Search results
It is the sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and one of the world's most mountainous countries. Officially an Islamic republic, Iran has a Muslim-majority population. The country is divided into five regions with 31 provinces. Tehran is the nation's capital, largest city and financial center.
- Ethnicities in Iran
The majority of the population of Iran (approximately 80%)...
- Flag
The national flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian:...
- History of Iran
An early event in the history of the Islamic republic that...
- Emblem
The National Emblem of Iran (Persian: نشان رسمی, romanized:...
- Armed Forces
The Iranian Armed Forces, [a] officially the Islamic...
- Talk
We would like to show you a description here but the site...
- Foreign Relations of Iran
Geography is an important factor in informing Iran's foreign...
- Pahlavi Iran
The Imperial State of Iran, officially the Imperial State of...
- Supreme Leader of Iran
The Supreme Leader of Iran, [note 1] also referred to as...
- Timeline of Iranian History
A constitutional reform was allegedly approved by 97.6% of...
- Ethnicities in Iran
The Islamic Republic of Iran is an Islamic theocracy headed by a Supreme Leader. Its constitution was approved in 1979 and amended in 1989. Jaafari (Usuli) school of thought is the official religion.
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: نظام جمهوری اسلامی ایران, romanized: Nezâm-e Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Irân), known simply as Nezam (Persian: نظام, romanized: Nezâm, lit. 'the system'), [1] is the ruling state and current political system in Iran, in power since the Iranian Revolution and fall of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. [2]
- Reasons For The Revolution
- Ideology of Iranian Revolution
- Background of The Revolution
- Outbreak of The Revolution
- Victory of Revolution and Fall of Monarchy
- The Islamic Republic
- Consolidation of Power by Khomeini
- Opposition to The Revolution
- Post-Revolutionary Impact
- Further Reading
Explanations advanced for why the revolution happened and took the form it did include actions of the Shah and the mistakes and successes of the different political forces:
The ideology of the revolution can be summarized as populist, nationalistand most of all Shi'a Islamic. Contributors to the ideology included Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, who formulated Gharbzadegi -- the idea that Western culture was a plague or an intoxication that alienated Muslims from their roots and identity and must be fought and expelled. Ali Shariati...
Pahlavi dynasty and its secular, anti-clerical policies
Following the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, Iran's first constitution came into effect, approved by the Majlis. The constitution established a special place for Twelver Shi'a Islam. It declared Islam the official religion of Iran, specified that the Shi'a clergy were to determine whether laws passed in the majlis were "comfortable to the principles of Islam", and that of committee of the clergy were to approve all laws, and required the Shah to promote the Twelver Shi'a Islam, an...
1940s: The Shah comes to power
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi came to power in 1941 after the deposing of his father, Reza Shah, by an invasion of allied British and Soviet troops in 1941. Reza Shah, a military man, had been known for his determination to modernize Iran and his hostility to the clerical class (ulema). Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi held power until the 1979 revolution with a brief interruption in 1953; when he had faced an attempted revolution. In that year he briefly fled the country after a power-struggle had em...
1960s: Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini
Khomeini, the future leader of the Iranian revolution was declared as a marja, by the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi. He also came to political prominence that year leading opposition to the Shah and his program of reforms known as the White Revolution. Khomeini attacked the Shah's program — breaking up property owned by some Shi’a clergy, universal suffrage (voting rights for women), changes in the election laws tha...
The early visible opposition by liberals was based in the urban middle class, a section of the population that was fairly secular and wanted the Shah to adhere to the Iranian Constitution of 1906, not a republic ruled by Islamic clerics. Prominent in it was Mehdi Bazargan and his liberal, moderate Islamic group Freedom Movement of Iran, and the mor...
The Shah leaves
On January 16, 1979 the Shah and the empress left Iran at the demand of prime minister Dr. Shapour Bakhtiar (a long time opposition leader himself) and to scenes of spontaneous joy and the destruction "within hours of almost every sign of the Pahlavi dynasty." Bakhtiar dissolved SAVAK, freed political prisoners, ordered the army to allow mass demonstrations, promised free elections and invited Khomeinists and other revolutionaries into a government of "national unity". After stalling for a fe...
Khomeini's return and fall of the monarchy
On February 1 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran to rapturous greeting by several million Iranians. Khomeini had flown back to Iran in a chartered Air France Jumbo Jet. Not only the undisputed leader of the revolution, he had now become what some called a "semi-divine" figure, greeted as he descended from his airplane with cries of ‘Khomeini, O Imam, we salute you, peace be upon you.’Crowds were now known to chant "Islam, Islam, Khomeini, We Will Follow You," and even "Khomeini for Ki...
Khomeini takes power
There was great jubilation in Iran at the ousting of the Shah, but the glue that stuck together the dozens of religious, liberal, secularist, Marxist, and Communist, revolutionary factions—opposition to the Shah—was now gone. Each of the many groups vying for influence had different interpretations of the broad goals of the revolution: an end to tyranny, more Islamic and less American and Western influence, more social justice and less inequality. Khomeini had "overwhelming ideological, polit...
The Khomeini-appointed Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan supported the establishment of a reformist, democratic parliamentary government. Operating separately were the Revolutionary Council made up of Khomeini and his clerical supporters, the Revolutionary Guards, revolutionary tribunals, and at the local level revolutionary cells turned local committe...
Iranian dissent and its suppression
The first to be executed by revolutionary leadership were members of the old regime: senior generals, and a couple of months later over 200 of the Shah's senior civilian officials as punishment and to eliminate the danger of coup d’État. Brief trials lacking defense attorneys, juries, transparency or opportunity for the accused to defend themselves were held by revolutionary judges such as Sadegh Khalkhali, the Sharia judge. Among those executed was Amir Abbas Hoveida, former Prime Minister o...
Neighboring regimes and the Iran-Iraq War
The Islamic Republic positioned itself as a revolutionary beacon under the slogan "neither East nor West" (i.e. follow neither Soviet nor American/West European models), and called for the overthrow of capitalism, American influence, and social injustice in the Middle East and the rest of the world. Revolutionary leaders in Iran gave and sought support from non-Islamic as well as Islamic Third World causes — e.g. the PLO, Sandinistas in Nicaragua, Irish IRA and anti-apartheid struggle in Sout...
International
Internationally, the initial impact of the Islamic revolution was immense. In the non-Muslim world it has changed the image of Islam, generating much interest in the politics and spirituality of Islam. In the Mideast and Muslim world, particularly in its early years, it triggered enormous enthusiasm and redoubled opposition to western intervention and influence. Islamist insurgents rose in Saudi Arabia (the 1979 week-long takeover of the Grand Mosque), Egypt (the 1981 machine-gunning of the E...
Domestic
Internally, some goals of the revolutionary — broadening education and health care for the poor, and particularly governmental promotion of Islam, and the elimination of secularism and American influence in government — have met with unqualified successes; others — such as greater political freedom, governmental honesty and efficiency, economic equality and self-sufficiency, and even popular religious devotion — have not.Overall, however, dissatisfaction is widespread.
Afshar, Haleh, ed. (1985). Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil. Albany: SUNY Press. ISBN 0-333-36947-5. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Barthel, Günter, ed. (1983). Iran: From Monarchy to Republic. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. . {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Daniel, Elton L. (2000). The History of Iran. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30731-8.Esposito, John L., ed. (1990). The Iranian Revolution: Its Global Impact. Miami: Florida International University Press. ISBN 0-8130-0998-7. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint...Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, also known as Persia, is a country in Western Asia. It is part of the Middle East region. It shares borders with Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan. Tehran is the capital and largest city.
3 days ago · On April 1, following overwhelming support in a national referendum, Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic republic. Elements within the clergy promptly moved to exclude their former left-wing, nationalist, and intellectual allies from any positions of power in the new regime, and a return to conservative social values was enforced.
People also ask
When did Iran become the Islamic Republic?
What was the Iranian Revolution?
Is the Islamic Republic of Iran a theocratic republic?
Why did Khomeini declare Iran an Islamic Republic?
Islamic Republic. The Shah ruled in Iran for 38 years. When he left Iran the Iranian government was changed to an Islamic Republic by Islamic Revolution. Soon afterwards, Iranian Students Movement (Tahkim Vahdat), with the backing of the new government took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held most of the diplomats hostage for 444 days.
