Introduction
Iran is without a doubt, one of the richest countries in the world. With its enormous Oil, Gas and other natural resources combined with its young population and the access to free seas (through Persian gulf), one should think that the country has a significant growth and no poverty and unemployment problems.
After the 1979 revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of opposition, became the country’s leader and changed Iran’s Constitution, an Islamic republic government. Under this new hierarchy, which will be explained later, the country was supposed to have independent congress, president and judiciary department, to avoid corruption and bad management of wealth.
Before 2005 with the presidency of Khatami, despite all difficulties, Iranian economy started to grow and reached 5% according to Iranian Central Bank. The most important to notice is that in those years Crude oil price had fallen to 40$ per barrel XXX, and the GDP growth, for the first time in its history, was not depended on oil and gas exportation.
In 2005 with presidency on Ahmadinejad, a close person to supreme leader, everything change for the country. Within the first 4 years of his presidency the oil price reached a historical record and the oil and gas exportation income in those 4 years were higher than Iran’s whole importation till that day XXX.
In the second round of his presidency, Iran was faced with hard western countries sanctions because of its nuclear development plans. On the other hand, the lack of knowledge and bad management in the new governor team day by day, by taking wrong decisions, economy fall down. Many decisions and wrong actions were taken during those 8 years such as, Quick productive small businesses, Economic devel...
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...rd-for-jailed-journalists.php). As a result it is not possible to rely on the reports and numbers reported by his office. Although reports are unreliable the new government reported some numbers that were totally different and shows how bad is economy, but yet after 9 months Rouhani in office, there is no reliable reporting system in place.
Now the country with a negative growth rate and high levels of liquidity (which is absorbed into real estate and currency exchanges and not production), inflation and unemployment is to be fixed by the new president Hassan Rouhani, but the real question remains un answered, even if Rouhani fixes everything and the economy and growth come back to normal, is it guaranteed that the president after him will take rational decisions, or it is time to change how politicians can affect the economy and give some freedom to it ?
From 1941 to 1979 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly known as Mohammad Reza, or simply the Shah, led Iran as successor to his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. Mohammad often went against his vows of constitutional monarchy by using the Iranian secret police, SAVAK, to suppress his political opponents. Mohammad Reza's domestic policy focused on a series of reform policies to modernize the country. His foreign policy focused on an effort to abolish sovietism, and become an ally of the western powers and the US. Shah's rule is characterized as dictatorial, a period of major domestic and constitutional reform, as well as a period in which Iran established itself as a major regional power. Mohammad Reza attempted to rid the region of foreign influence, mainly that of the Soviets and communism, in an effort to grow the countries individual power. As a means to reach this goal, Mohammad Reza instituted reforms to modernize the country. However, as stated on the official website of Farah Pahlavi, his rule did not follow the emerging ideas of democracy and brought opposition from many of the traditionalist, and nationalists with different priorities. Overall, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's domestic reforms were largely ineffective in reaching his goals, whereas his foreign goals were largely met.
...ries and the 1979 revolution. The author presents Iran through the leadership of mullahs and shah tradition. The book has rich information covering the history of Iran. Mottahedeh managed to develop an impressive book that satisfies the curiosity of a reader wanting to understand the history, culture and political atmosphere of Iran through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century. Roy Parviz Mottahedeh and Ali Hashemi represent two views of Islamic learning and Iranian history and culture. While Ali Hashemi represents a religious view of Islamic learning and history of Iran, Parviz represents a secular view of Islamic learning and ambiguity of culture in Iran. The two views help to bring out the ways in which Islamic religion and culture influenced political atmosphere, in Iran especially at a time when politics in Iran was shaped by religion.
When the Iranian Revolution succeeded in 1979, Iran wanted to gain the admiration and the support of Arab countries, benefiting in particular from the support by the Shah of Iran and his relationship with Israel before the collapse of his regime. On this very first day of the victory of the revolution, Iran was keen to extend its bonds with the Islamic world, and when this was not possible in most cases, because of many complex causes of the revolution, Iran began to look for «organizations» instead of «regime’s or countries», in order to continue its role in Islamic issues. Iran was keen to show that this role was one of the foundations of the revolution and its beliefs, in order to free Iran from the charge of Persian racism.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly known as Iran or Persia, was crowded with a young generation looking for full freedom against the Shah. Persia, once as a powerful country with vast oil resources, soon became a vulnerable nation, ready to accept a new leader to guide them. The people were ready for change, but were the changes they got the changes they were looking for. The people wanted freedom against the shah, (For generations Iran was ruled by Kings) who allowed some freedoms, but it was somewhat limited. The people wanted freedom of speech, so that the press could freely publish their own opinions. They wanted to get rid of a law that made all eighteen-year-old males attend two years of military service unless they are accepted to a university, which would allow them attend the army later as a service worker. The shah was anti-religious, which was not ideal for many of the civilians in Iran. Savak (Secret organization of Iran) was accused of many anti – human rights actions, such as killing students who protested and immediately jailing press members for inappropriate conduct. A major problem was that the shah was a “puppet” of the United States many say, because the Shah would constantly confer with the U.S. of all of his decisions as ruler. The after affects of the revolution resulted in similar conditions, however. Human rights are horrible, the government limits all freedoms, the economy has suffered greatly, average salaries are hard to live with, most of the educated people in Iran fled to foreign countries, the quality of public schools is horrible, and the government still controls all television broadcasts and keeps a watchful eye on the newspapers. From bad to worse is what many people feel has become of Iran, but the people are ready for a real change.
After the deposing of the shah by revolution, the people of Iran elected a democratic l...
...th and early 20th centuries entwined a power struggle between Great Britain and Russia, which only intensified after the discovery of oil in Iran in 1901. Following this discovery, western nations systematically exploited Iran for its natural resources, and fought to install sympathetic governments in the hopes of acquiring better oil deals, culminating in 1953 with the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh by a combination of US and UK forces (Yergin). The continual fighting left Iran a political mess that was only rectified by Khomeini’s strong, Islamic government. Though he severely limited the power of the Iranian citizens, he increased the power of Iran within the Middle East, and world at large, as its strong military presence and large oil reserves empower the country to resist interference from countries that wish to take advantage of them.
The tensions that lead up to the Iran Hostage Crisis started almost half a century before. It stemmed from an increasingly intense conflict over oil. British and American corporations had control of the bulk of Iran’s petroleum reserves since the discovery of those reserves. However, in 1951 Iran’s newly elected prime minister, a European-educated nationalist named Muhammad Mossadegh, announced a plan to nationalize the country’s oil industry. Of course the United States and Britain couldn’t let this happen, so they made a plan to put a new leader in charge that would be more receptive to western interests. A new government was installed in August 1953. The new leader was a member of Iran’s royal family named Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. The Shah’s government was secular, anti-communist and pro-Western.
In 1952 during the Cold War, Iran was under the rule of their prime minister, Muhammad Mossadegh, who wanted to nationalize the country's oil industry. Iran had been a large producer of oil and its industry, controlled by Britain and America, was thriving. Britain and American corporations were not in favor of Mohammad Mossadegh’s newly developed oil policies, so they made a secret plan to overthrow him. They were successfully able to overthrow Muhammad Mossadegh, and in 1953 a new government was developed and controlled by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran's new leader. The US has supported the Shah For twenty-six years and he became a central alley between the US and Iran. The Shah received military and political support from the US, and
Khamenei “played an important role in the Iranian Revolution” which got him to presidency in 1981 to 1981 (Ganji).
In the 1970’s Iran, under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was a very centralized military state that maintained a close relationship with the USA. The Shah was notoriously out of touch with working class Iranians as he implemented many controversial economic policies against small business owners that he suspected involved profiteering. Also unrestricted economic expansions in Iran lead to huge government expenditure that became a serious problem when oil prices dropped in the mid 1970’s. This caused many huge government construction projects to halt and the economy to stall after many years of massive profit. Following this was high rates of inflation that affected Iranians buying power and living standards. (Afary, 2012) Under the Shah, political participation was not widely available for all Iranians and it was common for political opposition to be met with harassment, illegal detention, and even torture. These measures were implemented by the Iranian secret police knows as ‘SAVAK’. This totalitarian regime combined with the increasing modernisation of the country paved the way for revolution.
The Islamic Republic of Iran was established in 1979 after the previous monarchy was overthrown. Today, Iran remains the only Muslim country to be run by clergy. 2 Ayotollah Ruhollah Khomeini established a government with a separation of powers but the ultimate power was given to the Supreme Leader (a religious scholar) or otherwise called the Faqih. The Supreme Leader is not a majority elected official but chose by the Assembly of Experts which consists of eighty-six Islamic Scholars which are elected by the people. These scholars are all clergymen that serve eight year terms.3
The discovery of oil reserves in the Persian Gulf marked the beginning of the evolution of Iran to a modern industrial nation. (Document A) As the demand for crude oil skyrocketed, the wealth generated by Iran soared. The distribution of this wealth became a matter of contention. Additionally, with the transformation of Iran to an industrial nation, the introduction of western culture posed a problem for the strict Islamic community. The Iranian Revolution was a result of the economic, political, cultural and religious conflict that occurred within its borders.
In particular, Ataturk pursued a policy of nationalizing foreign-owned enterprises and revoking concessions the Ottoman Empire had previously offered to foreign governments (Gelvin 201). Due to the fact that the Ottoman Empire was never subject to widespread European colonization, Ataturk was gradually able to implement a policy of domestic development without foreign encroachment. Post-World War I Iran, on the other hand, was scarred by Russian and British intervention. Thus, the Iranian state under Reza Shah was determined to end the stranglehold of foreign control over the Iranian economy. Under the shah, the state canceled foreign concessions, established a national bank to replace the British-run “Imperial Bank,” and took control of posts, telegraph, and customs from foreigners (Gelvin 205). Total economic sovereignty, however, was ultimately not achieved. British influence was still felt in its resilient control over the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which drove the Iranian economy. As a result, Britain continued to manipulate control over the future of the modern Iranian
The government itself was run through a monarchy, the Shah. King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah at the time, made many attempts to westernize the country. New reforms were made during his reign and even before he came into power, such as industrializing, expansion of women's rights, and the banning of the veil. Women and men were seen as equal and no gender had dominant power over the other. Western dress also became popular amongst the Iranian people. Outfits such as short dresses, skirts, and other clothing items of the sort were encouraged. This allowed women to show more skin compared to before, when women were forced to cover their skin (source 1). With their increased involvement in the oil industry, Iran got major money benefits however the Shah did not use much of the money to help the people of Iran. Money sometimes went to things like social service projects, new architecture, and foreign interaction but often times it was often re-invested on their oil. While these westernizing steps were seen as important to revolutionize the country for the better, some people disagreed with the changes taking place (source
Iranian Revolution is usually considered to be an attempt to resurrect a true Islamic government in the Middle East. Despite the revolution being considered an Islamic one, the groups involved were mostly non-Islamic and included communists, leftists, and so many other groups that had nothing to do with Islam. The truth is that most of them were not looking for an Islamic revolution whatsoever.