The middle-east has always been a hot zone for religious and political conflict but more specifically, Iran. Iran is an Islamic state where Islam is practiced within politics. The Constitution of 1979 runs off of the basis of Islamic Law. The population of Iran varies upon resources but they are all around the number of seventy million people. The country is 90 percent Shia Muslim and eight-percent Sunni Muslim.1 The rest of the country is made up of very small minority religions. The minority religions have very little influence in the country and are easily thrown around by the government and the majority Shia Muslims.
I am going to explain the government system at the national level and then how religion inter-mingles within it. The main ideas that will be tuned in on are: the legal basis and religion relationship, official religion, religious influence in the government, the government system, and what religious conflicts are in Iran today.
Government under the Constitution of 1979
The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979 after the previous monarchy was overthrown. Today, Iran remains the only Muslim country to be run by clergy. 2 Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini established a government with a separation of powers but the ultimate power was given to the Supreme Leader (a religious scholar) or otherwise called the Faqih. The Supreme Leader is not a majority elected official but chose by the Assembly of Experts which consists of eighty-six Islamic Scholars which are elected by the people. These scholars are all clergymen that serve eight year terms.3
The Iranian government is a theocratic Republic which means that the government is ruled in the name of God. This means that Shi’ite Islam is not just the o...
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...ity, but they do have a wide range of backgrounds.
With the background being so diverse, it makes it hard to suppress a society as we see in the country today. Constantly people are held down by the unfairness of the law and the leaders. Secularization is nowhere to be found in Iran. Islamic law and its enforcers are what creates the issues in Iran’s society. Unlike the society the United States presents, government and religion flow together and work together. The Iranian government uses Islamic law in their theocracy to rule over the people of Iran.
Even though people are still discriminated against, it has slowly shown progress. In modern time, religious persecutions do not happen as often as they did right after the constitution was drafted. Minorities today still have to obey by the strict law presented, but can see a little more light through the window.
Not only did the religious history play a large role in Iran’s beliefs but also foreign invaders have been imposing their power on the Iranian region for thousands of years. Iran...
Prior to the Islamic Revolution, Iran was ruled by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and furthermore, not governed by religion. The Shah’s White Revolution launched a series of reforms in 1963 that are indicative of where women’s rights for Iran were heading prior to the Islamic revolution. The reforms included, giving women the right to vote, run for office and to become lawyers and judges. This large of a reform in regards to women’s rights, was far more drastic than anything Iran had experienced in the past, and the shock of these “extreme” measures, received a large backlash from over 90% of the population1, the Shia Muslims.
...n the Islamic Republic of Iran." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 Aug. 2010. .
The Shia branch of the Muslim religion only accounts for about 15% of the total population of Muslims in the world. Shiism has the most influence in the contemporary world especially in Iran where the population is nearly 90% Muslim. The Shias revere a succession of Scholars known as Imams. The Imam has been regarded as both the political and spiritual leader. Although the two branches agree on many of the doctrinal and ritual matters, the Shia holds the Imams and saints in very high regard. The ones ...
Over the course of the last century, the Islamic Republic of Iran (formerly known as Persia) has seen colonialism, the end of a dynasty, the installation of a government by a foreign power, and just over three decades ago, the popular uprising and a cleric-led revolution. These events preceded what could be considered the world’s first Islamic state, as politics and fundamentalist religion are inextricably linked in contemporary Iran. Looking at Iran from the mid 1940’s until the present day, one can trace the path that led to the rise of fundamental Islam in Iran in three distinct periods. The first is that which began with the rise of secular nationalism and the decline of Islam. In the second, the secular, western-friendly government eventually gave way to the Islamic revival in the form of a government takeover by hard-line clerics and disillusioned, fundamentalist youth; both motivated and led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Rule of Iran by these fundamentalist clerics then led to the formation of the fundamentalist Islamic theocracy that governs present-day Iran. The current government has some democratic appearances, but all real power is in the hands of the supreme leader, an Ayatollah who is chosen by the Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics chosen by the Guardian Council. With the Iranian Revolution, political Islam was born, with the fundamentalists holding the reins of power in Iran to the present day.
The Iranian government is fighting a losing battle against a rapidly growing Western force. Although Iran is not physically waging war against the United States, the government is fighting to eradicate its increasing cultural influence in Iran. The young, Iranian population is currently speaking out against the Islamic Republic’s attempts to rid the country of Western culture, demanding more freedom and less censorship, similar to how Marjane Satrapi acts out against the regime in Persepolis.
In the 1970’s Iran, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a very centralized military state that maintained a close relationship with the USA. The Shah was notoriously out of touch with working class Iranians as he implemented many controversial economic policies against small business owners that he suspected involved profiteering. Also unrestricted economic expansions in Iran lead to huge government expenditure that became a serious problem when oil prices dropped in the mid 1970’s. This caused many huge government construction projects to halt and the economy to stall after many years of massive profit. Following this was high rates of inflation that affected Iranians buying power and living standards. (Afary, 2012) Under the Shah, political participation was not widely available for all Iranians and it was common for political opposition to be met with harassment, illegal detention, and even torture. These measures were implemented by the Iranian secret police knows as ‘SAVAK’. This totalitarian regime combined with the increasing modernisation of the country paved the way for revolution.
Although the Iranian Revolution was both a political and religious movement in that it resulted in major shifts in government structure from an autocracy to a republic and that Islamic beliefs were fought to be preserved, it was more a religious movement in that the primary goal of the people was to preserve traditional ideology and in that the government became a theocracy intertwined with religious laws and desires of the people. Although the Iranian Revolution was caused by combination of political and religious motivations and ideas, the desires of the people supporting the movement were more dominantly religious ideas that were wished to be imposed in society and in a new government. The Shah, or king, of Iran at the time was Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who had developed relations with nations in the “western” world, specifically with the United States. The United States supported the White Revolution, which was a series of social reformations the Shah made to remove Islamic values, law and tradition from the government to boost the country’s economy (White Revolution, 2010).... ...
Under the Shah's son, Iranian citizens were often whipped, killed execution style, or went to prison for speaking out. Brainwashing people into believing, that the way to heaven was by obeying the Shah's rules and if they did not honor the Shah they would go to hell. After the deposing of the shah by revolution, the people of Iran elected a democratic leader.... ... middle of paper ...
In February of 1979, Muhammad Reza Shah was in exile and Ayatollah Khomeini arrived as the triumphant leader of a revolution. Throughout the remainder of the year, the execution of former prime ministers, SAVAK agents, and high- ranking military officers took place. Muhammad Reza Shah’s regime was no longer in power and the Iranian Revolution was in full effect, but what caused this rapid shift of power? In the years leading up to the revolution, the Shah implemented the White Revolution in attempts to modernize Iran. The White Revolution was an attempt to turn Iran into an economic power, however; it went against many of the core beliefs of Islam. The White revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s caused the Iranian revolution because it marginalized
Griffith, William E. “The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.” International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138.
The education system in place when the shah was in charge was secular in nature, and the education system implemented by the Islamic regime was incredibly religious and based upon the teachings of Islam. If the students of Iran were not forced to switch from one education system to the other, then each system in their own way would have succeeded. However, since the students were forced to switch education systems, this caused the students to become rebellious. “I think that the reason we were so rebellious was that our generation had known secular schools,” (Satrapi, 2000, p. 98). The students had become accustomed to they ways of the secular schools, that when they were forced to switch to the strict rules of the education system of the Islamic regime, this caused pandemonium and ultimately led to rebellion. This switch is education system was the reason both forms of education ended up not succeeding but failing.
After the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of opposition, became the country’s leader and changed Iran’s Constitution, an Islamic republic government. Under this new hierarchy, which will be explained later, the country was supposed to have independent congress, president and judiciary department, to avoid corruption and bad management of wealth.
Iranian Family Life Iran’s people tend to be associated with many cultural misconceptions as to how they live and what they believe. These misconceptions include: Iranians are all Muslim extremists, women are suppressed, marriages are forced among people, and that children are taught from a small age to be terrorists. These are just a few of the many stigmas about Iranians. Yes, some of these are true in small parts of the country, but now many of them are rare in the modern era.
Over the years, there have been repeated efforts to find the roots of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s intentions and motivations. This has also led in attempts to define its political culture with its ever-expanding history. A rich and ancient nation, Iran has historically been suspicious of outsiders. This maze of political factors and western audience’s lack of access to Iran since the Islamic Revolution has produced a view of the Islamic Republic of Iran that can be misconstrued. Misunderstanding that places too much emphasis on Iran’s unique characteristics often define this view. For the world to grow and bring about genuine cultural exchange the nation state must have all aspects taken into account. The cultural landscape of Iran deserves a genuine understanding for the sake of diplomacy and the United States to further its strategic goals within the Middle East. (Jerrold D. Green, Frederic Wehrey, Charles Wolf, Jr. “Understanding Iran.” Rand.org)