Basij
The Basij is a volunteer paramilitary force within Iran's IRGC, originally created during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988) to supplement the regular military with ideologically committed civilian volunteers. Drawn from poor, rural, religious communities, the Basij became famous for human wave attacks against Iraqi positions, and infamous for suppressing domestic protests, most recently the 2022 Mahsa Amini demonstrations.
Ayatollah Khomeini created the Basij in November 1979, initially as a revolutionary militia. When Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in September 1980, it was rapidly mobilized as frontline infantry. The regular Iranian army had been decimated, officers loyal to the Shah had been arrested, exiled, or executed. The IRGC organized what remained: volunteers, many of them teenagers, from conservative religious families who believed dying in war guaranteed paradise.
The human wave tactics they employed were devastating and terrible. Groups of 22 Basij members would advance across Iraqi minefields, absorbing fire, clearing paths with their bodies, drawing out ammunition and artillery shells that Iraqi forces then couldn't use against the professional units advancing behind. An estimated 100,000–200,000 Basij members died in the war. Each was given a plastic key to wear around their neck, symbolic passage to heaven. The image of those keys became one of the defining images of the Iran-Iraq War.
Postwar, the Basij became an internal security force. It is now estimated at 300,000 active members with millions of reserve affiliates. It suppressed the Green Movement protests in 2009–2010 and the Mahsa Amini protests in 2022–2023 with considerable brutality. Basij members are rewarded with economic benefits, preferential university admissions, and social status, creating a class of regime loyalists with material incentives to protect the Islamic Republic, regardless of its popularity among the general population.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the Basij? ＋
The Basij is Iran's IRGC-affiliated volunteer paramilitary force, created in 1979 and blooded in the Iran-Iraq War. During that war, Basij members, some as young as 16, were given rifles and 'keys to paradise' and sent in human waves across Iraqi minefields. Today, with an estimated 300,000 active members, they primarily function as an internal security force suppressing domestic protests.
How does the Basij suppress protests? ＋
Basij forces deploy in plainclothes and uniform during protests, making identification difficult. They use batons, tear gas, and firearms against demonstrators. In 2022, they killed dozens of protesters during the Mahsa Amini uprising. Their members receive economic benefits and social preferment in exchange for loyalty, creating a class of regime defenders with material stakes in its survival regardless of its public support.