Ruhollah Khomeini and Martin Luther King, Jr - Essay Example

The change had enormous effects on the political arena as both Iran and America severed all their ties with each other; capturing of American hostages by Iran for 444 days, American subsequent unleashing of Saddam Hussein which ultimately led to the disastrous Iran-Iraq War.

Under his government, the most evident change that occurred in Iran was the change in its societal system. Iran was considered one of the most liberal countries in the world but after his taking of power, its social order changed from a relatively free to strict conservative order. Women, at one point, were allowed to go down the street without Hijab; after Khomeini came into power all that changed and Hijab was made compulsory for women. Other effects on the societal system were that Iran had relatively stable religious communities which were not prosecuted under the Shah’s dictatorship but now they were openly targeted because of the contradiction of their faith with the Islamic faith. A prime example of this is the Jewish population of Iran; during the times of Shah, the Iranian population was close to 80,000 to 90,000 but after Khomeini came into power it decreased to merely 20,000. (Klüsener, 2008)

Martin Luther King, Jr.:

Martin Luther was an American civil rights activist who successfully led the Civil Rights Movement to help the African American population to get voting rights in the United States of America.

One of the first social changes that occurred because of Khomeini was the African Americans gaining rights that every other Caucasian American had. He achieved this through non-violent protests and mass demonstrations for the sake of African American rights. He is generally credited as the most prominent of all the African American leaders and his speech “I Have a Dream” in March in Washington has been hailed as the greatest speech in US history. If it were not for Martin Luther King we might not have Barack Obama as our first African American President.

The second most important change that can be credited to him was subsequent movements that aroused because of him, like the feminist movement, the gay rights movement and so on. If it was not for him these movements might not even have stirred up because he gave a boost to the courage of the leaders who were representing these movements. Both of these movements can credit the civil rights movement as the basic source of inspiration for the movements of their cause. And many Gay leaders have at one point or another mentioned Martin Luther King as the source of their inspiration.

Although up till now-Gay rights movement had many triumphs and many achievements it has not had the same kind of success that the Civil Rights movement had. (Richards, 1999)