Iran celebrates anniversary of 1979 revolution

TEHRAN, Iran -- Helicopters rained flowers over Tehran and sirens wailed across the city Saturday to celebrate the 24th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution.

But the festive spirit was lost on Iranian reformists, with some complaining that the country's hard-line establishment had not delivered on promises made after the 1979 revolution to reform the Persian state's society.

Saturday was the first of 10 days of festivities -- known as the "Ten Days of Dawn" -- that mark the homecoming of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to Iran, whose return sparked mass protests that led to the ouster of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and establishment of hard-line Islamic rule.

Church and school bells rang out, mixing with the wail of train and boat sirens at 9:33 a.m., the time Khomeini touched down 24 years ago at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport aboard a chartered Air France plane after 14 years in exile.

Ten days later, the shah's monarchial rule effectively collapsed following mainly student-led mass protests.

Many not interested

Helicopters showered flowers along the route from the airport to Khomeini's shrine in south Tehran, where a small group of followers gathered.

But many Iranians showed little interest in the state-organized celebrations, the staging of which coincides with increasing public calls for freedom and democracy -- reforms that were promised to the nation 24 years ago but not yet fulfilled.

"Twenty-four years after the revolution, respected scholars and writers are jailed for speaking their mind and students suppressed for demanding justice," said reformist student leader Majid Jafari. "This is totally against the goals of the revolution."

Stolen revolution

Jafari said the hard-line establishment, run by Khomeini's successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stole the people's revolution for its own interests and was punishing anyone who criticized it.

Reformist lawmaker Meisam Saeedi said more than 120 lawmakers have called for a closed parliamentary session to investigate the continued hard-line crackdown against writers and political activists, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday.

On Friday, Montazeri compared Iran's rulers to the former shah.

"That a group of people decides for the nation is dictatorship," he said two days after his release. "The only difference (from the past) is that some clerics have replaced the shah."