Talk:Basij

numbers
If the BBC says 1 out of 7 is a member of the Basij, why is it a gross exaggeration to say 15%? 1 out of 7 is like 14.3%, I would not call 15% a gross exaggeration then!

Well isn't this an interesting little stub for a "military unit" that consists of sending children as young as 12 at enemy machine guns armed with nothing but a Quran in the Iran-Iraq war. Making children eat bullets until the enemy runs out of ammunition. I hope someone more politically correct than I can add a little truth to this article because as the article stands now, but boy does the basij sound like a great benefits package! Whispering Death 09:28, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Changes of 12:55, 10 March 2006
Sources for the version of 12:55, 10 March 2006:

--tickle me 12:59, 10 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Final report on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran (E/CN.4/1994/50)
 * amnesty.org, report 2001, Islamic Republic of Iran
 * countrystudies.us

Changed the language relating to the UNHCR to more accurately reflect the report cited70.29.58.157 (talk) 01:13, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

Vandalism
Well sourced information should not be removed from articles without good reason. I'm watching this article and if removals like this and this persist those removing it may be blocked. --Tony Sidaway 07:03, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

This also applies to inappropriate removals of items from the talk page. --Tony Sidaway 10:48, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

You are very annoying and ignorant
Listen buddy, stop changing back everything I change into the correct information. You are intentionally spreading false information in the Basij article.

That picture is a well known photoshop edit by a jewish website, I have seen this picture eBaum before.

You are talking to a personal who knows members of the Basij. First of all that picture is not of the Basij, but of the Lebanese Hezbollah, and second of all it is a photoshop edit. So stop vandalizing that page or I will complain about you.

And also stop asking me ignorant questions like, "if it's well-known, prove it". I don't know how it is at your home, but in the real world people don't document their jokes in the history books. (unsigned post by ArmanJ, moved here from Tickle me's talk page)


 * It's obviously pointless arguing with you, I complained with Tony Sidaway. --tickle me 08:15, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

See also: Mutaween
The article describes "the prohibition of vice and the promotion of virtue in society as the 'divine policy' of the Basij", according to its commander Hejazi. Thus they qualify as Mutaween like the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and the definition given at Mutaween. This is not diminished by the fact that they have other duties on top of that. --tickle me 08:12, 17 April 2006 (UTC)


 * That's blatant original research. Iran has no police force described as "mutaween" and furthermore the Basij are not even a police force, but a paramilitary. And not only is it bad form to reference other WP articles, the mutaween article itself lacks proper sources as regards Iran and other countries. "Mutaween" may be a proper term of designation for such a force in Saudi Arabia, but not Iran and many other countries. SouthernComfort 03:32, 18 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Plus, it appears that Hejazi's statement is not even properly sourced. SouthernComfort 03:34, 18 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I am sorry but you have it wrong. Being paramilitary does not exclude internal policing. The function of the group is in fact internal policing. One cannot claim they are "not" an internal police force when they carry out this function.Carwon (talk) 14:09, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

defensive attacks
What's a defensive attack? Isn't 'defensive' the opposite of 'attack'?--84.145.253.8 19:13, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Basij?
Hello, it would be nice to get more info about the alleged special ties that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has to the Basij militias. This topic has been mentioned in many newspapers, but I haven't found anything in-depth about it. -- 85.179.165.16 19:59, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

see wikipedia has to be based on facts and facts alons so any "allegfed information" does not count

Plastic keys to Heaven?
Is it true that plastic "keys to heaven" were issued? The fact is frequently mentioned, often with details such as the fact that they were plastic, their number (500,000) and origin (Taiwan). Hexmaster (talk) 10:55, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

No, this originated to my knowledge from the propaganda film "Not without my daughter".--Paradoxic (talk) 22:44, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

"Not Without my Daughter" was not a propaganda film.


 * Several news organizations (BBC, AP, France24) reported that has happened in the past (Iran-Iraq war) but I'm not aware of a more recent incidence.

Current events
Obviously the current events in Iran are a hot-button issue, and are fast moving (and doubtless exciting), but that's no reason to have poorly sourced speculation on this page. A Twitter tweet is not a reputable source, no matter how many bloggers repeat it. Grace Note (talk) 09:59, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * By the same token it is a fact that the Basij are implicated as the lead group in the violent internal repression by all the serious sources. The fact that it is on twitter also does not exclude it as fact.Carwon (talk) 14:03, 23 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Several news organizations have cited Basij being responsible for the death of the woman caught on video (Neda) and for evicting her family from their home after videos of her murder flooded the net. Fuzbaby (talk) 13:40, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Basil marrying/raping virgins before execution
[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534116,00.html In the Islamic Republic of Iran it is illegal to execute a woman if she is a virgin, the former guard told the newspaper. So the government arranges "wedding" ceremonies to be conducted the night before executions, and prisoners are forced to have sexual intercourse with a guard.]

Can this be merged somewhere? Wikifan12345 (talk) 10:51, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Ok aside from all the negative statements being made about the Basiji, can someone post a picture that properly represents the Basiji from the days of the Iran-Iraq War. I understand most of this article negatively speaks about the Basiji, and their role in the suppressing the protests, but I think its not fair to demonize them 100%. Just asking someone to post a picture of the Basiji's who fought in the imposed war of 1980-88.

"..And today's Basiji are different, they are not those who defended ...the country. Young kids are recruited into today's Basiji and are doing partisan political activities. We should try to put the Basiji back on its original track." Mehdi Karroubi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.80.105.24 (talk) 01:12, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

edites 3-19-11
Made some changes and added material to update and cleanup. --BoogaLouie (talk) 21:28, 19 March 2011 (UTC)

question on the bit about weapons
"As the Basij is a volunteer paramilitary organisation, most Basiji are not permitted to carry a firearm except for special requirements. This means that only about 25% of Basij carry firearms, usually an AK-47. However there is no rule saying that they cannot use any other weaponry, an issue which has brought major controversy."

Is there a source for this information? 91.64.188.10 (talk) 12:47, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

A message
Hello Basij's members have not gun except for a few men that they have mandate. Someone said that it's very bad for children to have a gun, I accept it but I as a member of Basij has not use a gun since 10 years ago till now exception of training, there are 2 steps of training periods, we have Basic and advanced shooting classes. In this classes we thought how to use a gun and to act with emergencies and it is available for month in every year. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.99.115.169 (talk) 14:38, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Organization and membership => image
The r man in the picture is not a basiji. if anyone have a source for this, say here.

Danial 19:33, 29 December 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 0Danial0 (talk • contribs)

External links modified
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Basij - Mhossein
It seems like user Mhossein is deliberately trying to block this article by adding copyright notices (without any evidence) and is trying to remove parts of the article that are critical to the organization presented in this article by declaring the sources "unreliable". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.182.70.223 (talk) 06:19, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Stop being disruptive, please. My evidences have long been provided in the template. You can check them. --Mhhossein (talk) 07:29, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Stop blocking freedom of information. Just because you don't like the contents of the article, you have no right to remove parts of it or block the whole. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.182.70.223 (talk) 08:15, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Anyway, I have seen that you have removed large parts of the article and rewrote it so that glorifies the Iranian regime and display Basij as some kind of loyal patriotic organization. You are basically whitewashing an organization that terrorizes everyday people's lives in Iran. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.182.70.223 (talk) 08:22, 14 August 2016 (UTC)
 * "an organization that terrorizes everyday people's lives in Iran," was very funny! Please note that the case of this article will be investigated very soon and the template will be removed after the contents violating the copy right are removed. See this discussion. Repeating this behavior of inserting contents that violate the copy right can lead to sanctions such as block. --Mhhossein (talk) 11:01, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Mhossein is Iranian and obviously doesn't like the content of the article. It has nothing to do with "copyright violations". He is just using that as a pretext to censor information that he finds offensive. Yes, it would be nice to have an administrator step in and put a stop to his shenanigans ASAP. 2602:306:318B:5A20:45F:F49E:BB2D:8816 (talk) 11:48, 14 August 2016 (UTC)


 * No, there are indeed significant copyright issues with this article. For starters, you cannot just build a sentence like Regular members, "who are mobilized in wartime and engage in developmental activities in peacetime. Regular members are volunteers and are unpaid, unless they engage in war-time duty." where you start a sentence normally and then have a quote provide all of the content for the sentence. Quotes are intended to support and contextualize claims made by the authors writing in their own words. Using a quote to provide content rather than context violates transformativeness. This article makes far too much use of quotes... you are better off writing sentences in your own words, and then using whatever source contains the quote as a reference for your sentence.
 * Additionally, please stop making accusations about another editor's motives. Comment on content, not on contributors. Mhossein was perfectly correct to tag this for copyright problems. Anyone, and ideally all of you working together, should collaborate to write a clean version. You can do so Here, but do not remove the copyright tag from the article until it is fully evaluated.
 * Lastly, we need to maintain a balanced view of the subject, and that includes bad as well as good, as long as all claims are verified by reliable sources. From the discussion, it seems you dsagree on the notion of "whitewashing", but you can always ask for neutral help at WikiProject Iran. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crow (talk • contribs) 18:45, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
Prior content in this article duplicated one or more previously published sources. Copied or closely paraphrased material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.)

For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, and, if allowed under fair use, may copy sentences and phrases, provided they are included in quotation marks and referenced properly. The material may also be rewritten, providing it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Therefore, such paraphrased portions must provide their source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 22:38, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your precise edits. I had reported this violation almost 3.5 months ago. Anyway, thank you very much. -- M h hossein   talk 12:29, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry for the delay in getting this cleaned up. There are very few people working on copyright issues right now, which has resulted in a backlog of unfinished work. — Diannaa 🍁 (talk) 12:44, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * You're welcome and thank you Diannaa. You did great. I understand handling all the reports are a time consuming task. -- M h hossein   talk 13:01, 27 October 2016 (UTC)

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Remove the section 'Basij in political literature'?
This section is meaningless word salad evidently services from a single source, and probably written by a non-native English speaker. I've read it over several times and am still not sure what it is trying to say. It contributes precisely nothing to the article and in my opinion should be deleted. St Judas the Lazarene (talk) 00:14, 9 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I couldn’t understand the content either. It has been removed. Garuda28 (talk) 04:14, 9 January 2020 (UTC)