Anti-Khomeini Demonstrations in Iran Reported

An Iranian dissident group reported Monday that there have been spreading demonstrations in Iran against the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic regime and the 4 1/2-year-old war with Iraq, with hundreds arrested by the authorities.

Tehran residents confirmed some of the anti-Khomeini demonstrations.

The Moujahedeen, the main Iranian opposition group, said several hundred protesters participated in scattered demonstrations in central Tehran between April 17 and April 21. In a statement issued in Paris, the Islamic socialist organization said its information was based on “reliable reports received from inside the country.”

Tehran residents contacted by telephone from Athens confirmed that demonstrations took place in several areas of the Iranian capital.

Patrolling the Streets

The residents also said Iranian Revolutionary Guards were out in force, patrolling the streets in squad cars and on motorcycles, to prevent people from assembling for further demonstrations.

The Moujahedeen said thousands of people demonstrated in the central town of Borujerd on Saturday, some shouting anti-war slogans from their rooftops. Revolutionary Guards sent in from a neighboring town arrested 200 people. Demonstrations were also reportedly held in the towns of Rasht and Gorgan.

Some Tehran residents said Revolutionary Guards arrested people wearing Western-style clothes. “Young men wearing jeans or short-sleeved shirts are being roughed up,” one said.

The Moujahedeen said 1,000 people assembled in the western city of Qazvin on Saturday and Sunday chanting, “Down with Khomeini” and “Long live Rajavi,” a reference to self-exiled Moujahedeen leader Massoud Rajavi.

10 Protesters Injured

Revolutionary Guards attacked the demonstrators, arresting 10 and injuring others, the Moujahedeen said.

A Tehran resident Monday reported seeing a long-haired youth being dragged out of a fast-food restaurant by Revolutionary Guards, who gave him a quick, crude haircut on the sidewalk by the flashing lights of nearby squad cars, then released him.

Another resident said garment shops selling T-shirts with “Michael Jackson” printed across the front were being closed and the owners arrested.

One elderly man was reportedly accosted by Islamic fundamentalists and asked why he was wearing a necktie and why he had shaved. “This is Western,” they warned him.

On April 18, Khomeini, Iran’s supreme leader, publicly conceded the existence of internal dissent against the war with Iraq.