Iranian Revolution

By: Gio, Michael, and Jacob B.

A. Iran before the Conflict
● Although petroleum was a major part in the income of Iran, Iran’s economy
was rapidly spreading until there was instability and fluctuations in
oil.
● For the twenty years of extraordinary economic growth, heavy government
spending, and a boom in oil rates led to extreme inflation.
● There was social political repression with the Iran Regime.
● Social and Political protests were often dealt with by using censorship,
harassment, illegal detention, and torture.
B. Conflict for Revolution
● There was wealth inequality between the Shah, Nobility, and Common
people.
● This led to poverty, high employment, and low wages across the country.
● The people of Iran started to distrust the Shah and believed that he
wouldn’t fulfil his promise of restoring the wealth.
● Many peasants were so poor, they would sell their properties to be able to
survive.
C. Conflict between Shah
● According to many people, the Shah’s (Leader of Iran) policies were too oppressive
and he was not religious enough.
● Life was basically like it was when Stalin was in power in Italy.
● Everybody opposed the Shah from every political perspective.
● The opposition was led by Ayatollah Khomeini.
● Khomeini’s messages were distributed through cassettes which were smuggled into
the country.

<--Mohammad Reza Ayatollah

Shah Khomeini-->
D. Leading to the Revolution
● Khomeini himself proved unwavering in his determination to transform Iran into a
autocratically ruled Islamic state.
● This lead to the Revolution against dictatorship
● This movement was supported by Urban poor students, trade unions, intellectuals,
Leftists
● Their target was the Regime of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi
 Shah Vs. Khomeini
Shah Khomeini
Shah wanted Khomeini preached
westernization and was revolt, and martyrdom,
supported by the U.S. was part of Shia Islam.
even though he was a He also viewed
dictator. This westernization as a
westernization and plague that needed to be
secularization received eliminated. Khomeini
a lot of backlash. also hid certain beliefs
due to the possibility
of losing all the
support he had gained
Beginning of Protests
● Protests began after the National Daily
insulted khomeini by calling him a british
spy and other things
● There was a clash between students and
police in which records of anywhere from 2 -
70 being killed
● This in turn caused demonstrations to start
all over Iran one of them turning into a full
scale riot in which many buildings were
burned
● Once again the Government claimed there
were only 6 casualties while Khomeini
claimed they were in the hundreds
Government’s Reaction
● The Shah, though taken by surprise, decided to take the peaceful route
with the protesters by trying them in civilian courts and not using
deadly force but still continued with the liberalization of the
country
● This seemed to have worked for a while
● Then there was the fire of Cinema Rex (one of the worst terrorist acts
to happen before 9/11) as well as black friday
● These events later caused for the Shah to pressure the Iraqi
government into exiling him
Results
● The Shah believed he had cut off
Khomeini from his supporters but his
plan quickly backlashed with recording
of his sermons being spread around due
to superior french communications
● Continued conflicts, Appointing of a
military government and many more
marches and other things caused the
exile of the Shah and the return of
Khomeini
● Though slowly the people were realizing
Khomeini was not what he said he was and
he in fact had very very different
beliefs
 The End of the Iranian Revolution
● The Iranian Revolution ended with the Shah (Mohammed Reza
Pahlavi) and his entire family being banished from the new
Islamic state.
○ When the Shah was removed, Khomeini (Who was in exile for a little
over 14 years) came back and tried to restore Iran.
● Khomeini’s return caused Iran to become an
official Islamic state.
■ Due to this, women in Iran lost all of
their rights in marriage.
● This change caused Western-educated people to
leave Iran in fear of being prosecuted.
 Who won? Who’s next?
● The Iranian population won the war because it was a Revolution.
The Shah was forced to leave the country and the people had
succeeded in overthrowing him.
● Iran’s conflict ended somewhat peacefully, though there were some
repercussions to the population after Islam was enforced.
● In the situation with U.S. involvement, their miniature conflict
ended with a signing and understanding
between the two for the time being.
(Iran Hostage Crisis)
 Iran’s state after the conflict.
● Iran continued to “function” as it did and there was less violence
than there was, but persecution was off of the charts.
● Komītehs (Which were like the mosque police essentially) would
patrol the streets day and night and if they found anyone out of
check and breaking the rules, they would get a punishment right
on the spot.
● Iran lost relationships
between other countries
like the U.S.
 Where is Iran now?
● Iran has been “functioning” as an Islamic state (also technically
a Republic) and still continues to follow in the way Khomeini set
it up.
● Rouhani was recently elected, but that was to be expected by most
of the population in Iran.
● There are some political conflicts between Iran and the U.S.
involving Trump visiting Saudi Arabia and not treating Iran that
well.
Sources
Hayes, Katie. "The Iranian Revolution Of 1979." NPR. NPR, 18 June 2009. Web. 17 May 2017

Afary, Janet. "Iranian Revolution of 1978-79." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., n.d.
Web. 22 May 2017.

"US-Iran Timeline Since 1979." US-Iran Timeline Since 1979 | The Iran Primer. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May
2017.

Roberts, Elizabeth. U.S.-Iran Relations | Hormuz. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.
More Sources
Mohsen M. Milani, The Making of Iran’s Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic.
Westview, 1988

Saleh, M.M. Insurgency through Culture and Religion: The Islamic Revolution of Iran. Praeger, 1988

Stephan, Maria J. and Mohsen Sazegara “Iran’s Islamic Revolution and Nonviolent Struggle” in: Stephan,

Maria J. (ed), Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle, Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010