Hezbollah (Iran)

Hezbollah (Persian: حزب‌الله, romanized: Ḥezbo'llāh, lit. 'Party of God') is an Iranian movement formed at the time of the Iranian Revolution to assist the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his forces in consolidating power, initially by attacking demonstrations and offices of newspapers that were critical of Khomeini. References in the media or writing are usually made to members of the group—or Hezbollahi—rather than Hezbollah, as Hezbollah at the time was not a tightly structured independent organisation, but more a movement of loosely bound groups, usually centered on a mosque. Hezbollahi are said to "generally act without meaningful police restraint or fear of persecution," despite breaking the law by assaulting people and destroying property. 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, Hezbollah 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.