Cinema Rex fire

The Cinema Rex, located in Abadan, Iran, was set ablaze on 19 August 1978, killing between 377[1] and 470 people.[2] The event started when four men doused the building with airplane fuel before setting it alight.[3] The attack was responsible for triggering the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of the Iranian monarchy. It was the largest terrorist attack in history until the 1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers, which itself was later surpassed by the September 11 attacks.

This article is about the arson of the Cinema Rex in Iran. For the cinema destroyed by a V-2 rocket in World War II, see Cine Rex.

Cinema Rex fire
Interior of the Cinema Rex building after the fire
LocationAbadan, Iran
Date19 August 1978
20:21 (IRST)
Attack type
Arson, mass murder, terrorism
Deaths377-470 killed[1]
PerpetratorsUnknown
Islamist militants
(Iranian government claim)
SAVAK
(opposition claim)
No. of participants
4 personnel

The ruling Pahlavi dynasty initially blamed "Islamic Marxists" for the fire[4] and later reported that Islamic militants started the fire,[5][6][7][8] while anti-Pahlavi protesters blamed SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, for setting the fire.[9][10]

Fire

On 19 August 1978 at the Cinema Rex in Abadan, Iran, hundreds of people were watching The Deer[11] when, at 20:21, four men barred the doors of the cinema and doused it with petrol from a can. The fire started outside three entrance doors to the main hall after the attackers allegedly dropped a match into the petrol. The attackers then fled and blocked the doors from the outside. Around 100 people escaped uninjured via the roof, and a further 223 suffered nonfatal injuries; the remainder, at least 377, died in the fire.[12][13]

Death toll

There is speculation over the actual number of casualties incurred during the fire. Some of the numbers cited by sources include 377,[1][14][13][15] 410,[16] 422,[17] and 470.[18]

Potential perpetrators

There have been numerous allegations regarding the identity of the perpetrators of the Cinema Rex fire, but it is certain that the event was a key trigger for the Iranian Revolution in 1978. Initially, the revolutionaries alleged that SAVAK intelligence agents were in pursuit of individuals who ran into the theatre and used it as an opportunity to hide in a large crowd there. Later, the fugitives (or the SAVAK agents chasing them) locked the doors of the cinema. Unable to escape from the building, hundreds of people inside the cinema died in the conflagration. The Iranian newspaper Sobhe Emruz blamed radical Islamists in an editorial addressing Kayhan newspaper run by Hossein Shariatmadari (Shariatmadari has been described as being "a close confidant of Iran's supreme leader" Ali Khamenei, and as having "links" to Iran's intelligence services). Sobhe Emruz wrote "Don't make us disclose who were really behind the Cinema Rex fire" causing the newspaper to be shut down shortly afterwards.[19][3][18]

According to the historian Abbas Amanat: "From what is known, the Rex Cinema's exit doors were intentionally locked. Widespread rumors at the time held Savak and the pro-government agents provocateurs responsible. Yet the arson was consistent with a pattern of Islamic activists' setting ablaze cinemas and other venues of supposed Western decadence for more than a decade. As was witnessed in many instances of arson that destroyed cinemas, first in Qom and later in other cities, the Rex Cinema incident displayed the perpetrators' utter lack of moral scruples, as became evident in the course of their trial a few months later. The Islamic opposition, however, stood to reap major propaganda advantages from the tragedy in the prevailing environment of suspicion and anger".[1]

Dilip Hiro, author of Iran Under the Ayatollahs, said that anti-Shah groups were not likely to have caused the fire, since the Cinema Rex was located in a working-class neighbourhood and was showing the film Gavaznha, starring well-known actor Behrouz Vossoughi, which Hiro claimed had "passed the censors with considerable difficulty." Hiro also said that the deliberate closure of the cinema doors and the local fire station's efforts, which he described as "tepid", strengthened the public belief that the Shah had the cinema burned.[10]

According to Roy Mottahedeh, author of The Mantle of the Prophet, "thousands of Iranians who had felt neutral and had until now thought that the struggle was only between the shah and supporters of religiously conservative mullahs felt that the government might put their own lives on the block to save itself. Suddenly, for hundreds of thousands, the movement was their own business."[20]

According to Middle East expert Daniel L. Byman, "The movies were an affront to God, encouraging vice and Western-style decadence. So in August 1978, four Shiite revolutionaries locked the doors of the Cinema Rex in the Iranian city of Abadan and set the theater on fire".[21]

As the event took place during the revolutionary period, it was quite difficult to identify the perpetrators, making ill-conceived accusations rather prevalent. Many elements of the revolutionary bloc laid blame on Mohammad Reza Shah, the now deposed monarch of Iran, and SAVAK (Sazeman-e Ettelaat va Amniyat-e Keshvar), the country's domestic security and intelligence service. Although sufficient evidence was never brought forth to facilitate such claims, the labeling would have far-reaching implications on the subsequent direction of the revolutionary movement. The circumstances under which the fire was set did not aid the Shah's pleas of innocence. The location of the incident, an impoverished district of Abadan, and its timing did not coincide with preceding patterns of protest, which raised the level of suspicion. It was also believed that the Shah specifically targeted Cinema Rex for the sole purpose of killing political dissidents who had gathered to watch the anti-government film playing there.[22][23]

According to the Washington-based group Human Rights & Democracy for Iran, the families of the victims led the charge for further investigation of the case, even resorting to a long sit-in protest from April to August 1980. The new Iranian government arrested Captain Monir Taheri, who was accused by the Revolutionary Tribunal of Rudsar of having received guerrilla training in the United States. Taheri's defense maintained that he had never visited Abadan and that he was in Ahvaz at the time of the blaze. The tribunal found Taheri guilty and executed him shortly thereafter on 23 February 1979.[24]

Lasting from 25 August to 4 September 1980, the Revolutionary Tribunal oversaw 17 court sessions that involved the trial of 26 individuals, including the only survivor of the four-man arson team, Hossein Takbalizadeh, who stated in his defense that he was an unemployed drug addict. After much deliberation, Takbalizadeh and five others were put to death in public.[25][26]

References
  1. Amanat, Abbas (2017). Iran: A Modern History. Yale University Press. p. 719. ISBN 978-0300112542.
  2. "Iran: In with the madding crowd". The Economist. 3 November 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  3. Amuzegar, Jahangir (1991). Dynamics of the Iranian Revolution: The Pahlavis' Triumph and Tragedy. SUNY Press. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-7914-0731-8. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
  4. "BBC فارسی - ايران - گاهشمار انقلاب" (in Persian). Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  5. Afkhami, R. Gholam (2009) The Life and Times of the Shah University of California Press, pages 465 & 459, ISBN 0-520-25328-0
  6. Ansari, M. Ali (2007) Modern Iran: the Pahlavis and after Pearson Education, page 259, ISBN 1-4058-4084-6
  7. Federal Research Division (2004) Iran A Country Study Kessinger Publishing, page 78, ISBN 1-4191-2670-9
  8. Bahl, Taru, Syed, M. H. (2003) Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2003, page 105, ISBN 81-261-1419-3
  9. Daniel, Elton L. and Mahdi, Ali Akbar (2006) Culture and Customs of Iran, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, page 106, ISBN 0-313-32053-5
  10. Hiro, Dilip (1985) Iran Under the Ayatollahs Routledge and K. Paul, London, page 74, ISBN 0-7100-9924-X
  11. Steven Gaythorpe (24 July 2015). Cinema. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-326-36973-6.
  12. Staff Writer. "Cinema Rex Tragedy of 1978 is Recreated in London Exhibition by Mahmoud Bakhshi". Kayhan Life. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  13. Branigan, William (21 August 1978). "Terrorists Kill 377 by Burning Theater in Iran". The Washington Post. ISSN 2641-9599.
  14. William H. Blanchard (1996). Neocolonialism American Style, 1960-2000. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-313-30013-4.
  15. The Middle East: Issues and Events of 1978 from the New York Times Information Bank. Arno Press. 1980. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-405-12875-2.
  16. "The Iranian Revolution: King Pahlavi (the Shah) against Dissent". MacroHistory: The Prehistory to the 21st Century. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
  17. Doug Lennox (26 March 2008). Now You Know Disasters: The Little Book of Answers. Dundurn. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-4597-1810-4.
  18. Sabine Haenni; Sarah Barrow; John White (15 September 2014). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Films. Routledge. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-317-68261-5.
  19. George Bullen (14 August 2015). Nine Months in Iran. Lulu.com. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-329-43953-5.
  20. Mottahedeh, Roy (2004). The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran, page 375.
  21. L. Byman, Daniel. "The Rise of Low-Tech Terrorism". The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
  22. "The unvanquished". Behrouz Vossoughi.com. Archived from the original on 23 October 2006. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
  23. "The hero and the heroin". Payvand. Retrieved 21 August 2006.
  24. "Mr. Monir Taheri - Iran Human Rights Memorial". Iranrights.org. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  25. Staff Writer. "The cinema Rex fire was performed by SAVAK". Jamaran News.
  26. Ahmadiyan, Majid. "The Catastrophe of Cinema Rex the Fire of the Islamic Revolution" (PDF). cinemarexabadan.

Bibliography

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