The event of September 17, 1978, widely remembered in Iran as Black Friday (Shanbeh-ye Siah) and in some accounts as the “September 17 Massacre”, stands as one of the most decisive and tragic moments in the final year of the Pahlavi monarchy. On that Friday morning, in Tehran’s Jhaleh Square (today Martyrs’ Square on Mojahedin-e-Islam Street), government forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing dozens of protesters. Official figures at the time cited 87 dead, while opposition sources and foreign observers reported numbers in the hundreds or even thousands. Later historical studies, including those by journalist and historian Emad al-Din Baghi, confirmed that the official count of around 88 deaths was largely accurate, though the event’s symbolic weight far exceeded its casualty count.
Black Friday became a turning point in the Iranian Revolution of 1978–1979. It eroded any lingering possibility of compromise between the monarchy and the opposition, destroyed the legitimacy of the Shah’s regime in the eyes of much of the population, and galvanized revolutionary fervor in Iran. To understand the magnitude of this event, it is crucial to explore the political background, the lead-up demonstrations, the massacre itself, and its aftereffects, both immediate and long-term.
