The Black Revolution And The White Revolution Of Iran

In February of 1979, Muhammad Reza Shah was in exile and Ayatollah Khomeini arrived as the triumphant leader of a revolution. Throughout the remainder of the year, the execution of former prime ministers, SAVAK agents, and high- ranking military officers took place. Muhammad Reza Shah’s regime was no longer in power and the Iranian Revolution was in full effect, but what caused this rapid shift of power? In the years leading up to the revolution, the Shah implemented the White Revolution in attempts to modernize Iran. The White Revolution was an attempt to turn Iran into an economic power, however; it went against many of the core beliefs of Islam. The White revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s caused the Iranian revolution because it marginalized

The revolution received the name “White” by the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, because it was to be a revolution without any bloodshed. Originally, the reform program had twelve main points that the Shah wanted to accomplish. However, throughout the 60’s and 70’s points were added and in 1977 the White Revolution had 19 points. In the reform, there were specific points that the Shah wanted to address such as land reforms, but there were also plans set forth to develop Iran economically and socially. The land reform was an attempt to limit the power of landowners by redistributing farmland equally among all farmers in the region. Another aspect of the reform was the development of roads, railways, and ports in order to help increase the economic output of Iran. The Shah felt that improving infrastructure was important in order to increase Iran’s industry. This was in attempts to model the American economy; the Shah saw what industry provided to America and he wanted to recreate that in Iran. Another significant point in the White Revolution was the expansion of educational and economic opportunity for women. In order to westernize, the Shah saw the need to grant women greater rights in society. At the surface the reforms of the White Revolution seemed to be the Shah attempting to reform his country; however many Iranian nationals saw the White Revolution as a

Many of the reforms put in place by the White Revolution had a direct impact on the ulama and went against the ideology of the Islam. One of the “major grievance” the ulama had against Pahlavi’s regime was the continuous attempts to mitigate the “power and influence” of the ulama, as well as the “growing power of Western Infidels and their ways”. One policy that the ulama felt was an attempt to mitigate their influence was the land reform policy. The land reform policy allowed landowners to have “one village, or a total of six dongs (each dong is one sixth of a property)”. The government purchased the excess land, and then would redistribute the land to peasant farms. However, this policy directly affected the ulama economically. The ulama relied heavily on waqf lands, and used the revenues in order to maintain mosques and seminaries. Another policy that affected the ulama financial and contributed to their discontent with the Shah was in 1977, when Iran was in the middle of an economic crisis. The Shah appointed a new Prime minister, Jamshid Amuzegar, who imposed the austerity program. In the austerity program, Amuzegar decided to “substantially lower the allocation of a secret fund from which the ulama received lucrative stipends”. This act shut off an important source of capital that the ulama used to carry out their day-to-day operation. Further