Iran's Fourth of July: Islamic Revolution Turns 29

TEHRAN, Iran, Feb. 12, 2008— -- This week Iran celebrates the 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, the popular wave that swept today's Shiite Muslim theocracy into power. It is Iran's equivalent of the U.S. Fourth of July, marking the day that the Shah's army gave up and the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control of the country in 1979.

President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad drummed up national pride at a thousands-strong rally in Tehran's Azadi Square Monday, defiant in the face of diplomatic isolation and possible new economic sanctions on his country for its controversial nuclear materials.

"Our nation doesn't back off even one bit from its nuclear rights. … From our standpoint, the nuclear issue is over," Ahmedinejad told the crowd as members of the Revolutionary Guard stood by. He spoke for roughly an hour on everything from theology to the country's scientific and cultural achievements.

For men, women and children in the crowd chants of "death to America" mixed the anti-Western fervor of the revolution with the ideological tension between the United States and Iran.

"[The revolution] was an explosion of light … the Iranian people became victorious over the Shah's regime," said 13-year-old Sepehr Norouzi, who attended the rally with his school. He called the United States "a bully that only sees its selfish interests."

Mehrdad Ashadi, 14, had a different take. "America is a great country in science and technology. … I would love to go there someday."

The holiday known as 22 Bahman -- the Persian calendar's equivalent of Feb. 11 -- marks a day still fresh in the minds of those who lived through the transition from the Shah's regime to the Islamic Republic. One of them, Ebrahim Yazdi, lived it at its epicenter, flying with the Ayatollah Khomeini on his return from exile in France and serving as Iran's first foreign minister in the new regime.

What Yazdi remembers of the day was the euphoria of success after revolutionaries deposed the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, whom they accused of serving the West and torturing critics of his regime.