The next step was the formation of the Students’ Basij, first in high schools and then in universities. The first Basij intervention in politics came at the time of the 1997 presidential election, during which the Basij acted as opposition to Mohammad Khatami’s administration. The cabinet passed the bill to make the Basij a governmental organization on April 30, 1980. According to the bill, “the National Organization of Basij is under the supervision of the commander in chief of the Armed Forces and is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Interior.
A few months later, on February 18, 1981, the Consultative Assembly (Majlis) representatives voted to incorporate the Basij into the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Since then, the IRGC has been in charge of the Basij’s decision-making process. When the statute of the IRGC was finalized on September 6, 1982, the Basij gained its own organizational structure as a complete subunit of the IRGC. The statute devotes an entire chapter to the Basij, which introduces its mission statement.
