Tehran Eight

Tehran Eight
Founded 1987 (developed since 1979)
Dissolved 1989
Merged into Hezbe Wahdat
Headquarters Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Ideology Shiite Islamism
Anti-Communism
Religion Shia Islam
Politics of Afghanistan
Political parties
Elections

The Tehran Eight[1] was a political union of Shi'a Afghan Mujahideen mainly of Hazara ethnic group, supported by Iran during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The Tehran Eight fought against the PDPA government and the supporting Soviet troops. It formed the second largest Mujahedeen force, after the Peshawar Seven (a Sunni alliance supported by Pakistan).

The eight Shia factions

The following Afghan organizations composed the Tehran Eight, all headquartered in Iran:

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Ruttig, T. Islamists, Leftists – and a Void in the Center. Afghanistan's Political Parties and where they come from (1902-2006). "The first current was mainly represented in the 1980s by the Sunni Mujahedin tanzim based in Pakistan, the ‘Peshawar Seven’, and the Shia Mujahedin groups based in Iran, the ‘Tehran Eight’. The second current mainly consisted of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), with its two major factions Khalq and Parcham, and the ‘Maoist’ groups that emerged from the demokratik-e newin, or ‘new democracy’, commonly referred to as shola’i. For the third current, there are mainly Afghan Millat with at least three different factions on the Pashtun(ist) side and Settam-e Melli on the Tajik side, with some Uzbek and Turkmen elements, and currently Sazman-e Inqilabi-ye Zahmatkashan-e Afghanistan (SAZA), or ‘Revolutionary Organisation of Afghanistan’s Toilers’ and the new Hezb-e Kangara-ye Melli, or ‘National Congress Party’. There is no current Hazara equivalent to them since Hezb-e Wahdat has absorbed the Hazara demand for religious, political and judicial equality."