The Iranian Revolution was a political and religious revolution which occurred in Iran in the late 1970s and eventually led to the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The events which led to the overthrow of the Shah began in 1978 and gradually escalated, with the revolution gradually playing out over the course of 1979 and resulting in the creation of an Islamic theocracy by the end of that year. The Revolution has led to Iran becoming the bête noir of US foreign policy in the Middle East and has had enormous geopolitical implications for the Middle East. It has also led to mass migration from Iran, with millions of people fleeing the country since 1979. Thus, many people around the world today can trace their family history back to members who left Iran in the aftermath of the Revolution.[1]
Research your ancestors on MyHeritage
Iranian Revolution chronology of events
Iran was ruled as one of the more secular states of the Middle East for much of the twentieth century under the Pahlavi Dynasty. Still, it had its problems. Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who ascended as ruler of the country in 1941 as a man in his early twenties, was an autocratic ruler, one who declared himself to be Shahanshah, ‘King of Kings’, in 1967. His reign was a mix of attempted liberal, secular reforms that contrasted with a dictatorial style of rule which employed the SAVAK secret police to control the country through terror and repression.[2]
An aggressive program of modernization, known as the White Revolution, was attempted from 1963 onwards. It made enemies for the Shah amongst many sections of Iranian society, notably the religious clerics, amongst whom Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in exile in Turkey and Iraq for much of the 1960s and 1970s, was paramount. The Ayatollah became a fulcrum for discontent when the political situation destabilized further within Iran in 1978. Major protests began following a series of police massacres and other incidents in the country in the summer and autumn of that year. These would eventually result in a level of unrest that led to the Shah fleeing from Iran in January 1979, the return home of Khomeini to a rapturous welcome and the collapse of the monarchical regime in February.[3]
The Iranian Revolution took many more months to complete. Over the course of the spring, summer and autumn of 1979 there was a tussle between more secular revolutionaries and those who supported the Ayatollah and wished to create a more theocratic state. A referendum that was held in March 1979 indicated that a majority of Iranians wanted religion to be one of the guiding forces behind the promulgation of a constitution. Such a document was drafted in the months that followed and in December 1979, after much debate and negotiation, a religious constitution ushered in the creation of a theocratic state with the Ayatollah as the first Supreme Leader of Iran. There would also be a more secular element to the new political system with a president elected as head of a more democratic government.[4]
Iran has remained a theocracy ever since where Twelver Shia Islam is the main religion. The country has had a complex history since the Iranian Revolution. A diplomatic crisis concerning the embassy staff of the United States in 1980 led to a sundering of relations between Washington and Tehran in a way which has never been mended and Iran remains the bête noir of US foreign policy in the Middle East.[5] A long and incredibly bitter war with neighboring Iraq under Saddam Hussein also followed between 1980 and 1988. This, combined with repressive religious and social policies, have been major driving forces behind migration from Iran since 1979.[6]
Extent of migration following the Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution precipitated a wave of migration from Iran which saw over two million people leave the country by the mid-2000s. The process has continued ever since and there are an estimated four million people of Iranian birth or near heritage now living abroad, whereas the Iranian diaspora was relatively small prior to 1979 and largely restricted to countries adjoining Iran. The migration involved has ebbed and flowed from year to year. For instance, it was quite large in the early 1980s immediately after the Revolution and continued as such for many years thereafter. Some studies suggest that there were an average of 150,000 Iranians leaving Iran annually in the early 1990s. However, economic improvements and the end of the Iran-Iraq War brought greater prosperity in the late twentieth century and the migration from Iran declined in the 2000s and 2010s.[7]
Demographic impact of the Iranian Revolution
In a country with a population as large as that of Iran and with such a substantially high birth rate, the demographic impact of this migration from the country has been negligible on the population size of Iran itself. However, it has led to the emergence of a very sizeable Iranian diaspora overseas. The greatest concentration of Iranian migrants since 1979 has been in North America. There are an estimated one and a half million Iranians living in the United States today and some 400,000 in Canada. Closer to home, there are perhaps as many as 600,000 Iranians living as expatriates in the United Arab Emirates, many having relocated since the Revolution. Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Australia and Turkey all have sizeable Iranian diaspora communities nearing or substantially exceeding 100,000 in each instance.[8] Finally, while most of Iran’s sizeable Jewish community had left the country and largely relocated to Israel in the late 1940s, 1950s or 1960s, the Revolution led to the exodus of the vast majority of the remaining Jews in Iran. Today there are approximately a quarter of a million Israeli citizens of Iranian descent.[9]
Explore more about the Iranian Revolution
- The Iranian Revolution - A Timeline of Events at The Brookings Institute
- The Iranian Revolution at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
- Iran Loses Highly Educated and Skilled Citizens during Long-Running “Brain Drain” at Migration Policy Institute
References
- ↑ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-iranian-revolution-a-timeline-of-events/
- ↑ https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/iranian-revolution-1977-1979/
- ↑ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-iranian-revolution-a-timeline-of-events/
- ↑ https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-804656
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/students-iran-hostage-crisis/
- ↑ https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/iran-iraq-war
- ↑ https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/iran-brain-drain-emigration
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/yolarobert1/2023/01/12/the-iranian-diaspora-collective-wants-total-regime-change/
- ↑ https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/12/iranian-jews-in-israel-protests-and-the-palestinians/