Iranian Revolution - Demonstrations broke out in various different cities
Time: Friday Feb 17, 1978
Place: Tabriz, Iran
Details: According to the Shi'ite customs, memorial services (referred to as chehelom) are held forty days after a person's death. Encouraged by Khomeini (who declared that the blood of martyrs must water the "tree of Islam"), radicals pressured the mosques and moderate clergy to commemorate the deaths of the students, and used the occasion to generate protests. The informal network of mosques and bazaars, which for years had been used to carry out religious events, increasingly became consolidated as a coordinated protest organization. On 18 February, forty days after Qom clashes, demonstrations broke out in various different cities. The largest was in Tabriz, which descended into a full-scale riot. "Western" and government symbols such as cinemas, bars, state-owned banks, and police stations were set ablaze. Units of Imperial Iranian Army were deployed to the city to restore order, and the death toll, according to government was six, while Khomeini claimed hundreds were "martyred".
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On This Day - 17 February
February 1978
1978
