Today’s Iran is an Islamic state but the story of how it became an Islamic
state is a memorable incident that shook the entire nation during then.
This is no doubt one of the first civilized countries in the world
but this region has to go through a lot of up and down once.
Iranian revolution also most popularly known as Islamic revolution
in 1979 is one of the most eventful incident in the world history
that took the entire Iran to street and people were largely
involved in violence, war, demonstrations and protests.
The incident happened so suddenly that all were left shocked.
After a deep violation, long demonstrations and protests finally
Iran was voted to become an Islamic republic on April 1, 1979.
It drew an end to the long 2500 years Persian
Monarchy and it was replaced by Islamic Republic.
This was the war between Mohammad Reza Shah
Pahlavi and Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
While Reza was supported and backed by the US, Khomeini
was backed by the Islamist and young student movements.
After the revolution the power was handed over to the hand of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini and he became the supreme leader of Islamic Republic Iran by December 1979.
However, this is not a small incident rather so
many up, down, violence, war are involved in this
and here we have discussed that how Iran actually became Islamic
and the great history of Iranian revolution in more detail.
1951-1953
Iran has gone through a very quick transformation for the last five decades which is
really surprising and very few countries have
seen such massive and speedy transformation.
The monarchy got replaced with Islamization.
The monarchy was quite oppressive but it is to mention that
the Islamaization is even more oppressive than the Monarchy.
The story began during 1951, just when people started
living a relaxed life after the Second World War.
During then Iran was a democratic country and people were living happily.
The then Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was very popular and he
was loved and revered by the people of Iran for his sacred nature.
His aim was to abolish poverty and establishing secularism.
He combated for that.
He dreamt of reforming Iran and in this context,
he also nationalised the bountiful oil supplies.
But this is what raged anger among the Western Government.
Iran is a oil reserver and this led to create big war.
The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was actually a
British Corporation, known as BP currently.
It was the big oil supplier company that was enjoying monopoly on the sale of oil.
And the then Prime Minister’s move to make the oil
supplies nationalized was not at all liked by them.
The America’s Central Investigation Agency and British Government planned
to throw the democratically elected Prime Minister and finally they did so.
Mohammad Mosaddegh was restricting their job and
this made them to send the Prime Minister to jail.
It put an end to the democracy and the US, UK
government altogether brought Monarchy to Iran.
It called for a new Prime Minister and ruler
who could rule the country as per their wish.
The Western Government’s aim was to establish industrialization and transform Iran into
a modern country and they found Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to be perfect for this position.
He was a strict ruler and brought huge change to the country.
The Western Government supported him greatly and he worked to
bring economic reform along with expanding the industrialization.
The democratic country was converted to autocratic one with
the selection of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi-The Shah of Iran.
A new era started.
1953-1977
It was the time of Shah of Iran- Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
He ruled the country with his strict rule to ensure
he can secure his name in the history of world.
Even though Monarchy was still there but it was highly oppressive and autocratic.
His main aim was really good which was to build a Great civilization.
He too wanted to reform Iran by modernizing it.
But the way was not at all good and unaccepted by the people of Iran.
He followed violence and corruption.
People were encouraged to follow his path.
He also has a secret police force called as ‘SAVAK’.
SAVAK is known as the most loathed police force in the history of world.
They used to conduct several arrest for no reason and also
murdered of the opponent party was not a big deal for them.
They also used to torture people in case they used to express different views.
Things kept going like this and unfortunately the government
of Shah during the last years became more cruel and brutal.
He ensured his involvement everywhere starting from a vocation to activity.
But finally the Iranian Revolution arrived.
By the early of 1977, several protests and demonstrations started.
People became so furious that Shah was thrown of the country.
He was not thrown actually rather he was forced to flee from Iran.
The revolutionary uproar started in full fledged in 1977
and was going for long two years from 1977 to 1979.
The time of revolution is explained in full details.
1977-1979
Demonstrations against Shah started on October
1977 and it was intensified during 1978.
There were several reasons of these demonstrations while the strict and
autocratic policy along with economic differences are main to be blame for that.
Many more revolutions took place in the past such as Romanian revolution, French
revolution and Russian revolution but nothing is as memorable as the Iran Revolution.
And also most of the revolution was non-violent
while this one involved too much violence.
The demonstrations became so high that paralyzed the whole country.
Different kind of people took part in this revolution and all of their aim was
to win a free and secular Iran without that autocratic Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Ruhollah Khomeini, the mastermind of the Iran revolution was a fundamental
Muslim who encouraged people highly in these demonstrations and protests.
He was the biggest opponent of Shah who was arrested
in 1963 for his anti-activities against Shah.
He was imprisoned for 18 months and was released in 1964.
But he refused to express regret and this sent him to exile again.
During the Revolution he was absent but still
managed to encourage people in the demonstrations
and he was the one who advised the people of Iran not to compromise at any cost.
During the whole revolution he was staying in Exile in Paris.
Everyone starting from secular students, islamists, and Marxist ideologues raised their
voice against shah and took to the streets almost everyday to express their protests.
There were few days when almost 10% of the country’s population was on the street.
This event is really remarkable as most of the revolution could pull only 1% of the
population to street while this figure went to 10% in case of Iran revolution.
The protests and demonstration was so huge that forced
Shah to finally leave the country on 16th January, 1979.
This day was so memorable to all the Iranians.
They cheered on the streets and it drew an end to the years old autocratic monarchy.
Democracy won and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left
the country forever never to return back.
1979-The Great revolution
When Shah left the country on January 16th, 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini, the lead
of the revolution came back to Iran and his return was celebrated by everyone.
Even though people of Iran was much happier and they dreamt of transferring the power
to the secular group, but Ruhollah Khomeini’s intention was slightly different.
Shapour Bakhtiar was the interim prime minister and with
Khomeini’s return he appointed his own PM Mehdi Bazargan.
This Prime minister had to listen to Ruhollah Khomeini
and he was not able to take any decision in his own.
The interim government collapsed and Khomeini became to the official power.
Everything was in his hand.
At last on March 30th, a national referendum took place
that was to replace the monarchy with Islamic republic.
Most of the people were wishing this replacement
and 98% vote was in favour of this replacement.
Finally on April 1st, 1979, Iran became Islamic republic.
The Iranian revolution or the Islamic revolution is a long and very eventful
incident in the world history that kept going for almost five decades.
The 2000 years old democratic and then autocratic
monarchy was replaced by Islamic republic.
Women and men walked hand in hand across the streets to
get a free and secular Iran and enjoyed their victory.
The revolution was a joyful incident definitely in 1979 but it was
also unfortunate at the same time as people faced a betrayal as well.
While the revolution gave millions of people in Iran a great dream and
aspiration, their hopes became devastated by the betrayal in a matter of second.
Ruhollah Khomeini turned Iran into a thoroughly repressive theocracy and people who
were suffering for long ended up to become even more oppressed after the revolution.