Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution

Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution
	Part of the Cold War and Iran–Iraq War
Date	11 February 1979 – August 1988
Location	Iran
Result	Islamic Republican Party victory Ruhollah Khomeini consolidates power; Referendum and establishment of Islamic Republic of Iran; Iran hostage crisis and resignation of the Provisional Revolutionary Government; 1979 Iranian ethnic conflicts suppressed; NEQAB coup d'état failed; Impeachment and exile of Abolhassan Banisadr; Crackdown on opposition and political opposition parties banned; Implementation of the "Iranian Cultural Revolution"; Hijab for all women by law; Iran–Iraq War commences (and continues until 1988); 1981–1982 Iran massacres; Armed opposition largely marginalized; low-level insurgency continues; 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners;
Belligerents
Political: Islamic Republican Party; Combatant Clergy Association; Islamic Coalition Society; Armed groups: Armed Forces Artesh (Army); IRGC; ; Revolutionary Committees; Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization; Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line;	Political only: Freedom Movement; National Front; JAMA; Movement of Militant Muslims; Nation Party; Muslim People's Republic Party; National Democratic Front; National Resistance Movement of Iran; Pan-Iranist Party; Azadegan; Armed groups: MEK; Tudeh Party; Peykar; Furqan; NEQAB; Union of Iranian Communists; Union of Communist Militants; Workers' Way; Fedaian (majority); Fedaian (minority); Fedai Guerrillas; Laborers' Party; Turkmen People's Cultural and Political Society; Separatists: KDPI; Komala; DRFLA; PFLA; AFLA; Iraq
Commanders and leaders
Ruhollah Khomeini Morteza Motahari X; Mohammad Beheshti X; Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; Abulhassan Banisadr; Mohammad-Ali Rajai X; Mohammad-Javad Bahonar X; Ali Khamenei (WIA); Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani; Mir-Hossein Mousavi; Qasem-Ali Zahirnejad; Mohsen Rezaee	Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi # Dariush Forouhar (POW) ; Ahmad Mirfendereski (POW) Other revolutionaries : ; Mehdi Bazargan; Abulhassan Banisadr; Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari (POW); Sadeq Qotbzadeh ; Karim Sanjabi; Kazem Sami; Habibollah Payman; NEQAB : ; Shapour Bakhtiar ; Saeid Mahdioun ; Hadi Izadi Forqan : ; Akbar Goodarzi ; Abbas Askari Turkmen rebels : ; Abdollah Soureshi (POW) Far-Leftists : ; Massoud Rajavi; Mousa Khiabani †; Ashraf Rabiei † ; Ashraf Dehghani; Mansoor Hekmat; Mohsen Fazel ; Alireza Sepasi-Ashtiani (POW) ; Hossein Ahmadi-Rouhani ; Alireza Sokuhi ; Hosayn Qazi ; Kak Ismail ; Noureddin Kianouri (POW) Kurdish separatists : ; A. R. Ghassemlou; F. M Soltani †; Sadeq Sharafkandi Arab separatists ; Oan Ali Mohammed † ; Supported by: ; Saddam Hussein
Strength
Total forces : ; 207,500 (June 1979); 305,000 (peak); 240,000 (final); Theater forces:; 6,000–10,000	~10,000–15,000 ; Paykar : 3,000 ; 5,000 (Fedai factions in total) ; 25,000–30,000 ; 5,000
Casualties and losses
3,000 killed (conservative estimate)	~1,000 killed ; ~4,000 killed ; ~105 killed At least 2,665 executed
	10,000 estimated KIA (total); 3,500 killed in the 1981–1982 Iran Massacres 2,000–4,000 Army personnel arrested or purged following the failure of the Nojeh coup plot

Following the Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the Shah of Iran in February 1979, Iran was in a "revolutionary crisis mode" until 1982 or 1983 when forces loyal to the revolution's leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, consolidated power. During this period, Iran's economy and the apparatus of government collapsed; its military and security forces were in disarray.

Rebellions by Marxist guerrillas and federalist parties against Islamist forces in Khuzistan, Kurdistan, and Gonbad-e Qabus started in April 1979, some of them taking more than a year to suppress. Concern about breakdown of order was sufficiently high to prompt discussion by the US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski over the danger of a Soviet invasion/incursion (the USSR sharing a border with Iran) and whether the US should be prepared to counter it.

By 1988, Khomeini and his supporters had crushed the rival factions and consolidated power. Elements that played a part in both the crisis and its end were the Iran hostage crisis, the invasion of Iran by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and the presidency of Abolhassan Banisadr.