Iran is a majority Shi’a Islam country in Southwest Asia. Iran was called Persia until 1935 when the name was changed and its capital and largest city is Tehran. During the beginning part of the twentieth century, it was ruled by the Pahlavi family; the last ruler of this family was Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah aligned his oil-rich country with Western nations, especially the U.S. and Great Britain. Inspired by Atatürk’s work in Turkey, he launched a series of modernizing reforms termed the White Revolution in 1963. It seemed to bring “progress” to the nation. But unrest in Iran mounted, eventually culminating in a revolution in 1979. The resulting government was an Islamic republic. How could such a revolution occur in Iran? Modernization …show more content…
New Shi’a movements were formed in Iran. These movements drummed up Islamist fervor among the Iranians. The leaders of Islamism were extremely capable and were able to grow the movement. There was a growing threat of Shi’a movements to the Iranian government. A reporter in Iran at the time of revolution, Sajid Rizvi, said that the Shi’a clergy were “against the Shah’s modernization program they said offended the tenets of Islam.” In addition, people of all classes in Iran were involved in this “grassroots Shi’ism.” The movements directly questioned the existing government. The movements fired up both the everyday Iranian and the established Shi’a clergy member. Many Islamic scholars spread messages promoting Islamism. Islam was a clear, driving force in the revolution. Around the time of revolution, many mullahs came around to houses spreading messages about Islam to children. The messages of the mullahs were clearly in favor of kicking out Western influence and the Shah. It wasn’t just the children who learned these concepts; they also influenced the parents. The adults of Iran took to the streets when the protests started to spread their ideas. Iranians flocked to the demonstrations and the protests were enormous. About 2 million people were marching by December