Iran Then and Now

This was Iran before the Islamic Revolution, which was a tolerant, secular nation that one of the most influential nations in both the middle east and the world. After the Islamic Revolution, its a backwards, radical Islamic theocracy.

well no one liked the shah

i liked him

Sounds like reactionary paradise.

Not really.

>After the Islamic Revolution, its a backwards, radical Islamic theocracy.

In fields of literacy, scientific progress, and economic activity it's actually improved. Shame about the embargo but despite that it's doing pretty well.

Pre-revolution Iran can't have been so great if people wanted the Shah gone and the Ayatollah in.

Cunts shouldn't be revealing their legs in public.

Stop planting puppet governments and problem solved.

>it's another "I once heard Persians are Aryans so now I have to pretend their culture is magically somehow much more Western than it actually is but those evil Muslim Semites who totally don't count as Persians because Islam is for Arabs are destroying the beautiful pre-Islamic Persian culture which deep down I would've hated anyway if I was there because it's just so unwhite and being Aryan doesn't actually make them sexy edgy badasses like I imagined" thread

The upper pictures only shows the small westernized elite in the cities that benefitted from the oil exports. People who lived in the countryside and formed the vast majority of the nation, lived pretty much the same way they do right now. People who moved into cities because attempts to forcefully "modernize" the country left them jobless (like the nomads who were forced to settle down and abandon shepherding) were alienated from the westernized lifestyle and had no way to participate in it - especially women who wore traditional clothing were ostracized in public institutions and couldn't pursue careers.

Traditionally minded families were afraid of sending their daughters to mixed schools because of their honour, when in contrast the Islamic government meant education that was easily available to anyone. Aside from a few fields that were deemed unsuitable for women, the effects of this are visible today - women make up 60% of university students in Iran, 50% of STEM students. The first woman in the world to get the Fields Prize ("Nobel in mathematics") is Iranian and received her education up until PhD in Iran.

The shah ran what was consider the #1 most repressive country, which combined with his lapdogging to America and Britain, made him incredibly unpopular. The Islamic revolution was an almost entirely urban affair, with the rural farmers not really giving a shit either way.

>182x179
Truly you deserve death

Actually thanks to the Islamic Revolution, they now have Sharia law and their beautiful pre-Islamic Persian customs on the verge of extinction since much Zoroastrians escaped and fled outside of Iran.

The Mullahs literally capitalized on their popularity with the peasantry and lowest economic-social classes to muscule out the university and secularists who joined in with them to oust the Shah to take all the power within a year of the revolution.

I'm not saying it's better but for like 90% of the population basically nothing changed
And they still celebrate Persian new year, which is probably the most the average Iranian had in contact with pre-Islamic Persian customs

Not really true. The Young and the Religious didnt like the Shah. Most older people adored Reza Shah, Mohammed Rezas father and were atleast okay with the current shah.
What brought the Shah down was an Alliance between Democratic Students, deeply religious Mullahs and their followers,Communists(mostly represented by the Tudeh Party), Socialists and a few Minority organizations.

Lapdogging ? Mohammed Reza Shah was the one telling the British publicly they should keep out of Iranian Affairs.Mohammed Reza Shah was the One who tried to keep the OPEC countries together so they could work to increase their influence and no longer be under the foot of Britain and America. Funnily enough he fell 5 years after that.
He was the one saying publicly that Britain has kept his foot on Irans Neck and that he will work to never see that situation now.
People who talk like you have just wholesale eaten up Islamist propaganda out of Qom and Nadjaf.

literally no one rational thinks this and definitely not op. All Muslims who are middle eastern are white wheather /pol/TARDS like it or not since Islam is a religion, not a race.

Actually, middle eastern is not white because they are not European and not all caucasians are white because white, which is European, is a subgroup of the Caucasian race. Trust me, anyone who this knows what they are talking about.

Yes, they still kept some of their cultures and they were one of the peoples who haven't been genocided by the Arabs like for example the Copts of Egypt.

People I mean. Sorry, my mistake.

There are more pre-Islamic Persian/Iranian festivals and holidays retained in modern "Islamic" Iran then just Nowrooz.

You are retarded.

what is this, a theocracy for ants?

Middle Eastern people are not white because they are not European, they are Asian because they are from the Middle East, which is Western Asia, is a part of Asia; thus they are Asian, not European. I do not consider Africans - Whether they are sub-Saharan or North African, as well Middle Easterners/West Asians, and Central Asians to be white.

>politician saying things
Wow that has a lot of weight

>They are not genetically or anthropologically something because my arbitrary definition which is wholly subjective declares otherwise

You are retarded, dude.

Do you consider Somalians to be white because they are Caucasian? Does this look white to you?

>In fields of literacy, scientific progress, and economic activity it's actually improved.

Iran under the Shah was on the cusp of joining the 1st world, until the Iranians flushed it all away.

Does this look white to you?

They look Turkish/Armenian

>can't provide a rebuttal so instead gives a non-sequitur instead
Cute. Does pic related look non-white to you?
I don't like the theocracy either but the Islamic Republic does shit out a ton of academic, scholarly, and scientific articles, documents, and writings dude.

Somalians and Arabs, particularly Gulf Arabs in the Arabian Penninsula, to be admixed strongly over centuries with Sub-Saharan Africans show strong negroid admixture.

They are greeks

Those are Hellenes m8. Might as well fall back to late 19th century eugenics bullshit and say all non-Northern Europeans or Western Europeans like Italians, Greeks, Slavs, etc...are non-white too.

Sean Correy is Scottish, not Middle Eastern, and the reason why some middle eastern people look white like for example Jews is that they inbreed-ed with the Europeans so that's why some look European and others are not. This is what Greeks actually look like. Either way, in Australia and most places in the world, other than the USA and South Africa, like e.g. Australia, Middle Eastern people are not white. This a topic about Iran, not on race. Please come back with a topic that discuss like Iran.

Im baiting
Cherrypicked, most Greeks looks like bottom girl

You are retarded. You know nothing of genetics or anthropology at all. Please do us all a favor and kill yourself.

...

Shut up namefag, nobody cares what you think.

He isnt a namefag

Huh, so it was young people that wanted to depose the shah? Did they regret it once they saw what came in his place, or was the present government what everyone, and not just the religious conservatives, wanted?

Why do people like you always post pics of blonde people to make their point?
It's not common. Most have dark brown hair.

The young hated the shah but the revolution just sort of happened, it wasn't particularly well planned. I don't know if the main emigre base is those close to the Shah or disaffected youth but I imagine it's the former

>namefag
You are too stupid, so stupid its worth bumping this thread from page 10 just to reply to your idiotic post.

>Did they regret it once they saw what came in his place, or was the present government what everyone, and not just the religious conservatives, wanted?

The referendum for the institution of the Islamic Republic and then the second one for approval of the new constitution both received 90%+ in favour. A lot of political organisations abstained from the referendum like the communists, but it did largely express the will of the people. Second referendum was influenced by the hostage crisis and American hostility, but again.

Then you have the fact that the crowd that greeted Khomeini at the airport was like 3,5 million people, making it about 10% of the population at the time. In contrast, the Russian and French revolutions only ever involved about 1% of the population.

On the other hand, the exact shape of the "Islamic Republic" wasn't really all that clear. A lot of westernized Iranians hoped to use Khomeini as a beacon to rally around, not an actual leader. Some of the liberally minded clergy, and religious-liberal politicians were supporters of the republic in the early days. Ali Montazeri, the appointed heir of Khomeini had a falling out over the number of political prisoners and the inhumane treatment of the dissidents. A large portion of the "Guardian Jurist"'s power is extra-constitutional too, in the form of the IRGC, financial support from foundations, etc. He can actually be dismissed by the Assembly of Experts which is supposed to watch over him and control his acts.

Then you have the Iran-Iraq war and the insurrections by the Kurds, Balochs and the People's Mojaheddin that can be blamed for the government getting much more autocratic than it was supposed to.