After the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, Pahlavi
aligned Iran with the Western Bloc and
cultivated a close relationship with the
United States to consolidate his power as
an authoritarian ruler.The American "Operation Ajax",
orchestrated by the CIA, was aided by the
British MI6 in organizing a military coup
d'etat to oust Mossadegh. The Shah fled to
Italy when the initial coup attempt on
August 15 failed, but returned after a
successful second attempt on August
19.[59]
Pahlavi maintained a close relationship
with the U.S. government, as both regimes
shared opposition to the expansion of the
Soviet Union, Iran's powerful northern
neighbor. Like his father, the Shah's
government was known for its autocracy,
its focus on modernization and
Westernization, and for its disregard for
religious and democratic measures in
Iran's constitution. Leftist and Islamist
groups attacked his government (often
from outside Iran as they were suppressed
within) for violating the Iranian
constitution, political corruption, and the
political oppression, torture, and killings,
by the SAVAK secret police. White Revolution (1963-1978)
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
The White Revolution was a far-reaching
series of reforms in Iran launched in 1963
by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and
lasted until 1978. Mohammad Reza Shah's
reform program was built especially to
weaken those classes that supported the
traditional system. It consisted of several
elements including land reform; sales of
some state-owned factories to finance the
land reform; the enfranchisement of
women; nationalization of forests and
pastures; formation of a literacy corps; and
the institution of profit-sharing schemes
for workers in industry. [60]
The Shah advertised the White Revolution
as a step towards westernization,
[61] and it
was a way for him to legitimize the Pahlavi
dynasty. Part of the reason for launching
the White Revolution was that the Shah
hoped to get rid of the influence of
landlords and to create a new base of
support among the peasants and working
class.[62][63] Thus, the White Revolution in
Iran was an attempt to introduce reform
from above and preserve traditional power
patterns. Through land reform, the
essence of the White Revolution, the Shah
hoped to ally himself with the peasantry in
the countryside, and hoped to sever their
ties with the aristocracy in the city. What the Shah did not expect, however,
was that the White Revolution led to new
social tensions that helped create many of
the problems the Shah had been trying to
avoid. The Shah's reforms more than
quadrupled the combined size of the two
classes that had posed the most
challenges to his monarchy in the past--
the intelligentsia and the urban working
class. Their resentment towards the Shah
also grew as they were now stripped of
organizations that had represented them
in the past, such as political parties,
professional associations, trade unions,
and independent newspapers. The land
reform, instead of allying the peasants
with the government, produced large
numbers of independent farmers and
landless laborers who became loose
political cannons, with no feeling of loyalty
to the Shah. Many of the masses felt
resentment towards the increasingly
corrupt government; their loyalty to the
clergy, who were seen as more concerned
with the fate of the populace, remained
consistent or increased. As Ervand
Abrahamian pointed out: "The White
Revolution had been designed to preempt
a Red Revolution."As the foreigners reveled
on drink forbidden by Islam, Iranians were
not only excluded from the festivities,
some were starving." [89] Five years later,
the Shah angered pious Iranian Muslims
by changing the first year of the Iranian
solar calendar from the Islamic hijri to the
ascension to the throne by Cyrus the
the Shah's family was the foremost
beneficiary of the income generated by oil,
and the line between state earnings and
family earnings blurred. By 1976, the Shah
had accumulated upward of $1 billion
from oil revenue; his family - including 63
princes and princesses had accumulated
between $5 and $20 billion; and the family
foundation controlled approximately
$3 billion.[92] By mid-1977 economic
austerity measures to fight inflation
disproportionately affected the thousands
of poor and unskilled male migrants
settling in the cities working in the
construction industry. Culturally and
religiously conservative,[93] many went on
to form the core of the revolution's
demonstrators and "martyrs".[94]
All Iranians were required to join and pay
dues to a new political party, the Hezb-e
Rastakhiz party--all other parties were
banned.[95] That party's attempt to fight
inflation with populist "anti-profiteering"
campaigns--fining and jailing merchants
for high prices - angered and politicized
merchants while fueling black markets.[120] These and later events in
Renewed protests (August-
September)
Appointment of Jafar Sharif-Emami as
prime minister (11 August)
By August, the protests had "kick[ed]...into
high gear,
"
[122] and the number of
demonstrators mushroomed to hundreds
of thousands.[119] In an attempt to dampen
inflation, the Amuzegar administration cut
spending and reduced business. However,
the cutbacks led to a sharp rise in layoffs--
particularly among young, unskilled, male
workers living in the working-class
districts. By summer 1978, the working
The protesters demanded that Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi step down from
power and that Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini be returned from exile. The
protests grew incredibly fast, reaching
between six million and nine million in
strength in the first week. About 5% of the
population had taken to the streets in the
Muharram protests. Both beginning and
ending in the month of Muharram, the
protests succeeded, and the Shah stepped
down from power later that month.[137]
After the success of what would become
known as a revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini
returned to Iran as its religious and
political leader for life. Khomeini had been
an opposition leader to Shah for many
years, rising to prominence after the death
of his mentor, renowned scholar Yazdi
Ha'iri, in the 1930s.[138] Even in his years in
exile, Khomeini remained relevant in Iran. Supporting the protests from beyond Iran's
borders, he proclaimed that "freedom and
liberation from the bonds of imperialism"
was imminent.[138]
Tasu'a and Ashura marches (10-11
December)
As the days of Tasu'a and Ashura (10 and
11 December) approached, in order to
prevent a deadly showdown the Shah
began to draw back. [15] By 11 February 1979, the
monarchy was officially brought down and
Khomeini assumed leadership over Iran
while guerrillas and rebel troops
overwhelmed Pahlavi loyalists in armed
combat.[16][17] Following the March 1979
Islamic Republic referendum, in which 98%
of Iranian voters approved the country's
shift to an Islamic republic, the new
government began efforts to draft the
present-day Constitution of the Islamic
Republic of Iran;
[18][8][9][19][20] Khomeini
emerged as the Supreme Leader of Iran in
December 1979.[21]
The success of the Iranian Revolution was
met with surprise around the world,[22] and
was considered by many to be unusual in
nature: it lacked many of the customary
causes of revolutionary sentiment (e.g.,
defeat in war, a financial crisis, peasant
rebellion, or disgruntled military);[23]
occurred in a country that was
experiencing relative prosperity;[6][20]
produced profound change at great
speed;[24] was massively popular; resulted
in the massive exile that characterizes a
large portion of today's Iranian
diaspora;
[25] and replaced a pro-Western
secular[26] and authoritarian monarchy[6]
with an anti-Western Islamist
theocracy[6][19][20][27] that was based on the
concept of Velayat-e Faqih (or
Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist),
straddling between authoritarianism and
totalitarianism.Away from public view, Khomeini
developed the ideology of velayat-e faqih
(guardianship of the jurist) as government,
that Muslims--in fact everyone--required
"guardianship," in the form of rule or
supervision by the leading Islamic jurist or
jurists.[73] Such rule was ultimately "more
necessary even than prayer and fasting" in
Islam,[Note 2] as it would protect Islam from
deviation from traditional sharia law and in
so doing eliminate poverty, injustice, and
the "plundering" of Muslim land by foreign
non-believers.[74]
This idea of rule by Islamic jurists was
spread through his book Islamic
Government, mosque sermons, and
smuggled cassette speeches by
Khomeini[75][76] among his opposition
network of students (talabeh), ex-students
(able clerics such as Morteza Motahhari,
Mohammad Beheshti, Mohammad-Javad
Bahonar, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and
Mohammad Mofatteh), and traditional
businessmen (bazaari) inside Iran.[75]
cohesion and organization of Khomeini's
forces.[79]
Communist groups--primarily the Tudeh
Party of Iran and the Fedaian
guerrillas[Note 3]--had been weakened
considerably by government repression.[106] On 9
January 1978, seminary students and
other people demonstrated in the city,
which was cracked down by the Shah's
security forces who shot live ammunition
to disperse the crowd when the peaceful
demonstration turned violent.[107] Between
5-300 of the demonstrators were
reportedly killed in the protest.[106] 9
January 1978 (19 Dey) is regarded as a
bloody day in Qom.[108][109]
Consolidation of the opposition
(February-March)
According to Shia customs, memorial
services (chehelom) are held 40 days after
a person's death.[110] Encouraged by
Khomeini (who declared that the blood of
martyrs must water the "tree of Islam"),[102]
radicals pressured the mosques and
moderate clergy to commemorate the
deaths of the students, and used the
occasion to generate protests.[111] The
informal network of mosques and bazaars,
which for years had been used to carry out
religious events, increasingly became
where protests were larger, and Tehran,
where they were smaller--protesting every
40 days. This amounted to a small
minority of the more than 15 million adults
in Iran.[119]
Against the wishes of Khomeini,
Shariatmadari called for 17 June mourning
protests to be carried out as a one-day
stay. [110] Although tensions remained in
the milieu, the Shah's policy appeared to
have worked, leading Amuzegar to declare
that "the crisis is over."One European
newspaper, the Frankfurter Neue Presse,
reported that Mosaddegh "would rather be
fried in Persian oil than make the slightest
concession to the British." The British
considered an armed invasion, but UK
Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided
on a coup after being refused American
military support by U.S. President Harry S.
Truman, who sympathized with nationalist
movements like Mosaddegh's and had
nothing but contempt for old-style
imperialists like those who ran the AngloIranian Oil Company. Mosaddegh, however,
learned of Churchill's plans and ordered
the British embassy to be closed in
October 1952, forcing all British diplomats
and agents to leave the country. Although the British were initially turned
down in their request for American
support by President Truman, the election
of Dwight D. Eisenhower as U.S. president
in November 1952 changed the American
stance toward the conflict. On 20 January
1953, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles and his brother, C.I.A. Director Allen
Dulles, told their British counterparts that
they were ready to move against
Mosaddegh. In their eyes, any country not
decisively allied with the United States was
a potential enemy. Iran had immense oil
wealth, a long border with the Soviet
Union, and a nationalist prime minister. The prospect of a fall into communism
and a "second China" (after Mao Zedong
won the Chinese Civil War) terrified the
Dulles brothers.[65]
Western culture was a plague or an
intoxication to be eliminated;[70] Ali
Shariati's vision of Islam as the one true
liberator of the Third World from
oppressive colonialism, neo-colonialism,
and capitalism;
[71] and Morteza
Motahhari's popularized retellings of the
Shia faith all spread and gained listeners,
readers and supporters.[70]
Most importantly, Khomeini preached that
revolt, and especially martyrdom, against
injustice and tyranny was part of Shia
Islam,[72] and that Muslims should reject
the influence of both liberal capitalism and
communism, ideas that inspired the
revolutionary slogan "Neither East, nor
West - Islamic Republic!" Despite this the guerrillas did help play an
important part in the final February 1979
overthrow[81] delivering "the regime its
coup de grace."[96]
In 1977 the Shah responded to the "polite
reminder" of the importance of political
rights by the new American president,
Jimmy Carter, by granting amnesty to
some prisoners and allowing the Red
Cross to visit prisons. Through 1977 liberal
opposition formed organizations and
issued open letters denouncing the
government.[97] Against this background a
first crucial manifestation of public
expression of social discontent and
political protest against the regime took
place in October 1977, when the GermanIranian Cultural Association in Tehran
hosted a series of literature reading
sessions, organized by the newly revived
Iranian Writers Association and the
German Goethe-Institute. In these "Ten
Nights" (Dah Shab) 57 of Iran's most
prominent poets and writers read their
The chain of events began with the death
of Mostafa Khomeini, chief aide and eldest
son of Ruhollah Khomeini.[29] After the consolidation of
Khomeinist factions, Iran began to back
Shia militancy across the region in an
attempt to combat Sunni influence and
establish Iranian dominance within the
Arab world, ultimately aiming to achieve an
Iranian-led Shia political order.[30]
6.