On June 21 to 22, 1981 Iran's parliament impeached President Abolhassan Banisadr and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini formally dismissed him, ending the power struggle between Iran's first elected president and the clerical establishment and forcing Banisadr to flee into exile. Banisadr, a lay Islamist intellectual elected president in early 1980, had clashed increasingly with the clergy-dominated Islamic Republican Party over the conduct of the war with Iraq, press freedom, and clerical power. Khomeini, who as Supreme Leader could dismiss the president, sided with the clerics: on June 10, 1981 he stripped Banisadr of the command of the armed forces.
On June 21, 1981 the Majlis voted overwhelmingly to impeach Banisadr for political incompetence, and Khomeini signed the dismissal the next day. Banisadr went into hiding and escaped to France in late July. The removal touched off intense violence against the opposition.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Abolhassan Banisadr, impeached by the Majlis on June 21 and dismissed by Khomeini on June 22, 1981; he went into hiding and fled to France, not physically harmed.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Abolhassan Banisadr (president impeached and exiled)
Ruhollah Khomeini (Supreme Leader who dismissed him)
The Islamic Republican Party (the clerical faction that ousted him)
Sources
On 21 June 1981 legislators filed articles of impeachment against Banisadr, which Khomeini endorsed and signed off on the next day, after Khomeini had on 10 June 1981 stripped Banisadr of his title as commander-in-chief, and in the days before his removal Banisadr had gone into hiding in Tehran as the Revolutionary Guard seized presidential buildings.
Presidential elections were held in Iran on 24 July 1981 after the previous president Abolhassan Banisadr was impeached by the Majlis on 21 June and then sacked by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini on 22 June, following which Banisadr fled to France.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, July 1981 Iranian presidential electionopen source ↗
On 21 June the Majles voted 177 to 1 in favor of impeaching the president and the following day Khomeini formally dismissed him from office, and the ouster of President Banisadr did not put an immediate end to the opposition but moved it to armed resistance against the new government.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, History of the Islamic Republic of Iranopen source ↗
Banisadr fell out with Khomeini, who as supreme leader retained ultimate authority and reclaimed the power of Commander-in-Chief on 10 June 1981, and after his impeachment Banisadr fled back to France where he co-founded the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
SOURCE REVIEWEDWikipedia, Presidency of Abolhassan Banisadropen source ↗
Editorial Note
Coding note and dataset examination: the dataset labels this an auto-coup, and the classification is defensible in that the removal was driven from within the regime's own power structure (the Supreme Leader and the parliament he backed) rather than by an external faction, effectively concentrating power in the clerical establishment; the record enriches it as coded while noting the mechanism was a formal impeachment plus a constitutional dismissal by the Supreme Leader. Banisadr himself later called it a creeping coup, a characterization recorded as his own framing. Fate coding: Banisadr was not physically harmed; he went into hiding and escaped to France in late July 1981, matching the dataset. Arc link: this connects to the 1979 revolution records (batch 30) and the consolidation of clerical power; it removed the first elected president as Khomeini's faction crushed rivals. Neutrality on a contested subject: the record confines itself to the documented sequence. Violence context recorded: the removal was followed by intense repression, including the June 28, 1981 Hafte Tir bombing that killed the IRP chief Beheshti and dozens of officials, and mass executions of opposition members; these are recorded as documented context and separate events, cited to sources rather than adjudicated.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Abolhassan Banisadr, impeached by the Majlis on June 21 and dismissed by Khomeini on June 22, 1981; he went into hiding and fled to France, not physically harmed..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
“KHOMEINI ORDERS MILITARY PURGE AND INCREASED PRESSURE ON LEFT,” July 10, 1981
Globe and Mail
“Arrest of Bani-Sadr ordered ’on sight’ by Iran’s prosecutor,” June 22, 1981
Boston Globe
“US aide fears communist coup,” June 24, 1981
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →