Goharshad Mosque rebellion


The Goharshad Mosque rebellion took place in August 1935, when a backlash against the westernizing and secularist policies of Shah Reza Pahlavi erupted in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran.
The incident is described as a "bloody event".

Background

The Shah Pahlavi's violent Westernization campaign against Shiite society saw a spike in hostilities with the regime in the summer of 1935 when Reza Shah banned traditional Islamic clothing and ordered all men be forced to wear European-style bowler hats.

Event

The event occurred in response to the de-Islamization activities by Reza Khan in 1935. Responding to a cleric, who denounced the Shah's "heretical" innovations, westernizing, corruption and heavy consumer taxes, many merchants and locals took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yazid," likening him to the tyrannical Umayyad caliph responsible for the massacre of Prophet Muhammad's family members at the Battle of Karbala.
For four full days local police and army refused to violate the shrine and the standoff was ended when troops from Iranian Azerbaijan region arrived and broke into the shrine, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shia clergy and the Shah.

Toll

The number of killed by Reza Khan's forces were between 2000-5000. According to a British report, which may have deliberately lowered the numbers, the outcome of the event resulted in 2 Army officers and 18 soldiers killed; 2 soldiers executed on the spot for disobedience; 1 soldier committed suicide; there were 800-1200 dead among the villagers, 100-500 wounded and 800 arrested.