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The rule of the first Pahlavi monarch comes about as a result of a military coup in 1921 supported by the British. Reza Shah crowned himself on April 25, 1926. Reza Shah was determined to modernize Iran, looking to imitate Ataturk’s modernization of Turkey (1895-1914, Young Turk Movement).
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Dabashi says of the university: “Tehran University would of course also function as the secular counterpart of religious seminaries in Qom and Mashhad – thus there were now two, diametrically opposed, educational systems, one almost exclusively under the control of the Pahlavi government, while the others thrived under a more or less autonomous clerical establishment” (121).
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Second Pahlavi monarch, age 22, occupies the throne after his father is exiled to South Africa. Dabashi says of this transition: “The flirtation of Reza Shah with the Axis powers resulted in the Allied occupation of Iran soon after the war began, and he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Muhammad Reza Shah, who was installed and supported in power by the Allied forces” (123).
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Iranian Prime Minister Mosaddeq nationalizes the Iranian oil industry, which foments a power struggle with the Shah. Dabashi notes that this is a time when anticolonial movements are active in the region, Jawaharlal Nehru in India, Nasser in Egypt (127).
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The US CIA engineers a coup (led by Kermit Roosevelt) that removes Prime Minister Mosaddeq, and brings the Shah back to power.
Dabashi notes that Iran served as a crucial logistical base for the American military during the US involvement in the Vietnam War (1956-1975) (123). -
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Increasing large public demonstrations against the Shah signify opposition of urban guerrilla movements and the clerics. On “Black Friday” in September the Shah’s army opens fire on protesters, killing and wounding many. In October Khomeini flies to France to direct the revolution from there. The Shah appoints a series on prime ministers in an effort to regain control of the country as demonstrations become increasingly violent.
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The Shah leaves the country on January 16 for Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, and then the US, where he undergoes treatment for cancer. He eventually settles in Egypt, where he dies on July 27, 1980.
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Dabashi: “Iran’s status as a client of the United States also necessitated the suppression of Marxist and socialist ideas, in a country that was in the immediate vicinity of the Soviet Union and serving as a major U.S. bulwark to check and balance Soviet expansionism in the region and secure its own domination” (148).
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Militant students seize the American embassy in Tehran and hold 52 American diplomats hostage there for 444 days. A US attempt to rescue the hostages on April 24, 1980, results in humiliating catastrophe when the American helicopters and planes crash in the desert with heavy casualties. The hostages will finally be released on Reagan’s inauguration, January 20, 1981.
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In September, Saddam Hussein invades Iran, with the support of the US, Europe, and the Soviet Union. This is the beginning of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.
Consider the other upheaval in the region:
The Russians invade Afghanistan
Military coup in Pakistan
Assassination of Saudi King Faysal
Peace treaty signed between Egypt and Israel followed by assassination of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat.
Israel invades and occupies Lebanon.
During the war, the US sold arms to both Iraq and -
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes president of Iran. Dabashi calls him a populist candidate, supported by the poor and also by the militant Islamists (221).
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Dabashi writes of Khomeini’s rule: “The shah’s tyranny seemed pathetic in comparison to the violence Khomeini inflicted on the nation. He ordered the swift and brutal execution of anyone who even seemed to challenge his vision of an Islamic republic. Old army officers and aging former politicians were arrested and summarily executed, as were young revolutionaries, juvenile activists, Kurdish rebels, women protesting the imposition of a medieval code of conduct on them, leaders of religious mi
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Dabashi notes that at the time of the revolution, 50 % of the population of 35 million lived in “rural areas, with very limited and primitive means of transportation, communication, and economic exchange.” Five million lived in Tehran. As many as 60% of Iranians were under the age of 25. But there is a very effective network of communication through the mosques, especially for distributing letters and cassettes of Khomeini’s calls to action (139-140).
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Dabashi also says of the revolution: “This was a national liberation movement that arose from a multiplicity of economic, social, and ideological sources and aspirations. One particularly powerful and merciless Islamist faction ultimately managed (shrewdly and brutally) to outmaneuver all other factions, hijack the revolution, and call it ‘Islamic’” (146).
“It is imperative to keep in mind that when the Iranian Revolution began its momentous course it was not an Islamic revolution; it mutated -
Dabashi on women in Iran: He is scathing in his contempt for Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, which he believes tries to justify American intervention in Iran to free women from cultural oppression: “Iranian women have struggled for their own freedom, in their own terms, in their own homeland, for generations – both against the horrid patriarchal aspects of their own ancestral culture and against the equally dehumanizing designs of outsiders on their homeland” (153).
