Hezbollahi

Hezbollahi

The Hezbollah, or Party of God, (also HizbAllah or Hizbullah) is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power. References in the media or writing are usually made to members of the group — or Hezbollahi — rather than Hezbollah, as Hezbollah is/was not a tightly structured independent organisation, but more a movement of loosely bound groups, usually centered around a mosque.

Hezbollahi are said to "generally act without meaningful police restraint or fear of persecution," and initially attacked demonstrations and offices of newspapers that were critical of the Ayatollah Khomeini. They are said to have "played an important role on the street at crucial moments in the early days of the revolution by confronting those the regime regarded as counter-revolutionaries."

Once political challenges to the regime had died down, Hezbollahi attacks expanded to include a wide variety of activities found to be undesirable for "moral" or "cultural" reasons, such as poor hijab, mixing of the sexes and consumption of alcohol. Mojtaba Bigdeli is a spokesman for the Iranian Hezbollah.