The Iranian Revolu/on By: Kari Melander Jared Mills Alan Wilson

The Iranian Revolu/on By: Kari Melander Jared Mills Alan Wilson

What was the Iranian Revolu/on? The Iranian revolu8on was the overthrow of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. When the Shah was overthrown, Ayatollah Khomeini was the one to take his place This revolu8on was a bagle between moderniza8on and indigenous culture

Background In the 1970s, the oil industry brought great wealth to Iran but it also widened the gap between wealthy and poor, furthering tensions between the two classes A very large propor8on of the popula8on was conserva8vely religious, while the Shah had more secular views and didn t find religion important Combined with rapid industrializa8on and moderniza8on, new laws and reforms lep people worrying for the preserva8on of Islamic customs and iden8ty.

Background- The Shah In 1953, the Shah overthrew the democra8cally elected prime minister with the help of the United States and became the new ruler of Iran, reestablishing the monarchy He had very Western and secular poli8cal views that defied the long held tradi8ons of Iran. To many people, he was just a United States puppet, reflec8ng Western ideals and poli8cal views due to the U.S.A. involvement in puwng him into power. People feared that the United States was having too much of an influence on Iran

Background- The Shah The Shah put into play many dras8c reforms that changed the life of Iran families: especially for women. He was very aggressive in his dealings with adverse poli8cal opinions and rivals. In fact, he had exiled Ayatollah Khomeini for being a rival. He used the SAVAK, or secret police, to violently monitor and control the ac8ons and words of his ci8zens, and enforce laws. He dealt with the uprisings of the Iranian revolu8on with extreme violence, which just brought on more violence.

Background- The Shah The Shah s aggressive means of disposing of poli8cal rivalry, allowance of Western influence and his lack of religious interest combined together to set the stage for a revolu8on.

The Revolu/on Begins In October of 1977, when Ayatollah Khomeini s son died of a heart agack, it was rumored that the SAVAK had killed him. As this rumor spread, protestors flooded the streets of Iran APer the release of an ar8cle bashing Ayatollah Khomeini, student protestors in the city of Qom filled the streets once more. To put the protestors into control, the violent security forces of the Shah killed over 70 students, inci8ng even more anger among the public

The Revolu/on When a march in honor of the lives lost in Qom turned into a violent riot, this set the stage for numerous more violent protests in the months to come. These violent protests were always matched with even more violent law enforcement.

Ayatollah Khomeini leads the revolu/on As the many protests con8nued, protestors began to rally under the name of Ayatollah Khomeini. Even though under exile, Khomeini spread his word through cassege tapes, imported to Iran and then duplicated.

Incidents lead to further anger from the public When the Rex Cinema in Abadan was burned as a result of an agacked by Islamist students, about 400 people were killed. It was rumored that the SAVAK caused this fire, and the public s fury grew. On September 8 th,1978 during a peaceful protest to a new law passed, the Shah responded with excessive use of military weapons. It is unsure how many died, but it was at least 88.

Shah Responds to protests With the opposi8on against the Shah growing every day, he could no longer ignore the protests and had to respond. On November 5 th, 1978, he said he had heard the people s revolu8onary message and as a result released thousands of poli8cal prisoners and allowed the arrest of 132 hated government officials. He also disposed of his prime minister and revamped his military government

The Shah Con/nued The fear of the new military combined with the release and arrest of poli8cal figures temporarily appeased the crowds. However, this fix did not last, and the riots quickly started again and did not stop un8l the overthrow of the Shah.

The fall of the Shah On December 11, 1978, more than a million protestors called for the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini To try to appeal to the crowds, the Shah appointed a new prime minister from the opposite side of the revolu8on. However, his refusal to get rid of the SAVAK and to release all poli8cal prisoners made his agempt at appeasing the crowds a failure. At this point it became evident the Shah would not remain in power for long

The Shah is overthrown On January 16, 1979, the Shah and his family claimed that they were going on a vaca8on, but in reality fled the country, leaving the prime minister in charge. Shapour Bak8ar, the prime minister, quickly abolished the SAVAK, freed all poli8cal prisoners, ceased figh8ng demonstra8ons, and invited Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran.

Khomeini takes leadership Upon Ayatollah Khomeini s return, he abolished Bak8r s government an elected his own cabinet and prime minister in February of 1979. On February 9-11 th, the last remaining military forces loyal to the Shah fought Khomeini s forces. At the defeat of the loyal forces, Ayatollah Khomeini declared victory and took his office with no further opposi8on.

Changes aeer Khomeini takes office Once in power the people who protested his regime were killed. Khomeini then had his doctrines and beliefs taught in the public schools. Khomeini ensured that clerics who also believed in his beliefs filled the government ranks, from the smallest towns all the way to his own office

The Iranian Hostage Crisis On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of young Islamic revolu8onaries overran the U.A. embassy in Tehran taking more than 60 American hostages. The Embassy was seized by a group of around 500 Iranian students (although reported numbers vary from 300 to 2,00) The group of students referred to themselves as Imam s Disciples. This was caused because of president Jimmy Carter s decision to allow Iranians deposed Shah into America for cancer treatment.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

The Iranian Hostage Crisis On the 17 th of November, Khomeini announced the female, African American, and non-u.s. ci8zen hostages would be released. With the Iranians showing no sign of releasing the hostages Carter took a risk, On April 11, 1980 he approves a rescue opera8on called Desert One Eventually the president had to abort the mission due to three malfunc8oning helicopters one of which crashed onto a C-130 transport plane while taking off. Because of the crash, eight servicemen were killed and three were injured.

The Iranian Hostage Crisis The next morning, Iranians broadcast footage of the smoking remains of the rescue agempt, a stark symbol of American importance. The Hostage situa8on finally came to an end on January 21, 1981 a full 444 days aper the hostages were taken.

Freed American Ci/zens

Opera/on Argo During the Invasion of the Embassy, six consular officials had managed to slip by the mob and hid within two homes of Canadian diplomats The CIA came up with a scheme to have them pose as a crew of poli8cally clueless filmmakers from Tinseltown scou8ng loca8ons sot a sci-fi film. To help the six CIA sent out plant ads in the trade press an=bout the new project and even created a produc8on company called Studio Six Produc8ons This opera8on in the end was successful in returning int American ci8zens home Fun Fact_ this event was made into a movie called Argo which was released in 2012

Argo

Cita/ons hgp://www.iranchamber.com/history/islamic_revolu8on/ islamic_revolu8on.php hgp://asianhistory.about.com/od/iran/a/iranian- Revolu8on-1979.htm hgp://www.infowars.com/what-really-happened-during-the-iranhostage-crisis/ hgp://www.beautyandthedirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ Copy-of-Argo_DVD_2D.jpg hgps://warriorgirl3.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/today-in-historyiran-hostage-crisis-ends-1980-2/ hgp://www.biography.com/people/ayatollah-ruhollahkhomeini-13680544#poli8cal-and-religious-leader