Iran Revolution Essay, Research Paper

Iran is a country located in the Middle East. The main

source of income for the country is oil, the one object that

had greatly influenced its history. Iran’s present

government is run as an Islamic Republic. A president,

cabinet, judicial branch, and Majilesor or legislative

branch, makes up the governmental positions. A revolution

that overthrew the monarch, which was set in 1930, lasted

over 15 years. Crane Brinton’s book, An Anatomy of a

Revolution, explains set of four steps a country

experiences when a revolution occurs. Symptoms, rising

fever, crisis, and convalescence are the steps that occur.

The Iranian Revolution followed the four steps in Crane

Brinton’s theory, symptoms, rising fever, crisis, and

convalescence occurred. Numerous symptoms led to the

crumbling downfall of Reza Shah Pahlavi, ruler of Iran

until 1978. One of these symptoms is rising expectations

which can be seen during the 1960’s and 70’s. The rich

Shah cleared the way for the land reform law, enacted in

1962. The land minority had to give up its land to the

government, and among those stripped of land, were the

Shi’ah Muslims. Iran’s power structure was radically

changed in a program termed the “White Revolution”. On

January 26, 1963, the White Revolution was endorsed by

the nation. By 1971, when land distribution ended, about

2,500,000 families of the farm population benefited from

the reforms. From 1960-72 the percentage of owner

occupied farmland in Iran rose from 26 to 78 percent. Per

capita income rose from $176 in 1960 to $2,500 in 1978.

From 1970-77 the gross national product was reported to

increase to an annual rate of 7.8% (”Iran” 896). As a result

of this thriving economy, the income gap rapidly widened.

Exclusive homes, extravagant restaurants, and night clubs

and streets loaded with expensive automobiles served as

daily reminders of a growing income spread. This created

a perfect environment for many conflicts to arise between

the classes. Iran’s elite class consisted of wealthy land

owners, intelligencia, military leaders, politicians, and

diplomats. The Elite continued to support the monarchy

and the Shah. The peasants were victim of unfulfilled

political expectations, surveillance by the secret police,

and the severe social and economic problems that resulted

from modernization. The middle class favored socialism

over capitalism, because capitalism in their view

supported the elite, and does not benefit the lower classes.

The middle class was the most changeable element in the

group, because they enjoyed some of the privileges of the

elite, which they would like to protect. At the same time,

they believed that they had been cheated by the elite out of

their share of the industrialization wealth (Orwin 43).

About this time, the middle class, which included students,

technocrats, and modernist professionals, became

discontent with the economy. The key event should have

further stabilized the royal dictatorship, but the increase in

oil prices and oil income beginning in 1974 caused

extreme inflation. This was due to the investment strategy

followed by the Shah, which led to a spectacular 42%

growth rate in 1974. (Cottam 14). And because of the

Shah’s support structure which enabled the new rich to

benefit from inflation, the government effort to deal with

inflation was aimless. Poor Iranians and Iranians with a

fixed income suffered major losses in real income. Better

standards of living were no longer visible. Thus, the

majority of the Iranian people developed a revolutionary

predisposition. As the middle class became discontent in

Iran throughout the 1970’s, the desertion of intellectuals

could be found in great excess. Ayatollah Ruhollah

Khomeini represented much of the discontent of the

religious sector of Iran. For speaking out against the Shah’s

autocratic rule, Khomeini was exiled to Turkey in 1963. In

1965, Khomeini moved to Iraq where he became the

central spokesperson for expatriate opposition to the Shah.

On October 6, 1978, Khomeini was expelled from Iraq

and moved to Paris, where he was accessible to a larger

body of opposition forces. He was also accessible to the

Western Press. Khomeini preached that he would displace

the Shah and expel the foreigners. He also said he would

enforce religious and traditional values, and redirect Iran’s

wealth away from large industrialization schemes and

toward reforms needed by the common people. Throughout

the 1970’s, Khomeini gained tremendous popularity with

the masses, and he became the symbol of the opposition

towards the Shah. As Khomeini gained popularity, many

religious groups grew in numbers and in status. In the early

1950’s, the technocrats had showed core support for

Mohammad Mossedeq and Iran’s national movement. They

saw Mossadeq’s overthrow as the removal of the symbolic

leader of the Iranian nation by an American directed coup

d’etat. Many of his followers formed groups in opposition

to the Shah. Leaders of the Freedom Front, one of the

groups that grew out of the Mossadeq movement, were a

group composed of intellectuals who tended to be centrist

in philosophy, more religious, anti-Marxist, and militant

(Cottam 13). They recognized Khomeini’s large and

potentially enormous following, and associated themselves

with him. The rise of religious opposition groups and

Khomeini proved to be a great test for the Shah. As time

progressed the weakness of the Shah became apparent.

Waves of opposition began building after 1975, due to the

formation of the Rastakhiz , the legal political party in

Iran, and the banning of opposition political parties. It also

became clear that the increased oil revenues following oil

price increases, were spent on arms and industrialization.

In mid-1977 the religious leaders began demonstrating

against the modernization brought on by the Shah. In

November, several people were killed when police broke

up demonstrations. As time went on, protests became more

radical. To try and quiet dissent, the Shah became more of

a dictator. As a result, those who had been moderate in

demands for reform became more radical. In the fall of

1978, strikes against the oil industry, the post office,

government factories, and banks demolished the economy.

This pattern continued throughout most of 1978 (Orwin

45). As these protests became more frequent there were

more and more people killed. This reflects the Shah’s loss

of power over his government and his people. In late

1978, the Shah came to the conclusion that he would and

could not rule a country in which he had to stand in the

flowing blood of his people. In short, he understood that he

could not militarily occupy his own country. The Shah’s

early mistakes had been devastating as the years went on.

His forceful actions did not work and it’s no wonder that

his grip weakened and his mid wavered. These events all

led to the march against the government of the Shah, in

which eight million Iranians protested on December 10,

1978 (Bill 25). One-fifth of the Iranian government was

willing to join in a massive and nonviolent manifestation

of opposition even though most of them knew that

thousands of their countrymen had been shot in previous

demonstrations. The banners and slogans made clear the

religious and political essence of the revolutionary

movement. This massive demonstration was the turning

point from symptoms to rising fever. It clearly reflected the

weakness of the Shah, and the inevitability of revolution in

Iran. After a year of public demonstrations against him, the

Shah of Iran left Tehran on January 16, 1979, for an

“extended vacation” (Orwin 46). He left the country in the

hands of a regency council and Prime Minister Shahpur

Bakhtiar, who was a former member of the National Front.

The opposition leader, Khomeini, was to become the new

ruler, and he returned to Iran on February 1, 1979.

Khomeini occupied preeminent positions among Iran’s

most respected religious scholars, the Mujahedin-e Khalq..

Although Khomeini wanted a stable government that could

cope with the problems of reconstruction, he wanted to

eradicate the evil roots of the old system, which he

describes as satanic. He denounced the materialism of the

recent past and called for a climate in which social justice

would prevail. On April 1, 1979, after a landslide victory

in a national referendum, Khomeini declared an Islamic

republic. This republic consisted of a new constitution

reflecting Khomeini’s ideals of Islamic government. He

was named Iran’s political and religious leader for life.

Khomeini tapped the deep-seated conservatism of the

Muslim fundamentalists by making moderate changes in the

law. Women were required to wear the veil, Western

music and alcohol were banned, and the punishments

described by Islamic law were reinstated. Political

vengeance was taken, executing hundreds of people who

had worked with the Shah’s regime (”Iran” 897). The large

moderate center composed of the professional and

bourgeois middle class had proved to be ineffective in

their leadership abilities. Moderate Bakhtiar, the last

prime minister under Pahlavi rule, was very unpopular,

and he was unable to compromise with his former

National Front colleagues or with Khomeini. He was then

forced to flee to France. On April 1, 1979, his

replacement, Mehdi Bazergan was appointed by Khomeini

(Cottam 15). This 73-year-old engineer was a leader of

the Freedom Front, and president of the committee of

human rights. The middle and upper middle classes looked

to Bazergan to provide stability so the economy would

recover and the government services could be restored.

Bazergan appointed a cabinet, mainly, from the ranks of

the Freedom Front, the National Front, and the religious

bureaucracy. Bazergan’s position was weak, however, and

he steadily lost ground to the due to the attacks from the far

right and left. As their base of support narrowed, their

dependence on Khomeini intensified. During this time,

Iran’s relation with the US went downhill. It reached a

stage of outright confrontation, when, on November 4,

1979, 500 extremist students seized the US embassy in

Tehran. They took hostage 66 citizens at the embassy and

the foreign ministry (”The Iranian Revolution” 835). The

takeover seemingly sanctioned by Khomeini, continued for

the next 444 days, and American-Iranian relations sunk to

an all-time low. This led to trade conflicts with the United

States and its allies, causing economic problems. During

the rising fever stage there is a presence of a dual

government. During Bazergan’s rule, it became difficult to

administer justice with a court system that had been

particularly lenient to the royal will. To deal with these

problems on a temporary basis. Khomeini set up a system

of revolutionary committees presided over by a

revolutionary council. Religious leaders clearly

predominated in the revolutionary council-

committee-courts system, which came to be almost a

parallel government. In November, 1979, Bazergan

resigned, and in his place Khomeini appointed Abol

Hassan Bani Sadr. Bani Sadr was an idealist, a

bookworm, and most personally ambitious of all the

liberal revolutionaries. Like the other moderates, he was a

representative of the professional middle class, who had

little skill or patience to build political organizations. Bani

Sadr’s efforts were fruitless in dealing with the hostage

releases. After being elected Iran’s first president in

January 1980, he and his followers, out of self defense and

desperation, formed an alliance with the Mujahedin-e

Khalq (”Iran” 897). He also attempted to work hard to

establish close relations with the military leaders. He

ineffectively tried to appeal to the Iranian people, who had

little in common with a Paris trained intellectual. One can

see that during this stage of rising fever, moderate control

is losing power. The people of Iran became upset with the

little change that was taking place, and wanted more

extreme measures taken. In mid-1981, leaders of the

Islamic Republican Party (IRP) convinced Khomeini that

Bani Sadr was plotting against them, and suggested

evidence indicating that he was a threat to the revolution.

This led to his dismissal on June 20, of position of

commander-in-chief of the armed forces. His presidency

lasted 17 months. He was arrested and dismissed as

president on June 22. Forced into hiding, he fled Iran on

July 29, 1981, and was granted political asylum in Paris.

On July 24, extremist Muhammad Ali Rajai with

substantial IRP backing, won the electoral victory over the

moderates. Thus, the period of rising fever ended, and the

period of crisis began. In 1981, Khomeini took complete

control over Iran and took many extremist measures. He

made sure the government completely controlled the

media, as well as newspapers, television broadcasts, and

radio programs. He had strict control of everything,

including the treasury and flow of money to religious

leaders. Those who disagreed with him faced severe

economic retribution. The crisis had begun and radicals

had taken over. Under Khomeini’s rule (1981-1989) came

a great period of reign of terror. For example, after a

speech the Ayatollah made, right wing revolutionary

guards fired into a rally of approximately one hundred

thousand Muslim leftists outside the U.S. Embassy in

Teheran. Five people were killed and more than 300 were

wounded. Supporters held food riots in Tunisia, and others

held six car bombings in Kuwait. The Islamic Jihad held

suicide bombings that killed two hundred-forty one U.S.

Servicemen, and fifty-eight French troops in Beirut. These

acts were not looked at as being bad acts of terrorism, but

rather as acts of patriotic heroes. The reign of terror, the

next step in the crisis, brought extremists into complete

control. The people of Iran in the early 1980’s, had just

about enough of all these laws and regulations, and were

outraged at their standard of living. People were finally

starting to revolt against the way that they have been

treated. This period according to Crane Brinton, is known

as the civil war. Civil war started in Iran with the conflict

with the Kurds. These people were pushed out of their

homes, religious temples, and places of business, because

of the overpowering radicals. An entire religious group

was almost completely annihilated because of the savage

behavior of the radicals. It was later found that the Kurdish

problem was merely a pretext on Iran’s part to engage in

meetings and collaborations with two influential middle

eastern states, Turkey and Syria. People suffered so that

government could gain allies. The poor treatment of the

Kurds led to confusion in the nation. Because of all of the

chaos in the country, due to different public demonstrations

and mass rioting, government groups were forming. The

IRP, one of these groups, was in support of a nationalistic

movement. Opposed to it was the Hojatieh, and a third

party, which represented the Mullahs and the high

ayatollahs. This third group thought Khomeini was

reckless, so there was great hostility towards the IRP.

These groups formed different factions among the people

of Iran, and led to a divided nation. In the early 1980’s,

patriotic fever was bordering on hysteria, and the

nationalism was incredible. This patriotic fever fits in to

the next part of the revolution, the republic of virtue. Iran’s

people had a great sense of nationalism inside of them.

People held many parades and marches to express their

nationalism. During this time, women were forced to wear

veils in public, modern divorce laws were repealed, and

harsh courts were set up, which set strict laws and harsh

penalties. The colliding views of the Iranian groups, as

well as the republic of virtue, made it hard for Iran to deal

with other countries. During this period, Iran’s relationship

with Iraq became troubled. The war began with a fight for

land and oil and as a result of the personalities of the two

leaders. Both Hussein, the leader of Iraq, and Khomeini

are headstrong. In addition, they disliked each other

(Orwin 42). All of the circumstances that resulted from the

war may have contributed in some measure to the outbreak

and continuation of the conflict between Iran and Iraq

(Iran-Iraq War 77-78). The situation worsened in

September of 1980 when Iraq launched an attack on Iran to

take control of the waterway that divided the two countries

(”Iranian Revolution” p. 835). During the war, industry

suffered. Chemical, steel, and iron plants in the war zone

were heavily shelled. There have been shortages in

electricity, fuel, and spare parts. The available pool of

workers has diminished as thousands of men marched off

to the front lines to fight. This caused great economic

problems throughout the mid-1980’s. Iraq attempted to

devastate oil economy even further. Tankers and ships 50

miles off the oil terminal were struck. Iran would be

deprived of a major source of income (Orwin 41). By

1984 it was reported that there were one million refuges in

the Iranian province of Khuzestan. Some 300,000 Iranian

soldiers and 250,000 Iraqi troops had been killed, or

wounded. Among the injured were Iranian soldiers who

sustained burns, blisters, and lung damage from Iraqi

chemical weapons (Orwin 47). The war lasted about 8

years and Iran suffered casualties, not only in people, but

in economy and leadership as well. Because of the war

with Iraq, and the purges going on in Iran, the economy

was severely depressed. Besides the enormous human

cost, economic losses from the war exceed $200 billion.

Agricultural growth has declined as a result of war, also

(Orwin 34). During the crisis and during the war with Iraq,

industry is plagued by poor labor management, a lack of

competent technical and managerial personnel, and

shortages of raw material and spare parts. Agricultural

suffers from shortage of capital, raw materials, and

equipment, and as a result, food production has declined.

Also, out of an estimated work force of 12 million,

unemployment is up to 3-4 million (Orwin 16). Iran’s

economy was desperate. In connection with the devastating

economy with the war, there was economic suffering

through purges, the next step in crisis. Extensive purges

were carried out in the army, in the school and university

systems, and in some of the departments of government

although the Ministries of Justice and Commerce proved

significantly more resistant because of the entrenched

power of conservative elements there). Additionally, new

institutions were created, like the Revolutionary Guards -

including the creation of a ministry for them – and the

counsel of Guardians, along with a string of other judicial

bodies (Akhavi 53). Purges eliminated many qualified

personnel, and lowered the morale of the Iranian people.

Finally, after about 9 years of crisis and fighting among

different groups, there was a breakthrough in the

revolution, with the return of conservatives. The Ayatollah

Khomeini died in May of 1989, and a new leader by the

name of Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected and came to

power two months later. This would start the

convalescence stage of Crane Brinton’s revolution.

Rafsanjani has not actually called for a reversal of strict

Islamic injunctions, but in oblique ways he is signaling that

he favors a more relaxed approach, especially in the

enforcement of the hijab (Ramazani 7). Under Rafsanjani,

the return of the church has been allowed to occur, which

is another step in the theory of a revolution. On August 2,

1991, Iran resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq and had

also resolved the issue over the pilgrimage of Iranian

Muslims to Mecca, which has been suspended for three

years. Inside Iran, the most significant development in the

last few months took place in October, when several

Iranian leaders teamed up in a maneuver to marginalize

opponents (Igram A-10). Twelve years after Khomeini

came to power, Iran’s Islamic revolution has finally

softened around the edges. The signs of fitful change are

everywhere. On Tehran’s streets women still observe hijab

(the veil), the Islamic injunction that women keep

themselves covered except for their faces and hands. But

some have exchanged their shapeless black chedors for

slightly fitted

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