Sociological Cultural Studies

Sociological Cultural Studies

Student protests and violence during Pahlavi II reign

Document Type : .

Author
Abbas Khorshidnam
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Research Institute of Imam Khomeini and Islamic Revolution, Tehran, Iran,
10.30465/scs.2024.48461.2839
Abstract
Abstract
A revolutionary situation is a product of the accumulated and unresolved conflicts and tensions that ultimately lead the protesters to the conclusion that there is no other way but to overthrow the established political order. Regardless of what factors cause the formation of a revolutionary movement, directing the struggle process in a way that mobilizes the maximum resources plays an important role in the victory of the revolution. One of the consequences of creating revolutionary coalitions is the creation of common anger, which plays an effective role in continuing the struggle and maintaining the revolutionary identity and lining up against the rulers. This article examines the place of violence in the political culture of Tehran university students by using documentary method and using documents, memories, interviews and researches. The findings of the research show that the students considered violent behavior as justified and acceptable and they did not hesitate to use violence against the university officials, professors and their classmates in order to achieve their political and union demands and the university officials' appeasement with Lowering the cost of protesting and committing violent acts would encourage students to repeat these behaviors.
Keywords: Student movement, violence, political culture, Second Pahlavi, Tehran universities

Introduction
Students were one of the groups that played an effective role in the Islamic Revolution of Iran. The political and politicized environment of the universities had provided a suitable platform for strengthening the political culture opposed to the Pahlavi regime, and the militant students considered it their duty to politicize the new students. During the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, universities were the scene of protests, sit-ins, and conflicts with various pretexts, and classrooms and exam sessions were closed on various pretexts. These protests did not go unanswered by the university authorities and security agents, and the protesting students were expected to be arrested, permanently or temporarily expelled, beaten and even killed. The incident of December 7, 1953 is one of the most prominent events that has linked the political history of the university with struggle and idealism. Such events have always been considered as a sign of political blockage of the impossibility of peaceful reform of affairs in the Pahlavi regime. When we talk about violence, we often think of violence that has been used by the government against political opponents and activists. But there is another form of violence, and in many cases, it is the government or its representatives who are the targets of society's violence. During the Pahlavi II era, the university was always the scene of conflict between students and the security forces, and the students protested against the suffocation and political obstruction ruling the society, and these protests were met with repression by the security forces in many cases. But what is usually ignored is the violence expressed by the students, which played an important role in the continuation of student struggles. Although the students were victims of violence that was applied by a closed political system; however, the use of violence by the ruling regime was not a tool to control the situation, and the students also used this tool to advance their goals. This article examines the place of violence in the political culture of students of Tehran universities and shows that students considered violent behavior justified and acceptable, and to achieve their demands, they resorted to violence against university officials and the appeasement of the university officials encouraged the students to repeat these behaviors. In a situation where students had the possibility to mobilize their resources and could continue their violent protest action, the universities had become a suitable platform to fight against the Pahlavi regime.

Materials & Methods
This research was conducted using documentary method and study of interviews, documents, researches and sources related to oral history.
Discussion & Result
In the Islamic Revolution of Iran, although the people achieved victory through civil protest and continuous marches without taking up arms, there were many cases of violence by the people in this peaceful revolution. The influence of Marxist ideas and thoughts, which justified acts of violence, was attractive to some revolutionaries, and they considered armed struggle to be the right way to get rid of tyranny and colonialism. The violent and successful revolutions that occurred in Cuba, Algeria, China and Vietnam and the popularity of guerilla groups and organizations made violent confrontations seem acceptable and a legitimate way to overthrow the Pahlavi regime.
Among militant and revolutionary students, these transnational and global models were particularly attractive, and they thought that by resorting to violence, they could achieve their political and union goals. This tendency cannot be generalized to all students, but it can be said that the students who took over the political atmosphere of the universities in those years defended such an approach. The attractiveness of this approach made violence a desirable option for advancing political and even non-political goals in dealing with and interacting with professors, university officials and students, and peaceful and dialogue-oriented solutions were not attractive; An option that represents one of the components of the political culture in that era.

Conclusion
During the reign of Pahlavi II, there was an authoritarian government that did not believe much in opening up the country's political environment and tried to push Iran towards development and progress with an authoritarian approach, and this caused discontent and disillusionment among political activists. On the other hand, some political organizations opposed to the government, considered it completely legitimate to deal violently with the governments that protected the interests of global imperialism and internal tyranny due to the hegemonic nature of leftist ideas in those years. It seems that these two factors have played an effective role in establishing violence as one of the components of the political culture of protesting students. Resorting to violence intensifies politicization and reduces the necessity of adopting a critical attitude towards the existing situation and rethinking the decisions made. But the desire to do violence can hide such necessities and become a defender of a kind of unrealistic idealism. The Pahlavi government was always very sensitive towards leftist and communist groups, and this sensitivity is understandable in the context of the Cold War, and for this reason, it did not consider other political forces to be very dangerous or decisive for its reign. Such a calculation played an effective role in appeasing the students and their protesting behavior, and no one imagined that the general mobilization of different strata of people and their alliance with each other could create a significant threat to the government. Therefore, it seems that despite the political blockage that has ruled the country for years, universities have benefited from political freedoms to some extent. But the way of using these freedoms has led to the anomic atmosphere of universities in some cases. Undoubtedly, the study of political culture reveals many aspects of the atmosphere of a society, and the pathology of this aspect of the contemporary life of Iranian society sheds a different light on the demands, fears, hopes and desires of the people who have gone through many ups and downs in the last century.
Keywords
Student movement
violence
political culture
Second Pahlavi
Tehran universities
آبراهامیان یرواند (1402)، ایران بین دو انقلاب؛ ترجمه احمد گل­محمدی و محمدابراهیم فتاحی، نشر نی
اسنادی از جنبش دانشجویی در ایران (5 جلد)، به کوشش معاونت خدمات مدیریت و اطلاع رسانی دفتر رییس جمهور، 1380
بشیریه حسین (1394)، زمینه­های اجتماعی انقلاب ایران، ترجمه علی اردستانی، نشر نگاه معاصر
پناهی محمدحسین (1388)، نظریه­های انقلاب؛ وقوع، فرایند و پیامدها، نشر سمت
پیوندی سعید، نقد خشونت سیاسی در ایران، مجله بازتاب اندیشه، شماره 69، 1384
تیلی چارلز (1385)، از بسیج تا انقلاب، ترجمه علی مرشدی‌زاد، پژوهشکده امام خمینی و انقلاب اسلامی
دانایی محمدحسین (1398)، دوران دانشکده، نشر اطلاعات
عبدی عباس (1393)، جنبش دانشجویی پلی­تکنیک تهران (دانشگاه امیرکبیر)، از 1338 تا 1357، نشر نی
فراستخواه مقصود (1393)، تاریخ هشتاد ساله دانشکده فنی دانشگاه تهران، نشر نی
لاوسون جورج (1400)، کالبدشکافی‌های جدید انقلاب، ترجمه مهدی زیبایی، نشر نگاه معاصر        
مانوئل کاستلز (1396)، شبکه‌های خشم و امید؛ جنبش‌های اجتماعی در عصر اینترنت، ترجمه مجتبی قلی‌پور، نشر مرکز  
مجموعه پروژه تاریخ شفاهی بنیاد مطالعات ایران، به کوشش غلامرضا افخمی
مجموعه تاریخ شفاهی دانشگاه هاروارد، به کوشش حبیب لاجوردی
نصر حسین (1393)، حکمت و سیاست، خاطرات دکتر سید حسین نصر، مجموعه تاریخ شفاهی و تصویری ایران معاصر، به کوشش حسین دهباشی
هژبری فریدون (1395)، بر آب و آتش، زندگی نامه و خاطرات استاد و معاون پیشین دانشگاه صنعتی شریف (آریامهر)، ویراستار: گوئل کهن، نشر کویر
Finlay Christopher J, Violence and Revolutionary Subjectivity; From Marx to Zizek, European Journal of Political Theory, October 2006
Lukacs George (1972), ‘Tactics and Ethics,’ in Political Writings, 1919-1929: the Question of Parliamentarianism and Other Essays, R. Livingston (ed), trans. M. McColgan, London 
Merleau-Ponty Maurice (1969), Humanism and Terror, Boston, Beacon Press
Zizek Slavoj (2002), Revolution at the gates: Zizek on Lenin, the 1917 Writings, Verso
Sociological Cultural Studies
Volume 16, Issue 1 - Serial Number 55
Spring 2025
Spring 2025
Pages 167-198

  • Receive Date 04 March 2024
  • Revise Date 25 June 2024
  • Accept Date 29 June 2024
  • Publish Date 22 May 2025