Iranian Revolution (Persian: انقلاب ایران‎, romanized: Enqelâbe Irân,
By: Ar Hojabav
Tags: Revolution, Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution (Persian: انقلاب ایران‎, romanized: Enqelâbe Irân, pronounced [ʔeɴɢeˌlɒːbe ʔiːɾɒːn]), also known as the Islamic Revolution[1] was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the replacement of his government with an Islamic republic under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a leader of one of the factions in the revolt.[2] The revolution was supported by various leftist and Islamist organizations[3] and student movements.

After the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, Pahlavi had aligned with the United States and the Western Bloc to rule more firmly as an authoritarian monarch. He relied heavily on United States support to hold on to power which he held for 26 years.[4][5] This led to the 1963 White Revolution and the arrest and exile of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1964. Amidst massive tensions between Khomeini and the Shah, demonstrations began in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements.[6][7][8] The protests rapidly intensified in 1978 as a result of the burning of Rex Cinema which was seen as the trigger of the revolution,[9][10] and between August and December that year, strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country.

On 16 January 1979, the Shah had fled Iran in exile as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and Shapour Bakhtiar, who was an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government,[4][11] and returned to Tehran to a greeting by several thousand Iranians.[12] The royal reign collapsed shortly after, on 11 February, when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power.[13][14] Iran voted by national referendum to become an Islamic republic on 1 April 1979[15] and to formulate and approve a new theocratic-republican constitution[6][7][16][17] whereby Khomeini became supreme leader of the country in December 1979.

The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world.[18] It lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat in war, a financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military);[19] occurred in a nation that was experiencing relative prosperity;[4][17] produced profound change at great speed;[20] was massively popular; resulted in the exile of many Iranians;[21] and replaced a pro-Western authoritarian monarchy[4] with an anti-Western theocracy[4][16][17][22] based on the concept of velayat-e faqih (or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists). In addition to these, the revolution sought a global Shia revival and uprooting of Sunni hegemony.[23] It was a relatively nonviolent revolution, and it helped to redefine the meaning and practice of modern revolutions (although there was violence in its aftermath).[24]

Background (1891–1977)[edit]

Main article: Background and causes of the Iranian Revolution

Reasons advanced for the revolution and its populist, nationalist, and later Shia Islamic character include:

A backlash against Western imperialism; The 1953 Iranian coup d’état; A rise in expectations created by the 1973 oil revenue windfall; An overly ambitious economic program; Anger over a short, sharp economic contraction in 1977–1978; and[Note 1] Other shortcomings of the previous regime.

The Shah’s regime was seen as an oppressive, brutal,[29][30] corrupt, and lavish regime by some of the society’s classes at that time.[29][31] It also suffered from some basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages, and inflation.[32] The Shah was perceived by many as beholden to — if not a puppet of — a non-Muslim Western power (i.e., the United States)[33][34] whose culture was affecting that of Iran. At the same time, support for the Shah may have waned among Western politicians and media — especially under the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter — as a result of the Shah’s support for OPEC petroleum price increases earlier in the decade.[35] When President Carter enacted a human-rights policy which said that countries guilty of human-rights violations would be deprived of American arms or aid, this helped give some Iranians the courage to post open letters and petitions in the hope that the repression by the government might subside.