Pro-Government Militias

Pro-Government Militia Website

Documentation for Komiteh

Feb. 7, 1981
The Globe and Mail (Canada)


Those opposing the leftists yesterday included the Hesbollahi, a group
on the extremist fringe of fundamentalist Islamic thought, and members of
the Komitehs, post-revolutionary security organizations loosely co-o
perating with the Revolutionary Guards

Nov. 19, 1982
The Associated Press

the Revolutionary Guards and "komitehs," vigilante-like groups that enforce Islamic politics and morals.
"Even before it was required of foreigners, the komiteh men used to stop my friends and me and demand that we put on scarves and cover ourselves," she said.

Dec. 16, 1984
The New York Times

the mosques ran the local Komitehs that administered rough vigilante justice after the Shah was overthrown.

Aug. 26, 1985
Newsweek

In Teheran, Revolutionary Guards, Komiteh members and black-clad female guards patrol the streets, stopping pedestrians to smell their breath for alcohol and looking for women who have offended hijab

Sept. 12, 1986
The Associated Press

Komiteh agents he said "achieved notable success in their fight against drug traffickers" on Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, IRNA said.

May 30, 1987
The Washington Post


A statement issued today in Tehran by the "Central Komiteh" of the Revolutionary Guards said that 36-year-old Edward Chaplin, Britain's second-ranking diplomat in Iran, had been "arrested for being a suspect" and had been "temporarily released." The Komiteh was described here as a morals police and espionage watchdog within the Revolutionary Guards organization, which British officials said they consider under the control of the Iranian Interior Ministry

Aug. 25, 1987
The Washington Post

Iran also has organized komitehs, or revolutionary committees, that enforce the new rule in the streets. The komitehs have formed around mosques or mullahs here, but Iranians said they perform roughly the same functions as neighborhood Sandinista Defense Committees in Nicaragua or Revolutionary Defense Committees in Cuba.

Aug. 29, 1987
The New York Times

With power over the police forces and the ''komiteh,'' the neighborhood committees that strongly influence daily life in Iran

May 17, 1988
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

Reports from Tehran and Esfahan state that on various days in the past few months the people of Esfahan have staged street demonstrations in different parts of the city to protest against the tyranny and injustice of the Khomeyni regime, shouting Death to Khomeyni! We do not want war! The guards of the Islamic komitehs intervened a few times to disperse the demonstrators, but were forced to retreat in the face of the mounting fury of the citizens who had reached the limits of their endurance. .

May 28, 1989
The Sunday Times (London)

Members of the Komiteh, the urban militia controlled by the interior ministry,

June 26, 1989
Newsweek

Others bribe members of the vigilante committees called komitehs to forestall raids and arrests.

July 16, 1990
The New York Times

Of all the Government agencies created as a result of the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, not one is more feared or detested than the Komiteh, ..the national disciplinary patrol responsible for enforcing Islamic regulations on social behavior.
While the Iranian police are charged with enforcement of laws dealing with common crime - burglary or assault, for instance - armed officers of the Komiteh (pronounced koh-mee-TAY) prowl the streets in their olive green fatigues...
There are thousands of officers working for individual Komitehs here in the capital and in cities and villages throughout Iran. Their white patrol cars are ubiquitous and can be identified by the ''K'' in Persian on one side of the license plate.
''The Komiteh has more power than the police...'' said a Western diplomat ... ''The problem is that in the name of religion, these people can act like thugs.''
But Iranians from all social classes complain that too little of this new liberty is apparent in their day-to-day lives, due in large part to the influence of the seemingly all-powerful Komiteh.
The Komiteh has broad powers of arrest and imprisonment. Islamic law, as interpreted by the Government, permits Komiteh officers to jail suspects for the slightest offense against Islam or the nation's leaders.

Aug. 31, 1991
The Independent (London)

Sheikh Sadegh Khalkhali, MPs for Tehran and Qom, have blamed the government for fires that destroyed bazaars in Tehran, Kasht, Shira and Tabriz, clashes between ordinary people and the Islamic Komitehs and Guards, and fire-bomb attacks on buses and public buildings

Oct. 26, 1992
The Washington Post,


... taken to an office of the Komiteh, the revolutionary discipline police,

March 1, 1993
Newsweek

The victory of the moderates in last May's Majlis elections prompted wide expectation of a Teheran Spring. With most of the radicals voted out, Rafsanjani announced plans for sweeping economic reforms and reined in the Revolutionary Guards and the troublesome komitehs, a cross between Town Watch groups and lynch mobs.

Dec. 17, 1994
The Economist

Mr Rafsanjani also tried last year to abolish the komitehs, the semi-official squads that roam the streets harassing their fellow-citizens,..He failed. But he did succeed in insisting that the komitehs obtain formal warrants before searching anybody's house...

Feb. 5, 1995
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

Today, the komiteh has been folded into the municipal police force. But strict enforcement continues

Dec. 15, 1996
The Washington Post

After the revolutionary excesses of the 1980s -- such as the murder edict against British writer Salman Rushdie -- Iran began to moderate its policies under Rafsanjani, who was elected to the first of two four-year terms in 1989. Revolutionary gangs, called komitehs, were merged with the civilian police. Political debate flourished. Women were allowed to wear makeup again.

Jan. 18, 1997
The Economist

Dual control

Almost every organisation has its shadow, and the shadow is often the weightier of the two. The army has the Revolutionary Guards, or pasdaran, these days directed particularly towards civil unrest...
The police and the komitehs (the dreaded watchdogs guarding against unIslamic dress or sexual or social hanky-panky) are now formally unified, though practice may be lagging behind. The bullies who peer into cars to catch a sin, ... (and, more often than not, extract money from the sinners) may be extremist squads, such as the Vengeance of God patrol. But they tend to be the subcontracted basij, since, in these post-war years of high youth unemployment, teenagers are happy to join the militia, acting as the clerics' private army