Why, in spite of its apparent strength, was the monarchy so rapidly overthrown in Iran in 1979?
Minoo Ramanathan 12 KB
Why, in spite of its apparent strength, was the monarchy so rapidly overthrown in Iran in 1979?
(Q.20, P3, May 2001)
The key to this question lies in the words “apparent strength”. In 1953, with the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh (PM of Iran), Muhammad Reza was given a new lease of life. Determined to retain his power this time around, Reza embarked on a series of reforms officially proclaimed the “White Revolution”. The reforms would go on to produce substantial economic and social advances in Iran, however, the Shah’s stubbornness to impose the legitimacy of his absolute monarchial rule proved to be costly in his efforts to strengthen Iran. In fact, in reality the Shah’s monarchy was up against so much internal opposition in subsequent years that he had to resort to establishing a secret police known as the SAVAK and other such extreme measures to quell the discontent among his people, who despised the corruption that existed within the government. Despite his efforts, his torture methods, copious wealth and support from foreign powers (especially the US) were still not enough to prevent Muhammad Reza’s overthrow in 1979, in a revolution led by an Islamic leader named Ayatollah Khoimeini.
In 1963, the Shah came up with a series of reforms that he believed would help modernize Iran “along Western lines”1. His goals were welcomed among the Iranian public and the Western world alike, the two most important being land reform and the establishment of a literacy corps. The latter was more successful and in fact, between 1963 and 1977 enrollment in elementary schools more than doubled and university enrollment increased seven-fold2. When the land reform program ended in 1971 it had helped about 2 million people become landowners. Other positive developments that resulted from the White Revolution included improved health care leading to a lower infant mortality rate and better internal and external communications. Women were even given greater equality in the legal issues of marriage; their permission was required prior to a man marrying another woman. Oil revenue increases ($13 billion from 1976-1974 to $20 billion in 1975-1976) 3 due to the OPEC embargo in response to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war was a major boost to the country whose industrial output swelled dramatically. In 1971 the world was witness to the wealth amassing in Iran when the Shah is believed to have spent $100 million for the commemoration of 2500 years of the Iranian monarchy. To the outsider, especially those in the West, the developments and milestones described above made it seem that the Shah was indeed in power of a stable and strong monarchy popular among the public. However, in the following paragraph when the mentioned issues are studied in more detail, it becomes increasingly ostensible to see that the White Revolution was merely a “justification for the shah’s rule”4 and events in the 1970’s were indication of an inevitable revolution to overthrow him.
