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Iran and it's 40 year long revolution. [1]

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Date: 2022-09-25

Iranian socialist revolutiona Frry fighter with rose in gun standing in front of graffiti image of Khomeini

Some of the worst foreign policy decisions the United States has made have been targeted to Iran. The 1953 coup d'état to install a pro west autocrat is a pretty well known fact amongst the politically informed, and the black friday revolution is too, but to a lesser extent. It is mostly believed that they had a revolution to overthrow tyranny and ended up replacing it with theocratic authoritarianism and fundamentalist Shiite religious beliefs, most of the twelvers sect. It is often lost that the revolution in the 1970s was broad in its participants, it actually had three different factions fighting together and reclaim their country and self determination as a nation away from western influence, many of which saw as exploitive and destructive to their culture. There was resentment that the centuries old artisanship of producing and weaving some of the highest quality, most difficult, and labor intensive rugs in the world. The streamlined, productivity oriented factory model of production that was imported was an attack on their culture, and a misrepresentation. The ultimate reason though is obviously they did not want an autocrat. The driving principles and goals of the 1978-1979 revolution find their root actually back in 1905 when they had their constitutional revolution, and overthrew an autocratic monarch and replaced it with their first constitution and the first time they would decide leaders by election and participation. Then again in the 1960s there was the Freedom Movement which demanded constitutionalism to return, liberal democracy, Islamic liberalism, which was often referred to as progressive islam, and Iranian nationalism, which had its roots from years of having other countries interfere and control the leaders there.

After an 8 year period in the 70s, the Iranian Revolution began after two crucial events. One being the burning of the arson of the cinema rex killing hundreds trapped inside, and the final straw was the security forces shooting aimlessly into crowds of protestors killing over a dozen. There was a marxist faction, that mostly fought in a guerilla style, also a faction composed of three different organizations who were all constitutionalist and their main goal was to restore iran to the state it was before the coup, where they democratically elected their officials and decided how their country would be run, and then lastly the there were 5 organizations who would be classified as islamist. Only one group out of all the groups in these parties decided the future of what Iran would become, and that group would be the MIRO, the Mohajedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization, lead by the eventual “supreme leader”.

As one would expect from a revolution comprised of so many parts and ideologies with one common goal, removal of the current government, setting up a new one was not an easy task and there was conflict for three years on where the MIRO and other islamist groups began to turn the violence to the streets in a show of numbers. Armed Khomeini supporters took to the streets to grab power, which caused outbreaks in the kurdish region from the marxist and constituionalist to try and prevent one group from deciding the country which they had all fought to liberate . The non islamist groups did not like the laws that were being put into place over these fractured years, and one of these laws is very important today. On march 8th a law mandating women always wear a hijab in public was instituted. This coincidentially fell on the day before international womens day, where plans for a march in tehran and around the country were already organized. What people did not expect though was just how serious of a moment it was to hundreds of thousands of Iranian women. It was not the march that was expected, it was directly political and it was directly related to the law passed the day prior. What was to be a one day march turned into a 6 day protest which was eventually quelled. Here we are today, in the exact same spot. There is more a reason that the Iranian government is so oppressive to women and it is not just the fundamentalist interpretation of religion, it is because they have been shown time and time again that they demand equality in their society, and they are not passive about this desire and never have been.

The 1980s were nearly entirely taken up by the Iran-Iraq war, which economically and on a human level devastated the country, leading to massive amounts of young people dead, having chemical weapons used against them by the Iraqi army, and of course it was not just the men fighting, over 25,000 women were enlisted as doctors and nurses and between 500-1000 were directly involved in combat. The discontent grew through the 90s, and in 2001 after september 11th the attack of civilians by terrorists resonated around the world. Regular Iranians filled the streets holding candles and signs showing sympathy and love to those brutally and senselessly killed that day. It was clear that the sentiment had changed in the population compared to the 70s, and grudges were not still firmly held by regular people over the 53 coup and years of tyranny following. It even got to a point that in Geneva, Iranian officials and US officials were holding backchannel talks after the Iranians offered their aid to help roll up terrorist from al-Qaeda who were trying to flee from within iran to afghanistan. What seems like an impossibility today was being discussed, a strategic partnership on defeating al-qaeda and supporting the new government in Afghanistan. Iran had interests too of course, regional security was important for them as they are one of the great powers of the region. Then George W Bush gave his state of the union address in 2002. The infamous decleration of a few countries to be known as the axis of evil in this world. One of which was Iran. The talks dissolved immediately and relations went further backwards, though they did do one more thing, they held talks with Bush and warned him of the potential consequences of invading Iraq and the knock-on it would have in the region, and again, the hubris of our militaristic, imperialistic government let the warnings hang in the air.

2009 was the Green Revolution, the hijab law was at the center of this, so was a democratic movement, so was an end to anti-Americanism and also an end to anti-israeli sentiment, human rights of many forms were being pushed for. This was the persian spring, which had many shared ideals with the Arab spring which would start in tunisia two years later. Protests have been going on in two year blocks on and off and having a one year to two year cool off before the reignite. 2016 saw unrest against the government happen again though this time it was from the rural areas over the skyrocketing price of eggs, then 2017 would be the year that began perpetual protest and demands. There has not been a year since 2017 which massive protests have not broken out in Iran that demand the ideals that were destroyed after many iranians spilled their blood in the 1978 and 1979 revolution. They are intensifying every year, but this year has stuck me as very much different. The revolutionary guard are targetting and shooting into crowds of protestors again, they did the usual trick of cutting off all internet access, which was what quelled the organizational abilities in the green revolution 13 years ago, but something different happened this time. For the first time in modern history, the united states government did not treat the iranian people as if they were what their government is. A specific sanction was removed, and that is to specifically allow companies to provide internet and cell phone service to the regions in Iran where they have been cut off. in 2009 it was the early days of twitter, and it was very effective. Now there are so many channels that the people have and can use, especially signal and telegram. they can logistically plan their protests and not be cut off from eachother. I am not holding my breath that we will see an end to this islamic equivilent of what the GOP seems to be striving to become (they really like the fact idea a law can not be made until it has been cleared by the ultimate religious leader of the country, to make sure it does not conflict with the religion, as much as they say lash out at how evil all iranian people are and how extremist they are), but this is the first real sign of hope that this country who has fought so hard, and it’s people have suffered so much through wars, sanctions, oppression from their government, water shortage, house arrest of dissidents, the list goes on. That they may finally have their place in the sun and fulfill the aspirations of the millions dead since they first reached for them.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/25/2125133/-Iran-and-it-s-40-year-long-revolution

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