Criticisms of the Shah
Iran's leader between 1941 and 1979 was Shah Mohammed Palhavi, a dictator who had gained power after a U.S. backed coup of prime minister Mohammed Mosaddegh. This lead many Iranians to be distrustful of him and his regime. Although his administration had been under constant scrutiny from many intellectuals in the country, the pressure on him increased in 1977 when a large group of journalists, intellectuals, political activists, and lawyers published a series of letters criticizing the Shah. This lead to the Shah's critics becoming more vocal, and protests erupted across Iran with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini leading them from his exile in France (Maloney & Razipour 2019).
Reasons Behind the Revolution
One of Mohammed Palhavi's primary goals as dictator was to open Iran to U.S. and British oil drilling and to have a 'white revolution' that would westernize Iran. However, as Iran began to make more and more money from their expanding oil industry, most of the wealth went to rich members of the country, and the poor began to suffer from a lack of jobs. The white revolution also drew large amounts of criticism from Muslim groups in Iran, who thought that it was antithetical to Islam. These factors, along with the Iranian populaces desire for a democratic country, resulted in large protests and the revolution.
Events During the Revolution
The first violent occurrence of the revolution happened on January 9th, 1978. Several thousand protestors in the Qom main bazar started attacking symbols of the Shah monarchy. Security guards retaliated and at least five protestors were killed. More protests are held and each time a protestor is killed in the riots, more and more showed up to protest the Shah. On august 19th, 477 Iranians died in a movie theater fire set by an Islamic revolutionary (Maloney & Razipour 2019). Eventually, Mohammed Palhavi was forced to flee to country in 1979, over fear for his own safety.
After Effects of the Revolution
After Mohammed Palhavi fled the country, Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran and began setting up the Islamic Republic of Iran through a democratic vote. The countries new military was the revolutionary guard corps, and a constitution was voted on and past. The new country had a fiercely anti-western sentiment that caused revolutionaries to storm a U.S. embassy and take its occupants hostage. Abolhassan Banisadr was elected the countries first president.