Since the December 2017-January 2018 protests, the largest at the time in terms of geography since the 1979 revolution, demonstrators across the country have consistently called for an end to the Islamic Republic. On some occasions, demonstrators have explicitly expressed regret over their role in the 1979 revolution. Many Iranians, particularly those who sympathize with leftist organizations involved in the revolution— such as the Mujahedeen Khalq (MEK), the Fedayeen Khalq, and the Tudeh Party—maintain that the 1979 revolution was a positive development in itself, but that the revolution was hijacked by Islamists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Looking back at the events of 1979 and the immediate aftermath of the revolution, however, reveals that the narrative of a stolen revolution is false.
