Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line

The Muslim Student Follower's of the Imam's Line (Persian: دانشجویان مسلمان پیرو خط امام‎ Dânešjuyân Mosalmân Piru Xatt Emâm), also called the Muslim Students of Imam Khomeini Line, were a group of 300-or-so Iranian College students that stormed the U.S Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, and took 52 American diplomats, hostage, for 444 days.The students were supporters of the Iranian Revolution who occupied the embassy to show their support for Ayatollah Khomeini and their outrage that the ex-Shah of Iran was admitted to the United States for cancer treatment, instead of being returned to Iran for trial and execution.

The organization comprised students from several major science and technology universities of Tehran, including the University of Tehran, Sharif University of Technology, and Tehran Polytechnic.

Amongst the students were Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who concocted the original idea to seize the American embassy in September 1979, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Habibolah Bitaraf, and Masumeh Ebtekar, who was the group's spokesperson during the embassy hostage-taking and later became the vice president of Iran during Mohammad Khatami's presidency.

Their name refers to the Imam, that is, the leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was not informed of the occupation of the embassy in advance, but later supported and confirmed the action. Information from other sources suggests Ayatollah Khomeini not only knew of the plans ahead of time, but approved them as well.

Iran was already a mess in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution but the students' actions made it even worse and it caused outrage - especially in the US — and proved to the international community that the revolutionaries could not be trusted.

The Moderate Prime Minister that Khomeini appointed after the Revolution, Mehdi Bazargan, was vehemently angry about the students' actions and demanded the immediate release of the hostages. When his protests fell on deaf ears, a day later he and his entire Cabinet resigned in protest and the United States eventually severed diplomatic ties after months of failed negotiations, put in place sanctions, and seized extensive Iranian assets.

It is unknown if the students were aware that their actions would ruin Iran's international reputation and credibility as the country become even further isolated from the world. Regardless if they cared or not, little did they realized that Saddam Hussein, the ruler of neighboring Iraq, took advantage of this incident and Iraqi forces invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, less than a year after the hostage-taking, which started a war that would last nearly eight years and led to a staggering count of one million casualties and over $600 billion dollars in damage.

It is unknown what became of the group after the hostages were released but it's presumed that they have long since disbanded. While some members (i.e Massomeh Ebtekar/"Sister Mary") defend their actions and have no regrets of the incident. Others, however, including Ebrahim Asgharzaeh, have since regretted the hostage-taking.