The capital of the world’s only significant theocracy is the second-largest city in the
Middle East. While possessing immense fossil fuel wealth, its 15 million people face strong
headwinds from a brutally oppressive government that - to stop protests and
stay in power - has committed shocking raids on grade schools and dozens of murders of children.
Other challenges are an increasingly harsh natural environment and entanglements with
foreign powers that have bedeviled its leaders for generations. A rundown of
its complicated modern history reveals a stubborn resilience. This is Tehran, the defiant megacity.
Located in west Asia, Iran has eight foreign borders and access to the ocean through the gulfs
off its southern coast. Most of the country’s 87 million people live in the northwest, where
it's cooler on the steppes of mountains home to the highest peak in Western Asia–Mount Damavand.
In 1786, this land became the 32nd capital in the history of Persia,
closer to areas in the north that had fallen under the influence of Russia and Britain.
Despite the move, these foreign countries gained even more power and,
by the 1900s, had begun exploiting the country’s newly discovered oil fields.
Meanwhile, Tehran was still a modest, walled city with an area-wide population of 280,000.
By 1921, Persia’s ruling dynasty was highly corrupt and inefficient,
creating an opening for a young military officer. On a cool February morning, Reza Khan marched his
3,000-man brigade into the capital and seized control as the new minister of
war. Four years later, he was crowned Shah by a parliament packed with his loyalists.
He insisted that his country be called Iran, “Land of the Aryans,”
and launched a broad program of modernization to break the control of religious leaders.
Secular schools and courts were opened, along with the country’s first university. Road and
rail networks were built out, as were factories that reliably produced basic goods. Girls were
encouraged to obtain an education and women were brought into the workforce.
European-style dress was standardized and the wearing of the veil was abolished.
The people of Tehran were widely supportive, but the Shah also made enemies:
with the press he’d muzzled, with the parliament he’d marginalized,
and - most significantly - with political and rivals he’d had arrested or exiled.
His forces also used harsh tactics to quash dissent, including an infamous confrontation with
protesters where his troops violated the shrine of an Imam and killed dozens of worshippers.
The Shah was also greedy, and accumulated vast wealth while the lower classes paid a heavy tax
burden. But his fatal mistake was refusing to turn away from Hitler’s Germany at the onset of World
War II, resulting in the British and Soviets invading to maintain their access to oil and supply routes.
As his military quickly folded, the Shah cut a deal to pass the
crown to his European-educated son who formally joined the allies.
After the war, many within Iran - including Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh - wanted to
end Britain’s monopoly over its oil industry. In a collaboration with the CIA and British
intelligence, the Shah and one of his generals conspired to remove the Prime Minister. But
things got messy, and Tehran was engulfed in four days of riots and street battles.
The Shah’s forces eventually prevailed,
and Mosaddegh and hundreds of his supporters were arrested, and several were executed.
This essentially made the Shah a dictator, but consistent oil revenue allowed him to
stay in power for decades by pumping up the economy for all Iranians. However,
one person consistently spoke out against his rule: an exiled Ayatollah named Khomeini,
who developed an antigovernment movement from his adopted home in neighboring Iraq.
When the Iranian economy finally went bad in the late 1970s, the Shah lost the confidence of his
people and the military and fled the country. The following month, Khomeini returned to Iran,
was named Supreme Leader, and capped his revolution by declaring Iran an Islamic Republic.
As a ruler, he spread the responsibility of governing to a variety
of decision-making bodies and officeholders, creating an ambiguity that exists today about
how decisions are made. He also instituted much more conservative laws and controls,
including forcing political candidates to seek approval. In the most recent
presidential election, only 7 of 590 applicants were approved to run–and none of them were women.
In the months following the revolution, vengeful revolutionary courts arbitrarily
tried and executed thousands of former government officials and Shah loyalists.
This terror caused millions to flee–an exodus dominated by the capital’s most educated,
creative citizens. Most
of those who emigrated came to the United States, Canada, the UK, UAE, or Germany,
a talent deficit that Iran still struggles to overcome.
Khomeini also allowed the hostage crisis of 52
Americans taken from the US Embassy to drag on for nearly a year and a half,
giving his young administration a severe black eye on the world stage and making a
powerful enemy out of an American government that had been a loyal ally to the Shah.
War also drove internal migration when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded,
starting an eight-year conflict that caused millions to seek a new life in the capital.
Social programs also encouraged urban migration. In 1975 about 55 percent of
Iran’s population was rural, but by 2018 it was more than 75% percent urban.
As a result of Khomeini’s decision to nationalize major industries, swathes of land, and private fortunes,
today, nearly half of Tehranis are in some way employed by the government. But
this level of state control has not led to widespread prosperity–as its GDP-per-capita
ranks 81st despite possessing the world’s 21st-largest economy.
The regime has also pursued a nuclear program beset by setbacks, sabotage, and sanctions.
To make matters worse, nuclear energy now costs far more than the cheapest form of electricity:
solar, which the Iranian desert can produce in abundance. While it has installed very little
utility-scale solar so far, Tehran recently announced a plan to add 10GW of renewable
energy capacity over the next four years, enough to power tens of millions of homes.
That’s good, because Iran is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change,
having already experienced a temperature rise of 1.8 degrees celsius - that’s one-and-a-half times the
mean global rise of 1.2 degrees. Iran is gripped by a prolonged drought that’s decimated its water
supply and turned thousands of villages into ghost towns as surrounding farmland goes dry.
Experts now say that this mass displacement, and the government’s mismanagement of precious
water resources, are major contributors to the recent waves of protests across the country.
To tackle other problems, several major projects have been completed in the capital. Tehran now
has the largest metro system in the Middle East. Six-cent ticket prices and a daily ridership of
3 million are improving its terrible traffic and air pollution. In recent years Internet speed and penetration has
increased 10-fold; Tehran’s new, integrated sewer and water treatment system is 90% operational;
and its internationally-celebrated Tabiat bridge
now connects two of the capital’s parks across its busiest highway.
But Tehran has remained a magnet for millions across the region because
of the energy and optimism of its young people.
Through acts of defiance big and small against the repressive regime, they continue to make
small gains modernizing their city. Even though a lot of it happens behind closed doors or
through cat-and-mouse games with government censors on the Internet, they are consuming
and sharing modern culture while exploring ways to bring their government into the 21st century.
The current Supreme Leader is an 83-year-old in questionable health guiding a regime struggling
to contain protests led by women demanding full rights that are inspiring millions to demand a
functioning economy. As more and more teenagers join the movement calling for an end to the
Ayatollah’s rule, his desperate henchmen have resorted to putting hundreds of them in jail
and even killing at least 50 children across the country–unprecedented crimes that cross
a line from which there is no turning back. It feels like significant change is on the horizon,
but when will it arrive, what will it look like, and how will it affect the rest of the world?
If you enjoyed this episode,
I profiled London last time and am exploring Buenos Aires, Argentina next.