    65

    tried

    to throw a rally, the Hezbollah would charge into the crowd,

    clubs in hand, break a few heads, and send the ralliers running.  If the

    leaders of the opposition proved adamant, the holy men had them

    seized by revolutionary brigade members, arrested, tried by

    hand-picked "revolutionary tribunals" under the clergymen's direct

    control, and imprisoned or executed.  Often the leaders shot or jailed

    had originally fought alongside the clerics to overthrow the hated

    Shah.  The newly declared "criminals" had been under the impression

    that they were struggling for their freedom.

    Moslem clergymen, led by their Ayatollah, "Islamized"

    society--feeding their citizenry to a time-honored meme.  Opposition to

    that meme was one of the worst crimes of all.  When President Bani-

    Sadr criticized the clergymen's rapidly-growing, ultra-religious

    political party, the holy men sent club-wielding gangs of Hezbollah to

    beat up Bani-Sadr's supporters.  They arrested the President's

    staff-members, shut down the newspaper in which he published his

    opinions, and rallied mobs under his window to chant "Death to Bani-

    Sadr."  (Incidentally, when the crowds grew tired of repeating Bani-

    Sadr's name at the top of their lungs, the leaders signaled them to

    switch to another chorus: "Death to the United States.")  Finally, the

    clerics impeached Bani-Sadr, who fled for his life.

    Other critics were less fortunate.   Firing squads dispatched a

    thirteen-year-old girl and her sister for sympathizing with the

    Ayatollah's political opponents.  They weren't the only youngsters to

    fall victim to Khomeini's "freedom."  When students at a Teheran high

    school complained because their teachers were being purged for

    political non-conformity, revolutionary officials taught the pupils a

    lesson.  They paraded four of the instructors into the school courtyard,

    gathered the student body, and shot the pedagogues dead.  These

    Teheran pupils were luckier than many.  Of the thousands tortured

    and executed between June, 1981, and September, 1983, half were still

    in secondary school or college.

    Meanwhile,  Gasht-e Thar Allah, "Mobile Units of the Wrath of

    God," rode through the streets of Teheran in cars hunting down

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