Personal Narrative: The Iranian Revolution

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Imagine standing at the gate of the happiest place on earth. Completely in awe at its beauty, it's magic, and it’s history; knowing you can't go in. Living in the United States, you may be thinking the magical place I can't get into is Disneyland, but it is my home country, Iran. My family had to leave Iran during the revolution; the Iran I left, the home I loved and the place I grew up in no longer exists. What stands now is what's left of a country torn apart by war. I cannot return to my country for fear I will be imprisoned for treason; I can stand on the mountain top and look at its beauty and remember what was, but I cannot go inside. As in this example, after civil unrest, war, and revolution, people sometimes live in exile. They fear for their lives because their lives appear to not mean anything to their government. They will be able to watch their native land change, for better or for worse, but they will not be able to affect or experience it firsthand. Fortunately, countries …show more content…

First, the Shah, out-of-touch with what his people wanted, became the catalyst for massive xenophobic and anti-Western feelings to spread throughout the nation. By giving up traditional Islamic ideals and becoming sort of a “puppet” for the U.S. and the Western world, the Shah made a mockery of himself and of those traditional Islamic values, which were paramount in Iran. For many years, Iranians wrote letters to the Shah, voicing their discontent with many aspects of his rule — the spread of the Bahá’í Faith, the collapse of Islamic traditions, and the crumbling economy. The Shah, however, did nothing to fix these issues. Instead, he designed a political reformation movement, hoping to silence his opponents, to introduce personal rights for women, and to establish a sense of fiscal equality. This series of reforms, which appeared to be a blatant attempt to Westernize Iran, became known as the “White

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