The Bloody Uprising of the 15th Khordad

(15 Khordad 1342/ 5 June1963)

The 15th of Khordad 1342 (5 June1963), was the start of the Islamic Revolution of the Iranian people. Two days before this day on 13 Khordad 1342 (June 1963), Imam Khomeini delivered his historical speech at theFayziyeh School which marked the start of the uprising. A major part of the Imam's speech was about the harms of the Pahlavi monarchy.

The Crowd gathered in this school was attacked by the Shah’s agents and some were martyred in a tragic way. At the dawn of the 15th Khordad, hundreds of commandos, dispatched fromTehran, laid siege to the Imam's house and arrested him while he was saying his overnight pray. They took him toTehran and transferred him to theQasr Prison.

The news of Imam's arrest spread very rapidly throughout our country and led to great demonstrations in most of the cities. The huge crowd marched in the streets in the opposition of Imam's arresting and savage killing inFayziyeh School. These demonstrations and uprising was suppressed by the use of force and volley of innocent people in most of the cities in general and Qom and Varamin in particular.

In fact, Shah obeyed the orders of US's agents which became another stigma of Pahlavi's monarchy inIran.

With the arrest of the leader of the movement on the 15th of Khordad and the savage killings of people, the movement was seemingly suppressed but the 1342 (1963) uprising was in fact a rehearsal for the complementary uprising a decade and a half later that led to the overthrow of the Shah’s regime in 1979.