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The Iranian Revolution of 1979 established a harsh Islamic regime with tight restrictions of dissenters, women, and the economy that undid decades of progress. It achieved it all with a dominating control of the political system, aggressive laws controlling daily life, and a brutal legal system that dealt out death for the most insiginfcant of crimes.
Today on A Day In History, we’ll look at how the Islamic Revolution changed Iran and rolled back the rights and freedoms of millions of its people.
Iran Before the Revolution
The regime’s story is inseparable from the events of the 1953 Iranian Revolution that preceded it. In 1953, US and UK intelligence services fermented a rebellion to overthrow the democratically-elected Socialist-leaning government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and replaced it with an authoritarian government under the Shahs of the Pahlavi dynasty.
The Shah ruled with an iron first, cracking down on dissenters, banning rival parties, establishing a powerful security service, and funneling vast resources into military spending. Thousands of Iranians found themselves imprisoned under the Shah’s regime. Only the clergy were powerful enough to survive as prominent critics of the Shah, but many of them were harassed and intimidated by his forces.
But the Shah’s regime wasn’t all misery and militarism. The Shah engaged in a sweeping secularization and modernisation campaign that uplifted his country’s living standards and ended many outdated practices. Prosperity increased across society, as did literacy rates and access to healthcare.
Some of the most striking progress was made by women. From 1963, women were granted the vote and allowed to run for office, a rare privilege in the Islamic world. In 1968, a woman was appointed as Minister for Education, becoming the first woman to serve in the Cabinet, and high-profile female appointments in the judiciary and civil service followed. A 1967 law gave women the right to divorce, made it possible for them to claim custody of children, and raised the marriage age from 13 to 18. Iranian women were among the most free, educated, and empowered anywhere in the Islamic world.
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Sources:
Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History, (2017)
Con Coughlin, Khomeini’s Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam, (2010)
Joseph Krauss, ‘Explainer: What kept Iran protests going after first spark?’, Associated Press, 21st September 2022, https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-morality-police-explainer-b53475eda867a4158ac5032fe1b3e62e
Medea Benjamin, Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, (2018)
‘Ideology and Iran’s Revolution: How 1979 Changed the World’, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, 11th February 2019, https://institute.global/insights/geopolitics-and-security/ideology-and-irans-revolution-how-1979-changed-world
‘Iran: Happy video dancers sentenced to 91 lashes and jail’, BBC News, 19th SEptember 2014, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29272732
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