Abstract
This project discusses the Iranian revolution of 1979 looking at many aspects. Starting with a general overview of the History of Persia and Iran, then overviewing Islam as part of Iran the evolution of Iran. Moreover, this project will assess the pre-revolution period of 1979 and then will move to the evolution of the revolution, its influence internally and its result across the globe. Overall, this project will assess the role of Islam for the revolution and will be fully informative discussing and guiding readers about the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
I-Introduction
1.1 History of Persia
Before it was named Iran, Persia is considered one of the oldest empires. The Persian Empire started since the Iron Age, it took home of one of the oldest and major civilizations and settlements that dated since 400 BC. Being a superpower, Being a superpower, Persia has been vanquished far and wide, starting with the Greeks, then the Arabs, Turks, and the Mongols. Iran has constantly tried to reassert its national character and has created as an unmistakable political and social element and has developed as a clear and unique political and cultural entity.
During 550-330 BC , the “Achaemenid” dynasty ruled the very first Persian Empire. At its highest magnitude under Darius I expanses from the Aegean Sea and Libya and up towards the Indus Valley. Then 492-479 BC, marks the failure of Persia to conquer Greece.
312-140 BC – Most of the Persian empire becomes part of the Greek “Seleucid” Empire, which is founded by Alexander the Great.
224-651 AD – While The “Sassanid” dynasty was ruling Persia ; Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion at the time and Islam wasn’t born yet.
1.2 Islam
Islam is the dominant religion in Iran, the emergence of Islam into Iran started from the year 636 – while Arabs invaded the region and that was what carried the end of “Sassanid” dynasty and the start Islamic ruling. Iran, as we know it is a theocracy that combines religion and the state “more thoroughly than any other country in the world”. ( Cole,2011)
Shiite Islam presents an exceptional place to its clerics and calls for a sightless obedience to their rulings system, especially on religious law also known as the shari’a. Saying that, religion and politics are inseparable and religion is central in Iran’s populist politics.
1.3 Pre-revolution
The pre-revolution, also known as the “White Revolution” was a sweeping arrangement of changes in Iran dispatched in 1963 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi . Mohammad Reza Shah’s change project was built particularly to fortify those classes that supported the “traditional system”. The Shah publicized the White Revolution as a stage towards westernization, however there is little uncertainty that he likewise had political intentions; the White Revolution was a path for him to legitimize the Pahlavi tradition. Part of the explanation behind dispatching the White Revolution was that the Shah would have liked to get rid of the landowners’ impact and make another base of backing the labors and working class and to preserve the traditional patterns of power. Through land reform, the main motive behind the White Revolution, is that the Shah hoped to become an ally himself with the peasantry in the countryside, and hoped to cut their ties with the nobility in the city : a class the Shah wanted to pick up as an subordinate to stop the risk of the undeniably hostile center class.[ Thus the White Revolution in Iran spoke to another endeavor to present change from above and safeguard conventional force designs.
So as to legitimize the White Revolution, the Shah requisite a national choice during mid 1963 in which” 5,598,711 individuals voted in favor of the changes, and 4,115 voted against those changes.” (Maloney, 2013).
II- The 1979 Iranian revolution
2.1 Beginnings of the revolution
Starting from 1963 and into 1970’s, the Shah had struggled to modernize Iran. “US policymakers saw him as a stabilizing force in the Middle East, and they appreciated his recognition of Israel’s existence”(Smitha, 1998). Moreover, with the continuous support from the west and especially the US, Iran engaged in new plans for proliferation of atomic power plants, as well as new emerging industries that began to rise. New reforms started taking place and numerous laws were established. Many of those reforms led to public dissatisfaction, which provides the settings for an Iranian revolution. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s father, Reza Shah, have had replaced Islamic laws with Western ones, which prohibited traditional Islamic apparel, separation of the sexes and covering women’s face with the hijab.
Hence, with the increase in social dissatisfaction in the 1970s in Iran, which ended up in the revolution at the end of the decade, Iran started being unstable, ie: the beginning of a coup d’état. Although oil revenues sustained to be one of the major source of revenue for Iranians in the 1970’s, world fiscal and financial instability and fluctuations in the consumption of oil in the West totally threatened Iran’s economy, which had been quickly extending subsequent to the mid 1950s and was still coordinated in vast part toward high-cost tasks and projects. This decade for Iranians was of exceptional monetary development, overwhelming government spending, and a boom in oil prices, which all finally led to high rates of inflation and the stagnation of Iranians’ purchasing power and to a decline in living standards.
2.2 The 1979 Outbreak
The shah’s determination and ambition to lead oil-rich Iran to be one of the most powerful countries in the world started to awry by the mid 70’s. “A mass protest movement that began in 1977 picked up momentum in late 1978”(Tran, 2009)
On January 16 1979, the Shah left Iran. Him and his family were forced into exile.
1st of February 1979 – The fundamentalist Islamist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , returns to Iran subsequent to 14 years of exile in Iraq and France for opposing the regime. More than five million Iranians gathered in the streets of Tehran, to witness the return of the Shia Muslim “imam”.
1979 1 April – The Islamic Republic of Iran is announced and proclaimed officially following a referendum done by the citizens.
1979 4 November – Tehran: Islamic rebels conquest the United States embassy and took 52 Americans hostage. “They demanded the extradition of the Shah, in the US at the time for medical treatment, to face trial in Iran”(BBC news)