1979 Iranian Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini's Role in the Revolution

The reformation of the country of Iran toward Islam caused turmoil among the people because the drastic changes forced on the people were not easily accepted. One of the major changes is that

In the late 1970's, the world was hit with the events of the Iranian Revolution, a movement in which the Shah was overthrown in replacement with Ayatollah Khomeini. Causes for this movement included the economic, political, and socio-economic conditions in Iran before the Revolution. Economically, the Shah's hopes for the country ended up being their downfalls while politically, the Shah's ruling as a dictator prohibited the freedom of the Iranians. Socio-economically, the Shah didn't place much emphasis on religion, angering the majority of the population. The overthrow of the Shah led to the uprise of a religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, a figure supported by many. Unlike advice

Various factors influenced the 1979 Iranian revolution, but at the core of this significant event was Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, led this movement to end the thirty-seven-year reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran (Diller 1991, p.152). The revolution was a combination of mounting social, economic, political and religious strains. The nation of Iran was never colonized, unlike some of its bordering countries, making its people intolerant of external influences. The Shah had gradually westernized and secularized his country, creating a strong American presence that was being felt

In January, The Shah fled the country to Egypt, and a new ruler came into power. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned after being in exile for 14 years, and many of the people happily accepted him back (“The Iranian Hostage Crisis”). Everything went well until October, when the Shah- still in Egypt- obtained permission to travel to the United States for cancer treatment.

During the reign of the Shah, his vision for the country was to modernize it. The Shah wanted to show the

The Shah ended the uprising by exiling the leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, to Iraq. This was the beginning of Iran 's Islamic revolution.

In Iran, there was a major conflict over the Islamic religion during the 1980’s which led to the Iranian Revolution. The picture on the

One of the most significant changes after the revolution was the society system of the country. The Shah (king) of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was evicted from his power in 1979. He was a secular autocracy over a large traditional population, and today Sayyed Ali Khamenei who is a religious autocracy of Iran and the supreme leader of Iran. The population of Iran in1979 was 35 million of most rural people and today there is approximately 75 million of urban

The Iranian Revolution refers to the several events that took place in an effort to remove the Shah from Iran in the late 1970’s. At the time, the Shah of Iran, much like his father, ran the country as an autocracy. This means that there was one person in absolute power. The people of Iran did not like this, and they wanted the Shah out. They attended demonstrations where they protested for the Shah to leave. The Iranian Army shot at the protestors, and they threw rocks at the army. The Shah finally left Iran in exile, and the people

During Satrapi’s early childhood, the traditions and history of Iran had been going through drastic changes. The Iranian Revolution was when Iran’s monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown and replaced with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who led the revolution. ii

The Iranian Revolution in 1979 was the events leading to the overthrow of the unfit leader Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah came to power during World War II and became the last monarch in the House of Pahlavi. While ruling, he introduced policies like the White Revolution, which were political and economical reforms that claimed to be beneficial and grant women's suffrage, nationalization of some industries, and a way to make Iran a global power. But the Shah lost support first from the Shi’a muslims and the working class because of his strict ways in things like modernization and secularization. The Shah then lost all support and was overthrown on January 7th, 1979 and after, the monarchy was abolished leading to the Islamic Republic.

Clearly the young Islamists are unhappy with the current state of affairs and their apparent lack of freedom of the citizens of Iran. But, at the same time it is also believed that they are very eager to become a more active participant in Western society. They long for the media and the influence that is felt here in the United States. Ebtekar, the highest ranking woman to serve in the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in an interview with Gradels, illustrates this in the following:

It is however limited in that it is translated from Turkish and has a number of phrases that require personal interpretation and therefore need to be assessed by other sources. The piece goes over the conflict between the current Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and the leader of the revolution Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It also discusses how Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers actually opposed each other, but opposed the Shah more. It also explains how the Shah’s progressive attitude offended some for being too progressive, and some for not being progressive enough. This resulted in another conflict upon the abdication of the Shah, as to what the republic of Iran should be. In the end, Ayatolla Khomeini was declared Supreme Leader for life.

Iranians deeply value their social and cultural traditions. The Persian revolution formed the basis through which the country evolved and foundation upon which its empires were established. The Islamic regime practiced by the country formed the basis through which the country’s sophisticated institutions were built. Shah seemed to champion for secularization and westernization (Axworthy,

However, the ideas had already spread throughout the Iranian people and religious protesting escalated continuously. People’s ideas of recreating a religious based government persisted to an unstoppable level. Khomeini, whom many protesters felt to be a hero, said in a speech in 1979, “Do not try to westernize everything you have! Look at the West, and see who the people are in the West that present themselves as champions of human rights and what their aims are. Is it human rights they really care about, or the rights of the superpowers? What they really want to secure are the rights of the superpowers. Our jurists should not follow or imitate them” (Ayatollah Khomeini: speech on the uprising of Khurdad 15, 2010). Based on this quote, the “voice” of the protesting Iranians was that westernization was not a good thing because the west does not care for human rights and freedoms of the lesser powers in the world and that the way to change for the better is to impose the Islamic values that already existed into society. In January of 1979, the Shah fled the country under the pressure of the people and Khomeini returned to Iran to be greeted as a hero (Bentley & Ziegler, n.d., p. 1117). Fighting erupted between Khomeini’s supporters and remaining military officials and on the eleventh of February the government fell. On the first of April, Khomeini proclaimed the beginning of the new Islamic republic (Islamic