Ayatollah Boroujerdi Research Paper

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

The Iranian Revolution was an uprising by the common people of Iran who were upset about the doings of their Shah and his government. The Shah’s treatment of his own people can be characterized as unjust and cruel. After all, he severely limited the rights of groups whom he felt threatened his power to rule. He opposed the political rights of religious Shiite groups, which especially enraged Iranians, and led to the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini. The Ayatollah was a religious leader who would overthrow the Shah and establish a proper Islamic State in the nation. Ever since, the so called Islamic Revolution has raised concern over the dangers that Iran may pose to the Western world. Nevertheless, the Iranian Revolution was a progressive movement that reflected the major concerns of Iranians towards corruption in government, all with the intention of removing injustices and enforcing rightful liberties and common needs.

“ The Islamic Revolution of 1979: The Downfall of American- Iranian Relations” analyzes American- Iranian diplomacy from 1953- 1979. It is an explanation of the causes and developments of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power and

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (The Shah), the son of Reza Shah took the throne after his father on September 16, 1941. The Shah continued his father’s politics and modernization of Iran. He proceeded to Westernize Iran by having the education structure “(primary, secondary, higher

Al Sadr's relationship with the leadership in the Iranian revolution at the time indicated that the activists preparing for the revolution were not the clergy only but included the intellectuals of the national trends, liberal and Islamic nationalism, in addition to students and academics. In other words, the activists did not have a purely religious nature against the Shah of Iran, to the extent that the United States thought that the liberal trend in the Iranian revolution led by Shahbuur Bakhtiar (National Front leader, one of the main currents of the Iranian revolution), and Ibrahim Yazdi (the first

The Iranians from 1925-1979 lived under the oppressive regime of the Pahlavi Dynasty. During this time, the Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi also known as Reza Khan, took the first step in consolidating power. Reza Shah was appointed prime minister by the last Shah of the Qajar Dynasty, Ahmad Shah Qajar and quickly moved to consolidate his power by removing his fellow conspirators and quashing threats

After 15 years of exile the former leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned to Tehran Iran. After his return followers of his helped him over through the Pahlavi monarchy, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was then the Shah of Iran. This event is considered the Iranian Revolution or the Islamic Revolution. His first order, when he was back in command, was to exile all the foreigners who were in Iran at the time. This led to 1,000 US State Department workers to leave the country. Khomeini and his followers drafted a new constitution replacing the Constitution of 1905 that previously guided the nation. This constitution was voted on to become the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which he was the first leader. Iran was not happy with the United States however; on November 4th a group of Iranian students took 52 hostages. What is commonly known as the Iran hostage crisis was a militant diplomatic crisis between the United States and Iran. A

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 emergence of the Islamic Republic in late 1970’s Iran demonstrates how middle class Iranian people purged themselves of the Pahlavi Dynasty in an effort to continue down a more righteous and egalitarian path. As a result, the country underwent a complete social upheaval and in its place grew an overtly oppressive regime based in theoretical omnipotence. In response to this regime, the very structure of political and social life was shaken and fundamentally transformed as religion and politics became inexorable. As a result, gender roles and the battle between public and private life were redrawn. Using various primary and secondary sources I will show how the Revolution shaped secular middle class Iranians. Further, I will show how the

Before the revolution, Shah Reza Pahlavi was the ruler of Iran. Under his leadership power was clustered and concentrated among his close allies and networks of friends and others with whom he had close relations. By 1970s, the gap between the poor and the rich was widening and huge distrust about his economic policies grew. Resentment towards his autocratic leadership grew fuelling people to dissent his regime further. Shah now was considered an authoritarian who took full control of the Iran government preventing the Iranians from expressing their opinion. The government has transformed from the traditional monarchial form of government to authoritarian with absolute authority replacing individual freedom of the Iranians. This transformation to Iranian was unacceptable because they needed to control their own affairs. They wanted self-government where they could take control as opposed to what Shah was doing. Shah was seen as a western puppet for embracing authoritarian form of government (Axworthy, 2016).

Throughout the 1960s, the Shah of Iran began to increase his control over the government after dissolving the parliament in 1961. Programs of modernization were pursued, with very few benefits to the ordinary citizen. With support from the United States, the Shah regime became increasingly repressive, which led to riots in 1978 that later developed into a civil war.

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

The intensity of the Iranian revolution of 1978-1979 and the suddenness with which it appeared surprised many people both in Iran itself and in the rest of the world. The Shah's autocratic political system was solid, his loyal army was strong. Iran had a thriving economy and a wealthy middle class. Why did, then, Iran go through an Islamic state? How and why the traditional Shi`i ulama in particular, came to lead the opposition to the Shah in the late 1970s?