What Impact Did The Traditional / Secular Muslims And Religious Fundamentalists Make During The Iranian Revolution? Essay

Iran has always, it seems, been the breeding ground for some kind of political upheaval or another. In recent times, back in 1979, there was a major revolution which was, in some ways, similar to the revolution we are seeing today. The people were angry and they were tired of being controlled by the government that was in power. They had concrete ideals and were incredibly passionate about their revolution. The revolution Iran is experiencing today does not appear to be quite as passionate and does not appear to maintain a belief in any real solid political system. They just know they want something different. In the following paper we present an illustration of the current revolution that is taking

Pre-revolutionary Iran was very different from revolutionary Iran. During the revolution, Khomeini held power(). He was a devout religious leader that enforced very strict laws on how the country should live by bringing religion and government together. Because of this, women were forced to wear veils and wear long garments to hide their figure. Reza Shah ruled Iran before Khomeini and had entirely different political ideals. He wanted to keep religion and government separate from each other (). As soon as Reza Shah was inaugurated into power, he seeked to progress Iran by adopting western ideas and culture (Sarder 1). Throughout his rule, Reza Shah turned Iran into an urbanized country by making social classes and improving their educational

When the Iranian Revolution succeeded in 1979, Iran wanted to gain the admiration and the support of Arab countries, benefiting in particular from the support by the Shah of Iran and his relationship with Israel before the collapse of his regime. On this very first day of the victory of the revolution, Iran was keen to extend its bonds with the Islamic world, and when this was not possible in most cases, because of many complex causes of the revolution, Iran began to look for «organizations» instead of «regime’s or countries», in order to continue its role in Islamic issues. Iran was keen to show that this role was one of the foundations of the revolution and its beliefs, in

The reformation of the country of Iran toward Islam caused turmoil among the people because the drastic changes forced on the people were not easily accepted. One of the major changes is that

Iran was faced with high unemployment rates and immense property, as workers had low wages and protection, and the country was underdeveloped. Iranians lost hope for a better future, as the promises of a prosperous Iran made by the Shah were not coming true. For example, the Shah believed that developing an industrial base with multiple foreign contractors and corporations would be economically beneficial for the country. Due to these investments made, Iran's oil market was flourishing in the late 1970's. However, an increase in oil profits resulted in problems with absorbing funds, leading to an increase in spending. Iran was therefore hit with effects such as inflation and corruption. Another example is that the Shah hoped for a modernization program for Iran. With this, the hope was to limit the land one could hold, decreasing the financial gap between the wealthy and poor. The result was that wealthy families continued to be as wealthy and the economic status of peasants generally worsened. Modernization also negatively affected religious institutions relying on a network of exchange, as limited land made it harder for trade. A final consequence of land reform was that peasants were forced to move to cities, begging to Westerners in order to feed themselves. These peasants began to see the negative impact western culture had made in society. They found inner peace through

During Satrapi’s early childhood, the traditions and history of Iran had been going through drastic changes. The Iranian Revolution was when Iran’s monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the revolution. ii

Iran was looked at as a country filled with male dominance. In Iran women were only allowed to stay at home and take care of the house and the children. But all of that changed in 1936. Beginning in 1936 women were given the opportunity

Both Iranian art and Iranian politics have undergone many drastic transformations during the 20th and 21th centuries. In the early 20th century, Iranian modern art was born. Reza Pahlavi took power, ending the Qajar dynasty. The new Pahlavi dynasty would only last 54 years, but under Reza Shah, Iran began the process towards westernization. The conflict between this rapid modernization and Iran’s strong cultural tradition affected the art of the period- visual culture blended western styles with Persian and Islamic imagery. The 1979 revolution brought a wave of traditionalism and Islamization to Iran, and art reflected this trend. Western influence was shunned, and more and more political and religious themes began to appear. During the turn

The middle-east has always been a hot zone for religious and political conflict but more specifically, Iran. Iran is an Islamic state where Islam is practiced within politics. The Constitution of 1979 runs off of the basis of Islamic Law. The population of Iran varies upon resources but they are all around the number of seventy million people. The country is 90 percent Shia Muslim and eight-percent Sunni Muslim.1 The rest of the country is made up of very small minority religions. The minority religions have very little influence in the country and are easily thrown around by the government and the majority Shia Muslims.

However, the ideas had already spread throughout the Iranian people and religious protesting escalated continuously. People’s ideas of recreating a religious based government persisted to an unstoppable level. Khomeini, whom many protesters felt to be a hero, said in a speech in 1979, “Do not try to westernize everything you have! Look at the West, and see who the people are in the West that present themselves as champions of human rights and what their aims are. Is it human rights they really care about, or the rights of the superpowers? What they really want to secure are the rights of the superpowers. Our jurists should not follow or imitate them” (Ayatollah Khomeini: speech on the uprising of Khurdad 15, 2010). Based on this quote, the “voice” of the protesting Iranians was that westernization was not a good thing because the west does not care for human rights and freedoms of the lesser powers in the world and that the way to change for the better is to impose the Islamic values that already existed into society. In January of 1979, the Shah fled the country under the pressure of the people and Khomeini returned to Iran to be greeted as a hero (Bentley & Ziegler, n.d., p. 1117). Fighting erupted between Khomeini’s supporters and remaining military officials and on the eleventh of February the government fell. On the first of April, Khomeini proclaimed the beginning of the new Islamic republic (Islamic

The emergence of the Islamic Republic in late 1970’s Iran demonstrates how middle class Iranian people purged themselves of the Pahlavi Dynasty in an effort to continue down a more righteous and egalitarian path. As a result, the country underwent a complete social upheaval and in its place grew an overtly oppressive regime based in theoretical omnipotence. In response to this regime, the very structure of political and social life was shaken and fundamentally transformed as religion and politics became inexorable. As a result, gender roles and the battle between public and private life were redrawn. Using various primary and secondary sources I will show how the Revolution shaped secular middle class Iranians. Further, I will show how the

During the Iranian Revolution in 1979 transformed Iran’s political,social,and economic structure. Secular Laws were replaced with Islamic laws creating an outburst. Women were often abused,raped,treated as slaves,and accused of false imprisonment. These tortures things that most women had to face are against the Islamic religion.

Because of Shariati’s brilliant mind, his political theories and interpretation of Islam as the revolutionary ideologue for social change, strongly ignited the desire and determination of the Iranians particularly Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini to overthrow the Shah regime. The Iranian Revolution, was a popularly supported response to a corrupt regime, but unlike many prior revolutions, the main ideology fueling the revolution was religion. Although it was Shariati’s Shiism revolutionary ideologue that fueled the desire of the Iranians for change, much of the ideological justification was routed through Shi‘ism espoused by the ideological mastermind of the revolution, Khomeini who was at the same time influenced by Shariati’s ideas. Shariati died before the revolution, but Khomeinin borrowed mostly his idea from him and applied it. If not only his death, he could have sparked more debates and spread his brilliant political theories that will challenge other

This continued to exacerbate the gap between the social classes of Iran. The main reason for the Shah’s confidence in bringing his people prosperity was the mass amount of revenue Iran was generating from Oil. The nationalization of Iran’s oil in the fifties meant increased profits for the nation. Iran’s economy was growing exponentially; its GDP was five times higher in 1976 than it was in 1960 (Clawson, p.15). Islamic modernists, such as Marxist Mujaheddin-e-Khalq, opposed the Shah’s capitalist economic policies (Diller 1991, p.152). There were several other groups that were not pleased with the Shah’s growing focus on economic growth, including the ulemas (councils composed of local Mullahs or respected religious leaders) (Sanders 1990, p.66). These ulemas possessed considerable local influence, as they were in charge of the educational systems and had influence over the urban poor and bazaar merchants (Diller 1991, p.152). In the midst of all that was going on in Iran, Khomeini lived in exile in Paris. The Ayatollah however, was well informed, and managed to sneak tapes into the country to his supporters and the local ulemas. These tapes spread the word of Islamic fundamentalism to these groups that opposed that Shah, and gave them a binding power that eventually would be the revolution of February 1979. Not long, Khomeini had

The Shah ultimately lost his throne because his policies had frustrated and alienated nearly all sectors of Iranian society