Did the people agree with the continuation of the war? Yasir Hashmi's shroud

10 Khordad 1364 Rafsanjani, referring to whispers about the fatigue of the people from the continuation of the war, said that in consultation with the Prime Minister and the President, they have decided "in order to know ourselves and others to know us, we announce: those who are all over this country, under  This sky, they agree that the war will continue until the victory and the resolution of sedition" to participate in a ceremony and "announce their opinions to the world with the placards they bring with them."  (Islamic Republic newspaper, June 11, p. 8)

 Hashemi did not say how people who are against the continuation of the war should express their opinions.

 In the following days, this ceremony was decided to be the Quds Day march of 24 June 1964. 

 The Azadi Movement was against the continuation of the war and had statements about this that were published in foreign media.  The Nahdat made a statement about this invitation and wrote: "With the use of government institutions, a grand demonstration in support of the August 28 coup and the White Revolution and coronation has also been possible.  In order to determine the national will, one should give a referendum or allow the opposition to march."

Despite the Iraqi government's threats of unprecedented bombing on Quds Day, a Quds Day march was held on Friday, June 24, 2016, with slogans in support of the continuation of the war. Hashemi wrote that his children also participated in the march and Yasershan came wearing a shroud. He said during the ceremony of his passionate speech: "The great goal that you are pursuing has a high price that must be paid."

Were the people who came to the streets in support of the continuation of the war aware of the price that the war imposed on the country? Can their opinion be considered the opinion of all Iranian people? Usually, in these cases, contradictory statistics of the population are presented. Hashemi wrote in his memoirs that local journalists claimed that 5 million people participated in the Tehran march.

A lot of propaganda was done that people are in favor of the continuation of the war and newspapers wrote about 5 million demonstrations in Tehran. The Azadi Movement wrote in a note that if we consider the march route to be a maximum of 25 kilometers with an average width of 15 meters and the relative concentration of two people per square meter, the total number of marchers is estimated to be 750 thousand people and a maximum of one million people. 435)

Now, after many years, an interesting statistic has been published in the book "Rereading the Imposed War" written by Abdul Hossein Mofid, the then Director of Intelligence of the Army Ground Forces. On page 143 of the book, we read that due to the threat of bombardment of the cities, "the evacuation of the cities and the departure of the people started the night before this march, so that by 22:00 on 23 June 2016, a total of 1,058,500 cars left Tehran; 450,000 from Karaj axis, 7,500 from Qom axis, 500,000 from Haraz axis, 44,000 from Saveh axis, 27,000 from Varamin axis and 30,000 from Garmsar axis.

The statistics are strange...

A few years later in the spring of 1367, the price that Hashemi said people should pay had become so heavy that it was unpayable. Hashemi had come to the conclusion that the continuation of the war may bring Iran to the brink of destruction. This time, maybe there was no need to announce the opinion of the people. Iran was on the verge of defeat. A headquarters was formed to hold a pledge of allegiance to the Imam in support of the war. But this time Hashemi followed up on the cancellation of the march in consultation with Beit Imam. The cancellation of this march had many repercussions. BBC radio analyzed in a commentary that "the purpose of this demonstration was to express agreement with the continuation of the war. Of course, the continuation of the war is the policy of the Islamic Republic, but recently there have been more and more confrontations with this policy. It has been reported that there have been violent clashes in Isfahan between security guards and war refugees. The small liberal group called the Azadi Movement, led by Mehdi Bazargan, the former prime minister of the Islamic Republic, has once again called for peace. Also, among some of the first-rate clerics, signs of dissatisfaction with the continuation of the war have been revealed.

After the Imam canceled the ceremony, the organizing staff came to Hashemi; "I justified them that the Imam's action was appropriate, because the public aspect of the march had been given in the announcements and there was no need for propaganda. "There were not many people participating and it was perceived that people were tired."

In fact, how can you get people's opinion about the country's macro policies?

Jafar Shir Ali Nia

(from the notes of the seized book of historical points)