JAVEED SHAH
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mahiii_dodiii — 20 years ago(April 26, 2005 11:12 AM)
Iran, known as Persia until 1936, was once very different from what it is today. Ruled by the Qajar Dynasty until early in this century, when, after a brief period of turmoil, Reza Khan Pahlavi, the head of the Army, due to these chaotic circumstances, took over Tehran with a small army and established himself as Shah, in 1921. The new Shah then proceeded to make vast reforms to modernize the nation, much along what Kemal Attaturk did in Turkey during the same period. Thus Iran entered the modern era, with a professional army, bureaucracy, and a new sense of nationalism. The masses were happy with his enlightened rule. The Shah basically created institutions from scratch, and led the nation to prosperity. A Navy was created, more schools, more universities, and society was made to secularize, much like in Turkey -women were prohibited from covering their heads, and people were encouraged to dress in western ways. Different religious minorities were respected, and the country was on the road to development. Although Iran had declared neutrality in 1939, the WWII allied powers, sought the transit use of Iranian territory and its north-south railway link to transport supplies 2000and reinforcements to aid the Russians against Nazi Germany. Upon the refusal of Reza Shah Pahlavi, and after a short ultimatum, on August 25, 1941 the British and Russian forces (British from the south and Russians from the north) entered Iranian territory. The Allied occupation of Tehran resulted in a forced resignation of Reza Shah on behalf of the young crown prince, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The young Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi during the decade of 1940's (and early 1950's) brought an era of political tolerance and freedom, resulting in the birth of numerous political parties (including communist movements) and Western style politicians. The significant developments of this era were the nationalization of petroleum rights and dismantling of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (March of 1951) and the rise to power and prominence of the populist and irresponsible national assembly (Majlis) member, Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh was clearly pro-communist and a dangerous populist who had spearheaded the parliamentary movement to nationalize Iranian oil rights. In April of 1951, and under pressure from the majority in Majlis, the Shah appointed Dr. Mossadegh as the Prime Minister of Iran. In July of 1953, after a two-year power struggle with Mossadegh and a constant debate over the limits of his constitutional powers, and after a failed attempt to remove Dr. Mossadegh by force, the Shah had to leave the country for his safety. This soon turned out to be a mistake, as this "rebel" prime minister was just interested in using and abusing power, and tried to rule without the authority of the Shah, a small coup d'etat. His Majesty the Shah however, came back in full glory when his armed forces together with some American help kicked out the traitor Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, and the Shah was restored in his throne. The Russians posed a problem in the north since they were trying to influence Iranian sectors of society to support the communists, and who supported the north with its ethnic majority to be under Soviet rule. This would dismember the Iranian state. Luckily, the U.S was opposed to Marxist influence, quickly dissuaded the Soviet Union, as well as the energetic diplomacy of the Shah.
Soon Iran was a prominent member of the oil cartel organization OPEC, which brought huge benefits, and since money was used responsibly by the conservative government led by the Shah, Iran reaped huge benefits. Iran was able to expand its economy, start an Iranian automobile venture, expand its industrialization, and modernize the economy. The Iranians were well off then, comparable to living standards of Europe. The Shah made Iran a great military power in the region, in the context of it's regional alliance with NATO (and United Sates in particular) along with the astronomical increase in the oil revenues through 1970's, turned Iran into a prosperous and super rich country. Back in 1973, "The Economist" published an article that said on its cover "Iran the next Japan of the Middle East?" - Many analysts believed that Iran being the richest state in the Middle East would surpass that of Japan. Iran grew 7-8% a year from 1965-1973. Iranian women increasingly entered the labor force in different areas of the expanding economy. Iran was bustling with economic activity and foreign investment.
While Shah's aggressive social and economical reform program called "White Revolution" (announced in January of 1963) gave rise to a prosperous and well-educated urban middle-class in Iran of the 1970's, it also put him in a collision course with Iran traditional power bases of Bazaar (wholesale merchant class) and the Shiite Clergy. The ultra conservative and backwards clergy, members of the old guard, saw Shah's modernization agenda a beginning of the end for Iran's tradi -
kaaveh_ahangar_iran — 20 years ago(January 10, 2006 12:28 AM)
you keep wishing amirabas'cause soon your beloved mullahs will join Bin-laden and saddam Hussein. The End for all the dictators are all the same, soon your beloved mullahs will be chased one by one by the justice.
On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.