History of the Iranian Revolution - Essay Example

Traditionally, an Islamic state, Iran had a deep running distaste for any process of Westernization. The 1941 deposition of Reza Shah by the British and the United States and their subsequent involvements in the affairs of Iran, including the forceful inculcation of Western values and the slow eradication of Islamic fundamentals [such as the veiling of women] culminating into a coup d’état that ousted the democratically elected, anti-west Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, laid a strong foundation towards a deterministic end (Mackey, 184).

A strong critic of the Shah’s association with the West and the continued mismanagement of the country’s resources, Ayatollah Khomeini rose to prominence in 1963 with his brainchild opposition to the Shah’s White Revolution; a perceived Westernization process aimed at complete eradication of Islamic values suspended by the Sharia laws in Iran. As Robin Wright rightly points out, the Iranian revolution was shaped by Khomeini’s "guardianship" principles summed up in Velayat-e faqih [Islamic Government] as an ideology (29-31). With the guardianship influence from the diaspora, Shah faced constant pressure under his very nose. The Freedom Movement of Iran, The Constitutionalist Liberals, the National Front and the more radical groups such as the People’s Mujahedin, Tudeh Party of Iran and the Fedaian guerillas all had a restorative mission of overthrowing Shah’s regime and instituting sound governance guided by Islamic ideals (Graham, 71-74).

Setting the stage for a final push for change were several anti-public events championed by Shah’s government in the seventies. The plundering of oil benefits into extravagance by the government as the gap between the haves and the have-nots widened; the increased accumulation of oil benefits in particular; and the mutilation of the Iranian solar calendar had a profound impact on the 1979 revolution (Graham, 94).