Iran's Islamic Revolution: A Rebellion Against Westernization

781 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Iranian revolutions the causes and effects

The Islamic revolution in Iran came from discontent for westernization and secularization in Iran. It was the Iranian supporters of Khomeini rebelling against shah and his westernized approach and dictatorship of the country. The Iranian felt as if Iran’s leader the Shahan shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Aryamehr was too westernized and was contaminating Iran with modernization and also creating a separation of democracy and religion. Also, powerful and entrenched groups in Iran did not like how shah imposed his westernize reforms (Goldschmidt, 2013). They were also dissatisfied with the allowance of United States interference or influence to curb the groups they viewed as blocking Iran’s modernization. This included landlords, ulama and bazaar …show more content…

The Islamic revolution was the result of discontent for westernization and modernization in Iran. The people felt as if shah was imposing a society contaminated with westernized influences, and straying from culture and religion. This seems to be a common trend in other revolutionary movements. It seems as most revolutionaries are a result of a want or need to change an injustice. It is created on the basis or ideation of an injustice or a need for change within the society, politically or economically. It is usually led by thinkers, educators, prestige leaders, as seen with Khomeini. However, unlike other revolutionaries, the Islamic Revolution differs because religion actually played a prominent role. Although other revolutions came as a result for change between the separation of religion and state, the Islamic revolution was based off the ideologies of a religious leader. He wanted to restore religion back into politics, and thought the Shia lacked religious and cultural foundations, and weened away toward a modernized and fundamental society. Khomeini’s intent was to restore Iran, and remove the contamination brought by westernized influences. It also is not looking for the rights of all Iranian people, but those of Sunni or Islamic faith. When other revolutions included the majority of people, The Islamic Revolution excluded, and discriminates against the Shia (Nasr, 2007).

Show More
Related

  • All The Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer

    2087 Words  | 5 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Effects of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 on Gender Equality

    1625 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: The Iranian Revolution

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    First, the Shah, out-of-touch with what his people wanted, became the catalyst for massive xenophobic and anti-Western feelings to spread throughout the nation. By giving up traditional Islamic ideals and becoming sort of a “puppet” for the U.S. and the Western world, the Shah made a mockery of himself and of those traditional Islamic values, which were paramount in Iran. For many years, Iranians wrote letters to the Shah, voicing their discontent with many aspects of his rule — the spread of the Bahá’í Faith, the collapse of Islamic traditions, and the crumbling economy. The Shah, however, did nothing to fix these issues. Instead, he designed a political reformation movement, hoping to silence his opponents, to introduce personal rights for women, and to establish a sense of fiscal equality. This series of reforms, which appeared to be a blatant attempt to Westernize Iran, became known as the “White

    Read More

  • Theme Of Persepolis

    1538 Words  | 4 Pages

    The introduction to Persepolis gives a great deal of background information to the unrest in Iran leading up to the Islamic revolution. Iran had been in a state of unrest for “2500 years” (page11). Iran was ruled by foreign nations and exploited by the western world for its rich expanses of oil. In 1951 the prime minister of Iran tried to take back his country’s wealth by nationalizing

    Read More

  • The Iranian Revolution and the Russian Revolution

    1667 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Unthinkable Revolution Response

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chapter four of Charles Kurzman’s book details the evidence for and against a cultural explanation of the Iranian Revolution. There are two types of cultural explanations that center around the question, “Does culture shape us, or do we shape it (56)?” One side argues that cultures can be conductive of protest movements. The other views protest movements as groups that attempt to change culture, using the language of culture as a tool kit for the revolutionary. Both of these arguments have been used to explain the genesis and evolution of Iran’s protest movement.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Modernization In Iran And Iran

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    By the end of the nineteenth century, the seemingly unstoppable rise of colonial power called for the modernization of Middle Eastern countries, particularly in Iran and Egypt. In their respective pursuits of building a modern nation-state, Reza Shah of Iran and Ataturk of Egypt, similarly implemented policies of political centralization, economic development, and secularization. Ultimately, modernization proved more viable in Turkey than in Reza Shah’s Iran due to the precedents characteristic of the Ottoman Empire inherited by Ataturk. Specifically, the endurance of successful westernization policies in Turkey, contrasted by their disintegration in Iran, can be equated to the different preexisting economic, social, and political conditions

    Read More

  • Transnational Social Movements, International Nongovernmental Organizations

    2182 Words  | 5 Pages

    Arjomand, Said Amir. “Iran's Islamic Revolution in Comparative Perspective.” World Politics, Volume 38, Issue 3 (1986. 4), 383-414.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights in The Islamic Republic of Iran

    1331 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 created a lasting affect on the societal role of women through modern day Iran. Women in Iran before the revolution were not entirely treated equal to men, but despite some cultural perceptions of women being inferior to men, they had made progress to become socially equal under the Shah. Several misconceptions and theories have been published and studied to show the inequality of women versus men because of Islam. However, contrasting theories have also been made to show that inequality has little to do with the religion, but instead with the forceful nature upon which it was implemented in the revolution. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the Islamic and political history of Iran and its social implications over Iranian women.

    Read More

  • World History: The Islamic Republic Of Iran

    3297 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) rests in the volatile Middle East and borders Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan. World History recognizes Iran as Persia until 1935. The Persian Empire lasted from 549 B.C. to 1935 and was one of the longest spanning and greatest empires in history (Ansari). Today, Iran is a major player on the world stage and affects the economies of its neighbors and the world. An analysis of Iranian culture with respect to the United States Army includes political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, physical environment, time aspects, and civil considerations and is important in the planning of company level operations.

    Read More

  • Persepolis Essay

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Iranian Revolution, “was the 1979 overthrow of Iran 's monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic Republic. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was replaced by the cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolution established religious leaders as the ruling class and integrated fundamentalist Islamic law into all aspects of the government, military, and public and private enterprise” (Definition of Islamic Revolution). The symbolism that is associated within the novel shows her rebellious stages such as, smoking a cigarette due to the amount of deaths that occurred in the revolution. Satrapi became curious about her surroundings and she seeks for knowledge and information about the Iranian Revolution in different ways such as reading.

    Read More

  • Veiling the Truth: A Look at How the Hijab is used as a tool of Oppression and Resistance in Iran With Comparisons to Indonesia

    2582 Words  | 6 Pages

    As I sat in an airport one day, I noticed a family approaching the same waiting area as mine. This family was not the same as your ordinary family; the mother was completely covered, with only her eyes and hands showing. I immediately found myself wondering, being in America, the land of the free, did she choose to wear that or is it mandatory for her due to her religion. I also wondered if she knew that people were looking at her, possibly with the same question as my own.

    Read More

  • Education In Persepolis

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Causes and Effects of the Iranian Revolution Religiously and Politically

    2489 Words  | 5 Pages

    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).... ...

    Read More

  • The Iranian Revolution And The Iran-Iraq War

    359 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the past few decades, countries all over the world are forming, and joining, one or more supranational organizations. As defined by Sharonn Freeman, a supranational organization is a group or union made of multiple countries that “relinquish a certain amount of government power to the union” (Freeman). The nations that join these organizations typically form political, military, and/or financial alliances to help further the agenda of the organization (Freeman). An example of one of these organizations is the Gulf Cooperation Council with its headquarters currently based in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia (Gulf Leaders).

    Read More

More about Iran's Islamic Revolution: A Rebellion Against Westernization

Open Document