Revolution in Iran, 1979

  • Iran was ruled by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, or the Shah of Iran
  • The 2500 year old system of monarchy and 53 year old Pahlavi monarchy had ended when the government under the Shah was overthrown by protests that had been carried out by people in almost all sectors
  • The Shah of Iran left and never returned in 19 January 1979, and an Islamic republic was established under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini soon after
  • A simple timeline that showed how the Shah was overthrown is shown below


Timeline
  • 9 January, 1978: Protests against a newspaper that criticised Khoemini broke out in Qom, a holy city, caused 13 deaths
  • 18 February, 1978: Protestors fought government authorities in Tabriz (who used tanks and helicopters), resulting into 13 casualties
  • 19 August, 1978: Arson was committed in Cinema Rex causing more than 400 to be killed. The suspects for burning down the place were SAVAK (the secret police) and violent Islamics
  • 8 September 1978: In this period of martial law, a temporary direct military control to enforce law, the people still protested. As a result, 84 were killed when soldiers were ordered to fire on the people. This was called Black Friday
  • 11 December 1978: More than 2 million demanded an Islamic Republic to be established, Khomeini's return, and end to the Shah's rule in Tehran around Shahyad Square. The government was unable to take effective action


Opposition to foreign influence
  • The Shah had ruled since 1941 after he inherited the throne from his father and controlled teh army
  • The Shah ruled as as constitutional monarch (meaning that the monarch's power is limited by a constitution and specifies what it can do) until a crisis in 1951
  • Prime Minister Mohammad Mussadeq had nationalised the oil industry, which the British opposed to, as they had controlled the oil industry through the British "Iranian Oil Company"
  • Mussadeq had been popular among the Iranian people as he aimed to remove foreign influence from Iran
  • The Shah did not like Mussadeq as he suggested limiting the powers of the monarch further
  • The Shah launched a military coup and took full power from Mussadeq in August 1956 which did not have much support from the people
  • After 1953, Iran under the rule of the Shah had a lot of involvement from Britain and America who assisted Iran for oil resources (Iran had the 3rd biggest amount of oil resources in the world)
  • The USA had a great influence in Iran through its economic impact. Iran imported large amount of food supplies from the USA at lower prics than farmers in Iran. Therefore, farmers in Iran were not making as much money. Merchants in the market also could not earn as much after shopping malls like the ones in America were introduced


Opposition to the Shah's modernisation Program
  • The Shah continued Reza Khan's (the Shah's father) effort to modernise the country launching the "White Revolution" from 1963
  • This programme made change through land reforms, industry, health and education
  • The changes were mostly ineffective or even worsened the situation
    • The reform to redistribute land to the peasantry was ineffective, as they were granted very little amounts of land that could only grow enough food for themselves, and did not cause much change
    • The majority of villages did not have necessary supplies of water, electricity and roads
    • Health reforms lead to improvements, and increases in facilities and staff (eg. doctors, nurses, and hospital beds). However, in the Middle East, Iran still had one of the highest infant mortality rates (death rates in live births) and worst ratios of doctors to people
    • Education failed to solve the problem of adult illiteracy (adults not being able to read or write) and have more people participate in higher levels of education
  • In the late 1970s, wages were more unequal than they had been 20 years ago, with the richest 10% earning 37.9% of total wages and the poorest 10% earning only 1.3%
  • This difference was clearly visible between wealthy Tehran which housed the rich and the small poorly built towns lacking many facilities which the poor lived in
  • Those ruling seemed to be insensitive, with a member even supposedly questioning why the poor could not buy helicopters to travel if they did not have roads. The expensive coronation of the Shah and the Shahyad monument which both costed a lot of money further made the government look inconsiderate as it spent a lot on things that were not needed as much as resources for the people
  • People were dissatisfied with the Shah and how he spent his money as he spent a lot of money on the military instead of helping the people
  • The cost of expanding the military came from oil revenues which had grown to $20 billion in 1975-6 from an initial $34 million in 1954-5
  • By 1975, Iran had...
    • The largest navy in the Persian Gulf
    • The largest air force in Western Asia
    • The 5th largest army in the world
  • Even though Iran was very wealthy, the people continued to suffer with poor living conditions with little improvement


Hatred towards repression and autocracy in Iran
  • After the 1953, the Shah made sure that the cabinet and parliament were people who stood on his side
  • Prime ministers were often appointed by the Shah and ministers were often young and western educated, meaning that they agreed to the Shah's leadership and involvement with the West
  • Main political parties in the government (the Melliyun, Iran Novin, and Mardom) all agreed with the Shah and did not oppose and restrict him as much
  • The Shah decided to create the Resurgence Party and set up a one-party state which threatened different groups in Iran. It opposed profit for bazaars (local markets) and attacked religion, changing the Muslim calendar to the imperial calendar overnight
  • Opposition were repressed by the SAVAK (secret police) founded in 1957 which grew to become an organisation of 5,000 agents and informants of an undetermined number. They were very brutal and had the job of censoring the people, protect the government and university in appointments, and spying on the people for the Shah. They were known for torture, forced confessions, and other notorious activities
  • The Shah had lowered the influence of the secret police in 1977 because of disapproval from other countries to the violation of human rights in Iran even though opposition to the Shah grew. He made policies more tolerant also to make the people be more content and lower opposition against the monarchy
  • Some political prisoners were released, the Red Cross was allowed to enter prisons, and the Shah introduced policies to make trials in court more fair
  • This allowed opposition to express their views more and newspapers, manifestos (documents declaring certain policies), and protest organisations to be formed against the government
  • Instead of the Shah's hope of lowering opposition, protests rose against him instead


Leadership under Ayatollah Khomeini
  • In the mid 1970s, people all across Iran protested against the Shah and the monarchy
  • This included those in religious professions, merchants who sold at the bazaars (local markets), unemployed people coming from rural areas, and university graduates that could not get a job
  • They were united under the leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who was a political activist, scholar, and Muslim religious leader who had been exiled in 1964 because of his writing against the Shah
  • He criticised the Shah's allowance of foreign interference
  • Khomeini's sent political messages through cassette tapes to Iran during his exiles and people listened to him
  • Khomeini did not mention that he wanted to create a new Islamic government but instead mentioned what the people wanted to hear
  • In his recordings, he criticised the Shah's decision to spend a lot on military, not improving the conditions of life in village, not fighting crime and people's dependency on alcohol, and supporting Israel in fighting Muslims
  • The last moments of his exile were in France and he organised the last details of the revolt
  • He stated that he would return to Iran only after the Shah left the country, and he was welcomed by more than 3 million people after he returned on 1 February (the Shah left two weeks before)
  • The army declared neutrality, defenders of the monarchy were taken away, and the monarchy had successfully been overthrown


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