Goharshad Mosque rebellion

The Goharshad Mosque rebellion or 1935 Goharshad Mosque massacre took place in 1935, when a backlash against the modernizing, secularist policies of Reza Shah erupted in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad. Responding to a cleric, who denounced the Shah's heretical innovations, corruption and heavy consumer taxes, many bazaaris and villagers took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yezid", likening him to the tyrannical Umayyad caliph responsible for the massacre of Shias at the Battle of Karbala.

For four full days local police and army refused to violate the shrine and the standoff was ended when troops from Azerbaijan arrived and broke into the shrine, killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shia clergy and the Shah.

According to a British report, which might have deliberately lowered the numbers, the outcome of the event resulted in 2 Army officers and 18 soldiers killed; 2 soldiers executed on the spot for disobedience; 1 soldier committed suicide; there were 128 dead among the villagers, 200-300 wounded and 800 arrested.