It is one of history’s most tragic ironies; that those who chant “Laal Salam” in India today often stand shoulder to shoulder with the very forces that once butchered their ideological kin. Across the world, whenever a conflict erupts involving an Islamist regime, communists, especially the Indian communists, instinctively rally behind it, cloaked in the language of anti-imperialism and solidarity. The ongoing Iran-Israel tensions are just the latest example. But how many of these torchbearers of Marx truly remember or dare to acknowledge, what Islamists did to communists in Iran?
The truth is soaked in blood and silence.
In 1979, as the Iranian people rose up to overthrow the Shah, it was not just clerics who marched, thousands of leftists, students, workers, and revolutionaries were on the frontlines. They believed they were fighting for a just, secular, egalitarian Iran. But as soon as Ayatollah Khomeini took control, the dream collapsed into a nightmare. The very comrades who had shared the battlefield were declared enemies of God. They were rounded up, tortured, executed.
Nearly 10,000 leftists were killed within a year. In 1988, over thousands imprisoned communists were massacred in cold blood under Khomeini’s direct orders. There were no trials. Only silence, ropes, and shallow graves. And yet, decades later, many of their ideological heirs in India still lend moral cover to the same regime. The same regime that declared war not just on dissent, but on their very existence.
This was not an isolated betrayal. From Turkey to Afghanistan, from Lebanon to Sudan, leftist groups have been strangled by Islamist regimes that see no room for ideological pluralism. Communism, with its vision of classless society, secular governance, and workers’ rights, is a threat to theocratic power and has been treated as such.
So the question must be asked: why this selective amnesia? Why does outrage dry up when the boot is on the Islamist foot? Why do Indian communists speak of solidarity, but never of their slaughtered brothers in Evin prison?
This report is not just a recounting of historical facts, it is a plea for ideological honesty. A reminder that the bond between communism and Islamism is not one of brotherhood, but of betrayal. And before one stands in defence of regimes like Iran, one must pause to ask, would they defend you?
The Iranian Revolution: An Ideological Betrayal of the Left
The 1979 Iranian Revolution, which overthrew the secular monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, initially saw a broad-based coalition of dissenters, secular liberals, Islamic reformists, and communists, unite in opposition.
Leftist groups, particularly the Tudeh Party, provided essential ideological and military support to the revolution.
However, once Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established the Islamic Republic, the alliance unraveled violently.
In one of the most brutal purges in modern history, the new theocratic regime began executing leftists almost immediately. By the end of 1979, the regime had executed nearly 4,500 non-Islamists, including communists and liberals. Between 1979 and 1980, approximately 10,000 leftists were killed, and in 1988, an additional 4,000 imprisoned leftists were summarily executed under Khomeini’s direct orders.
Leftist parties were outlawed, their leaders forced into exile or executed, and their ideology labeled as an existential threat.
Khomeini made the regime’s ideological stance explicit. On July 20, 1988, he declared, “We are intent on tearing out the roots of corrupting Zionism, capitalism, and Communism in the world… to spread the regime of the Islam of the messenger of God.” (The New York Times, July 23, 1988).
The message was clear: Islamism would not tolerate the ideological competition posed by communism.
Suppression of Communists Across the Islamic World
Iran’s post-revolutionary purge of leftists mirrors a broader trend seen across the Muslim world. In Turkey, leftist groups were ruthlessly suppressed during political upheavals, with Islamists aiding in dismantling leftist student movements and trade unions.
In Afghanistan, the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan was violently overthrown by Islamist mujahideen, with the help of foreign Islamist states and Western powers.
Lebanon’s Civil War saw leftist factions such as the Lebanese Communist Party and secular nationalist movements marginalised and attacked by rising Islamist militias. In every instance, the ideological clash was deadly. The fragile alliances that briefly emerged during anti-colonial or anti-Western struggles dissolved quickly once Islamists gained the upper hand.
Iran’s Internal Repression: The Machinery of Theocracy
Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has maintained its grip on power through a deeply repressive state apparatus. The Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), Revolutionary Guards, and judiciary systematically silence dissent. Notorious figures like Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali, known as the “hanging judge,” oversaw mass executions under the guise of revolutionary justice.
Political repression has targeted diverse groups: women, minorities, and journalists. The Baha’i community was especially persecuted accused of being Zionist spies, many Baha’is were tortured, raped, murdered, and expelled. Their population dropped from 700,000 to 500,000 in just months after the revolution. Ethnic minorities such as the Kurds and Ahwazi Arabs faced military crackdowns and systemic discrimination.
Women’s rights have been severely curtailed under the Sharia-based system. Compulsory hijab laws apply to girls as young as nine, enforced through morality police. Travel restrictions, stoning for adultery, and flogging remain institutionalized. Iran ranked 140th out of 144 countries in the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report.
Control over the media is absolute. Independent journalism has been criminalized, with at least 860 journalists imprisoned or executed between 1979 and 2009. Evin Prison remains a symbol of the regime’s cruelty, with nearly 1.7 million detainees processed through its gates in three decades.
Iran’s Global Terrorism and Aggression
Externally, Iran’s commitment to exporting its revolution has manifested in terrorism and proxy warfare. The 1979 U.S. embassy hostage crisis, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days was only the beginning. Hezbollah, Iran’s most notorious proxy, was responsible for the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 Americans.
Between 1982 and 1992, Hezbollah kidnapped 25 Americans in Lebanon, murdering five. Iran and Hezbollah were also responsible for the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and AMIA Jewish Center in Argentina, killing over 100. In 1996, the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, carried out by Hezbollah Al-Hejaz, killed 19 American servicemen.
Iran’s ties to al-Qaeda also demonstrate its cynical geopolitical opportunism. Despite Sunni-Shia differences, Iran facilitated al-Qaeda movements, harboring key operatives and enabling attacks on Western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iranian-funded militias have killed over 1,000 U.S. soldiers through advanced IEDs like Explosively Formed Penetrators.
Terror Networks in Latin America
Iran has extended its reach into Latin America through Hezbollah’s financial and military operations. In countries like Venezuela and Bolivia, Tehran has found ideological allies against the U.S. Hezbollah’s operations in the Tri-Border Area (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay) serve as hubs for narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling, and money laundering. In 2017, the FBI arrested a Hezbollah agent for plotting attacks in Panama. Latin America thus serves as both a base and a funding source for Iran’s global terror apparatus.
Implications for Indian Leftists and Global Policy
For Indian leftist parties, the Iranian experience serves as a cautionary tale. Despite shared opposition to Western imperialism or Zionism, alliances with Islamist groups are inherently unstable. The fate of Iranian communists, betrayed, purged, and executed reveals the dangers of ideological naivety.
Today, leftist parties in India must navigate this terrain carefully, recognizing the theocratic nature of Islamist movements that ultimately reject pluralism and secularism.
The myth of coexistence between communism and Islamism collapses under the weight of historical evidence.
From the execution of thousands of Iranian leftists to the global targeting of secular dissidents, theocratic regimes have demonstrated their deep incompatibility with communist ideology.
