 1979, Iran was in a "revolutionary crisis mode" until 1982 or 1983 when forces loyal to the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, consolidated power. During this period, Iran's economy and the apparatus of government collapsed; its military and security forces were in disarray.

Rebellions by Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties against Islamist forces in Khuzistan, Kurdistan, and Gonbad-e Qabus started in April 1979, some of them taking more than a year to suppress. Concern about breakdown of order was sufficiently high to prompt discussion by the US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski over the danger of a Soviet invasion/incursion (the USSR sharing a border with Iran) and whether the US should be prepared to counter it.

By 1983, Khomeini and his supporters had crushed the rival factions and consolidated power. Elements that played a part in both the crisis and its end were the Iran hostage crisis, the invasion of Iran by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and the presidency of Abolhassan Banisadr.

[Banisadr-2] 1 2 Abulhassan Banisadr was President of Iran until June 1981, thus a member of the ruling group. After he was deposed by the Islamic Republican Party-dominated parliament, he went into exile, fighting against the system.

[3] Sami was assassinated in 1988

[4] Bakhtiar was assassinated in Paris in 1991

[5] Ghassemlou was assassinated in 1989

[6] Sharafkandi was assassinated in a Berlin restaurant in 1992

[8] 100 killed in the 1979 Khuzestan insurgency and 5 in the Iranian Embassy siege

[9] xcluding Iran-Iraq War casualty figures