The Goharshad Mosque rebellion (Persian: واقعه مسجد گوهرشاد) took place in August 1935,[3] when a backlash against the westernizing and secularist policies of Reza Shah of the Pahlavi regime erupted in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran.

Reza Shah Pahlavi stated later in exile his regret in violating the sanctity of God's house.

[2] The Shah's violent Westernization campaign against Shiite society saw a spike in hostilities with the regime in the summer of 1935 when Reza Shah banned traditional Islamic clothing[4] and ordered all men be forced to wear European-style bowler hats.

[2] Responding to a cleric,[citation needed] who denounced the Shah's "heretical" innovations, westernizing, corruption, and heavy consumer taxes, many merchants and locals took refuge in the shrine, chanted slogans such as "The Shah is a new Yazid," likening him to the Umayyad caliph.

The standoff was ended when reinforcements from Iranian Azerbaijan region arrived and broke into the shrine,[11] killing dozens and injuring hundreds, and marking a final rupture between Shia clergy and the Shah.