Perils of Reform

On a sunny, cloudless morning last week, Iran's Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi entered the rear seat of his olive green Chrysler limousine at his private palace. It rolled 300 yards across the square and drew up before the massive Kakh-i-Marmar palace containing the royal office. As the Shah left the car, a detail of Imperial Guards snapped to attention.

Grazed Lip. Typically, the Shah glanced warily from side to side, and it was well that he did. His gaze met that of a young conscript named Reza Bakhshabadi, who held his submachine gun at a level lower than usual. The Shah, trained in arms, was well aware of the technique of firing an automatic weapon: start shooting low and then raise your aim--if you take dead aim the kick of recoil makes shots go too high for accuracy.

An instant before the assassin began firing, the Shah bolted for the palace door. A sergeant who ran protectively behind him was felled by eight bullets, but, before dying, he sent a burst from his own gun into Bakhshabadi. When the Shah reached his office, his assassin was dead and the phone was ringing. It was his wife, Queen Farah Diba, who had heard the shots and feared the worst. Said the Shah: "God has saved my life once again."

Assassination is endemic to Iran. In recent years, two Premiers have been murdered as well as a court minister. The Shah dodged bullets in 1949 when a man disguised as a cameraman opened up with a pistol: one bullet grazed the royal lip, another pierced his military cap, the third ripped off an epaulet.

Religious Hotbed. What brings out the fanatic in some Iranians these days is the Shah's "White Revolution," so called because he hopes to implement it without bloodshed. In a desperate effort to bring his country into the 20th century, the Shah has worked to introduce 1) land reform, 2) nationalization of the nation's forests, 3) sale of government factories to private businessmen, 4) profit sharing for workers, 5) amended electoral laws, and 6) mass education in 80% illiterate Iran through a national "literacy corps."

In the process, the Shah has divested himself of all crown-owned villages, bought up 10,000 villages formerly owned by single individuals and redistributed the land to peasants. Women's rights have also been introduced, and six women were elected to Parliament.

The moves brought joy to landless peasants and urban workers but were resented by great landowners, who fear the loss of their power. Similarly, the conservative Moslem mullahs dislike the freedom of women and the decree that shrine lands are to be shared among the peasants. It is probably significant that the soldier who tried to kill the Shah last week came from southern Iran near the nation's religious capital of Qum, a hotbed of anti-Shah feeling.

Many Iranians trembled at the near miss. Said one official: "If the Shah should die tomorrow, this country would become overnight more chaotic than South Viet Nam." The Teheran Journal mourned: "After the Shah there is no one." Young Crown Prince Reza is only four years old, and could not hold effective power even through a regency.

At week's end there was a shake-up in the Imperial Guard. All conscripts have been relieved of duty that would bring them close to the royal presence. From now on, the safety of the Shah will be entrusted to 30 hard-core Guardsmen whose loyalty has been tested by years of service.

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