Iran in World History

Marja‘ ot-taghlid
(Source of Emulation), 
which preserved him from any punishment beyond house arrest.
The following year the shah attempted to rid himself of further 
trouble by sending Khomeini into exile, first to Turkey and then to 
the holy Shi‘ite city of Najaf in Iraq. This decision proved to have the 
opposite effect from what was intended, however, since Khomeini was 
then free to denounce the shah’s policies from a safe distance outside 
the country. This he did for the next fourteen years, with catastrophic 
consequences for the shah.
A highly emotional target for criticism was the shah’s extension 
of diplomatic immunity to all Americans living in Iran, an expatriate 
community that exceeded fifty thousand at its peak. Khomeini causti-
cally remarked in one of his speeches that “If an Iranian runs over an 
American’s dog he will face prosecution . . . but if an American cook 
runs over the shah [himself], no one can do anything.”
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For many Iranians, an even greater demonstration of the shah’s dis-
regard for his own people was an enormously extravagant and astro-
nomically expensive event he organized at Persepolis in 1971, celebrating 
“two thousand five hundred years of Iranian monarchy.” He invited 
royalty and heads of state from around the world, though most chose 
not to attend. During the course of this ostentatious self-congratulatory 
exercise, the shah earned widespread ridicule by standing before the 
tomb of Cyrus the Great at nearby Pasargadae and pompously pro-
claiming, “Sleep well, Cyrus, for We are awake.” Foreign guests 

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traveling to and from Persepolis could not fail to notice the grinding 
poverty of the villages along the way.
Radicalism, so widespread in the 1960s, also found expression in 
Iran, not only among the intelligentsia but in the arts as well. A num-
ber of young filmmakers, many of them influenced by French New 
Wave directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, broke 
the commercial mold of popular violence-and-betrayal type movies 
(derisively called 
film farsi
) and explored more avant-garde forms of 
cinema. A prime example is Dariush Mehrjui’s surrealistic film 
The 
Cow
(1969), in which a destitute farmer is so distraught by the death 
of his cow that he takes on the role of a cow himself.
In the field of literature, Iranian poets and novelists continued to 
explore new styles. Ahmad Shamlu drew inspiration from both clas-
sical poets and modernists such as Nima Yushij, as well as from French 
literature and even Japanese haiku. Sohrab Sepehri explored Buddhist 
culture and was also an accomplished painter. The novelist Hushang 
Golshiri was known for his dense prose and subtle allegory; Iran’s 
most prestigious literary award is named for him.
Forugh Farrokhzad was the first Iranian poet to express herself as 
an independent, sexual woman:
Desire surged in his eyes
red wine swirled in the cup
my body surfed all over his
in the softness of the downy bed.
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Her work drew controversy, and after spending a number of years 
living unapologetically as the mistress of filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan, 
Farrokhzad died at the age of thirty-two in a suspicious car accident. 
“Forugh,” as she is affectionately called by her many admirers, remains 
an iconic figure for Iranian feminists. Another highly respected woman 
poet, Simin Behbahani, also won international acclaim, being twice 
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Shah Mohammad Reza’s first two marriages failed to produce 
an heir, but his third wife, Farah Diba, bore a son, Reza, in October 
1960, a mere ten months after wedding the shah. When her royal hus-
band decided to hold a lavish coronation ceremony for himself in 1967 
(twenty-six years into his reign), taking the grandiose title “Light of the 
Aryans,” he added to the occasion by crowning Farah as empress. In 
the years that followed, Farah was given wide-ranging responsibilities, 
not only in government but also as head of numerous humanitarian and 
artistic enterprises.

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M o d e r n i z a t i o n a n d D ic t a t o r s h i p
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Farah’s work in health and education projects took her to cities and 
villages all over Iran, giving her a better sense of the country’s realities 
than that possessed by the shah. The public did not fail to notice the 
difference, and the empress was arguably much more popular than the 
shah himself. Her involvement in the arts, meanwhile, which included 
purchasing many works by well-known artists from all over the world, 
made her a known and respected figure on the international art scene. 
Her chief artistic advisor was the painter Aydin Aghdashlu—himself a 
master of Renaissance, classical Persian, and magical realist styles—who 
acquired works by Monet, Picasso, Warhol, and other Western artists 
on behalf of the empress.
In 1973 an event occurred that dramatically altered Iran’s economy. 
As a protest against Western support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War 
against Egypt and Syria, the oil cartel known as the Organization of 
Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)—which was under the shah’s 
leadership at the time—declared an embargo on oil sales to the West. 
The price of oil increased fourfold almost overnight. This produced a 
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, with his wife Farah Diba at 
Andrews Air Force Base during a trip to the United States in November 1977. 
The shah, a staunch US ally who attempted to modernize Iran even as he 
struggled to maintain absolutist control, was toppled by a popular revolution in 
1979, bringing an end to two thousand five hundred years of Iranian monarchy. 
US Air Force MSgt. Denham / Department of Defense Visual Information Center

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severe economic crisis in countries such as the United States that had 
grown dependent on cheap oil and created a windfall for oil-producing 
countries like Iran.
Iran’s massive oil wealth made possible advances in the fields 
of industry, education, and public health. Women and religious 
minorities—including Baha’is, Jews, and Christians who had early on 
embraced Western forms of education—saw increased access to educa-
tion and jobs. Ultimately, however, the surge in riches benefited mainly 
the elite urban classes, especially those with connections to the royal 
family. Ordinary consumers, meanwhile, were hit hard by unchecked 
inflation. The bazaars were flooded with foreign goods, at prices 
domestic producers could not compete with. Iranian farmers in par-
ticular were devastated by cheap imports of food staples such as wheat.
Nor were these social and economic changes accompanied by 
increased political freedoms. As growing numbers of people entered 
the educated classes and became more politically aware, rising expec-
tations for greater public participation in governance could not be met 
within Iran’s totalitarian system. Two officially sanctioned political