Iranian Revolution
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Contrary to popular western misconceptions, the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s was remarkable in that it was driven by a broad coalition of classes and groups within Iran; each with various political, economic, social, and religious agendas. These groups were relatively unified in their goal of toppling the Shah due to his heavy handed, and dictatorial style of rule. Additionally, these various groups and organizations were intensely dissatisfied with restrictions on access to the political process, the tight concentration of Iran's huge oil revenues into the hands of a very small, elite group orbiting around the Shah, as well as a growing perception that Iran was becoming too westernized and had lost her grounding in Iranian traditional values.The seeds of the Iranian Revolution can be traced back to the White Revolution of the early 1960s (Ashraf, 1995, 32). This "Revolutionary era" originated from a demand for land reform among the peasantry as well as foreign pressure for the Shah to institute some social and political reforms. Subsequently, in 1963 a national referendum was put forth with the intention of promoting six reform measures; limited land reform, women's suffrage, profit sharing for laborers, and nationalization of the forests (Iranian revolution, 1996, 873). This shallow attempt at reforms had the disastrous effects of satisfying virtually no social class or interest group in Iran. The land and labor reforms did not go nearly
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s, and a willingness to delegate responsibilities to those (both within and outside the country) with selfish interests which most often did not coincide with the general interests of the public. The reforms at the center of the controversy during the White Revolution were forced upon the Shah by his supporters within the Kennedy Administration (Ashraf, 1995, 21 22). When these clumsy policies backfired and engendered greater resentment toward his regime, the Shah responded with an appalling use of violence, intimidation, and repression of his opposition. When political opposition threatened his regime in 1978, the Shah again turned to the military for support and sat idle while another wave of repressive and violent tactics were employed in an attempt to crush the opposition. "The Shah proved himself to be, time and again in periods of political strife, an incompetent autocratic ruler" (Ashraf, 1995, 38).
These counterproductive policies only served to alienate the very groups the Shah helped to prominence, such as the professional class, and drove them into the camp of Ayatollah Khomeini and his supports in the Qom (Ashraf, 1995, 35). Khomeini gained national prominence during the White Revolution when he tapped into the wid
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2663
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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