Islah Taleban Party

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ISLAH TALEBAN PARTY

A conservative political party in Iran that supported Reza Khan's coming to power as shah and helped support his policies.

An heir to the Moderate Party (or Firqeh-ye Iʿtidal ), a conservative party that supported the aristocracy and the traditional middle class, the Islah Taleban (Reformers) Party was established in 1910. Like its predecessor, the Islah Taleban was a conservative party led by prominent clerics, merchants, and landed aristocracy. The party was instrumental in paving the way for Reza Khan's assumption of power as the king of Iran. Almost unanimously, the party supported a bill introduced by the Revival Party that deposed the Qajar dynasty and proclaimed Reza Pahlavi the king (shah) of Iran. With three other political parties, the Reformers formed the alliance system that Reza Shah used for implementing his policies. The leading members of the party were instrumental in passing a new law in the parliament calling for universal adult male suffrage. But in the semifeudal conditions of the country in the early twentieth century, this law extending the vote to the uneducated rural masses helped only to strengthen the elite. The famous Iranian poet Mohammad Taqi Bahar wrote of the law in 1944 that "it continues to plague the country even today."

see also bahar, mohammad taqi; pahlavi, reza; qajar dynasty.


Bibliography


Abrahamian, Ervand. Iran between Two Revolutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.

parvaneh pourshariati