The Iranian Revolution
After a CIA backed coup ousted the country's Prime Minister, Mossadegh, in 1953 (for more info see the earlier post entitled "Iran Nationalizes the Oil Industry"), Iran was ruled by a monarch - Mohammed Reza Shah. Supported by the United States, the Shah's policy sought to modernize and westernize Iran, using the US and Europe as models.
Heavy handed rule
Unfortunately, the Shah also insisted on absolute control over all levers of power, and his rule became more and more dictatorial and repressive. Those who spoke out against him or his policies often suffered torture, imprisonment and execution at the hands of his notorious secret police. Among those who resisted him most virulently were the religious conservatives.
The Shiite Muslim clerics represented a force in Iranian society that the Shah had long sought to control, and whose power he had long sought to break. Many of his western inspired reforms in fact doubled as weapons to fight the religious clerics. The establishment of state run public schools, for example, was a carefully aimed blow at the ancient tradition of religious education in Iran.
Popular discontent
Not surprisingly, it was the religious scholars and their pupils who first began organized demonstrations against what they saw as a brutal, Western-backed regime intent on forcing foreign ideals and values on the country. Demonstrations began in earnest in 1978, and despite violent attempts by the government forces to disperse and suppress them, they grew in number throughout the year and into 1979. Before long, the Shah fled the country for fear of his life, and soon afterwards the regime collapsed.
The rise of the Islamic Republic
While the resistance to the Shah's regime began with the religious conservatives, it was by no means limited to them. Virtually every social group wanted the Shah's regime to end, and had a stake in the new government. The religious establishment quickly consolidated absolute control over the country, however, led by a religious leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, newly returned from his exile in France.
Iran was proclaimed an Islamic Republic with Khomeini as its Supreme Leader. Western ideals and values were rejected, and the country's constitution and laws were said to be inspired by and based on the Koran and Islamic Law. While in practice many aspects of Iranian life introduced during the Shah years, such as cinema, popular music and Western clothing, remained popular, the official stance of the government was fiercely anti-Western, and in particular anti-US.
