Some 112 years ago, after years of sacrifice and struggle by the Iranian people, the first Majlis (Parliament) was created in Iran. The Iranian Constitutional Revolution took place between 1905 and 1911 leading to the establishment of the parliament in 1906 during the Qajar Dynasty.
In all, 156 members were elected and wrote a constitution modeled primarily after the Belgian Constitution. Under the new constitution, the Shah was “Under the rule of law,” and “The crown became a divine gift given to the Shah by the people.”
But freedom has never been obtained easily and for free. Shortly after the creation of the constitutionalism government, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah who had signed the new constitution under immense popular pressure, died and his son, Mohammad Ali Shah, took the power and bombarded the parliament in 1908 with the help of Britain and Russia in order to abolish the Constitution and fell back to the monarchy regime.
This led to several pro-constitutional movements rising up to defend the constitution and re-establishing the constitution in 1909 when their forces marched to Tehran, forcing Mohammad Ali Shah’s abdication. However, with foreign intervention, he was later replaced by his young son, Ahmad Shah Qajar, who was the last of the Qajar Dynasty after the British-backed 1921 Coup by another dictator, Reza Khan (Mirpanj), removed him from the power. Two figures from Iranian Azerbaijan became the most popular and most famous figures of the pro-constitution movement: Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan.
The Constitutional Movement was followed by the Jungle Movement of Gilan in 1914 led by Mirza Kouchek Khan.
The PMOI see themselves as the children of Sattar Khan and Bagher Khan moving along the very path to democracy and freedom that the Iranian people started so many decades ago.
This year, on the anniversary of the constitutional revolution, PMOI activists across Iran campaigned to honor the martyrs of constitutional revolution and to value the principles that the Iranian people started to fight for many years ago.
The followings are some videos of the PMOI/MEK activists inside Iran celebrating the anniversary of Iran’s Constitutional Movement.
Video Sources: PMOI/MEK