Iran in the 1970s before the Islamic Revolution
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All you have there are some “Americanised” images of Iran.
Can you post some from the countryside, and more natives from n/s/e/w so we can get a better picture.
pete
Wales UK
The ‘older’ people who will remember the good ol’ times are either dead from the wars which have been funded by the western world, or are alive and tell their children who the root of the evil was.
“Americanised?”
You should mean “Westernized”…
just because someone is dressed in casual clothings and shared similar things doesn’t necessarily mean “americanised.”
Persian is not a language. Farsi is a language.
Where are the pictures of people living outside of Tehran in crushing poverty? You know the people who were not benefiting from the Iran, oops i mean the sha’s oil money
The BBC had a great article a few years back on what the Govt looks like. Basically it is a functioning democracy with a religious oligarchy with all the real power (courts, military, police, spy agency, etc.) under their control. When the 1979 Revolution occurred, that is how the people got sold into going with it; that they woudl have a democracy as opposed to a demagogue (i.e. the former Shah). What they didn’t realize was the top wouldn’t let the democratic majority have any real control. most f the people that supported Khomeini didn’t expect Islamic law to become the new status quo.
Anyway, what you see is a society with a typical urban-rural diversity of freedoms go to one brought in line with what the state approves.
Thank you, As an young Iranian living in America I can finally see the viewpoint that my mom and family have. Not the viewpoint that the media here portrays…
The language is Farsi not Persian, fyi.
“Note the Canada Dry sign in the back”
Canada Dry still does business in Iran…they produce it in Ghazvin…I just drank some today.
Ummm…you’re selecting a very non-representative sample of images from Iran here. Here’s some facts to understand: Before the revolution, most Iranians were not literate, they had no access to clean water or electricity. From 1975 through 1980 Iran’s Human Development Index remained stagnant at 0.569. By 1990 it was up to 0.693, and in 2002 it was 0.732
IF you haven’t heard it yet, ‘Pomegranates’ is a great music comp. from that location/time period.
I don’t see how one would argue that people were better off in Iran in pre Islamic era just because because women were allowed to wear short skirts and tight blouses. These ‘Westernized’ scenes say nothing about the preservation of individual freedom or state of human rights in that era.
Too bad they were living under a crazy dictator. Not that the Ayatollahs are any better, of course.
The iranian revolution and conversion to islamism was a direct result of american intervention in propping up a cruel and widely despised regime – to prevent the spread of communism. Before them the British were using Iran and messing with its politics and stealing its oil.
It seems that despite all the freedom and the western lifestyle the people weren’t happy (something many in the west also feel) and the country chose a spiritual path instead, which too has come and stabbed them in the back.
There is no perfect solution it seems.
Americanised, true – It still portrays the middle east in a vastly different light than the modern media does. I’d be very interested in seeing a documentary that just films travel from a metropolitan area all the way to the countryside, so that you could get an accurate picture of what it looks like.
The Iranian revolution is a direct result of America messing in other peoples politics, propping up a cruel, tyrannical and widely despised regime in order primarily to prevent the spread of communism. Before the US the British were in there messing with their country stealing their oil for a pittance.
Capitalism and consumerism is only the path to happiness for some.
Yes they had the some of the same freedoms and many of the antiquities of the west, but they chose a spiritual future, why was that?
Unfortunately they seem now to have swapped one tyrannical regime for another.
The perfect society is yet to be created.
Lebanon when it was a holiday resort
http:// youtube.com/watch?v=cu6o6T3wdL4
Persian is not a language genius…
Correctly said these are PR pictures the Shah had displayed for the world, he was put there by the Americans a man who would not even let the muslims pray friday prayers. one of the reasons they got rid of him as a true democracy would when their fundamental rights are denied they stand up for themselves,
The people in the pictures are high society elites who were the rich spoilt. Normal iranians looked down on these people most of whom werent even muslim, zoarastarians i believe.
Oh well…
@Pete
No, what you have here is people in Iran in the 70’s, most of which are most likely from urban areas. If you want to see pictures of people from the countryside they look pretty much the same today.
Neat pictures, one little comment, though. Canada Dry is Ginger Ale, not beer.
@durka
Farsi is the name of the language in Persian. When you are speaking/writing English you should use the word Persian.
Let’s see some before and after pictures of the Shah’s http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAVAK handiwork.
This is delightful for me to see, but that’s because they all look like the people I see day to day. Doesn’t necessarily mean that is what the people wanted.
I never thought iranian woman can be that sexy.surely ahmadinajad had now supressed all those woman into wearing a veil.so sad though.
Pete, that’s the same as saying post some pics of rednecks from the countryside to get a better picture of Texas. I think the object of the post is to show how religion took those people backwards…same thing happened to Egypt. Watch the old movies and then look at the new where they censor kisses.
The language is called Farsi not Persian.
Pete,
Why is it \Americanised\? And let’s assume it is, does that mean the people didn’t know what they wanted? That they didn’t really live that way? They CHOSE this lifestyle, and they lived it. It’s not a facade.
What’s depicted above shows a limited range of lifestyles, yeah, but it depicts Iran as what it was like in the hub of its culture, industry, entertainment, in its capital. Just comparing Tehran then to Tehran now is a valid comparison and should be convincing of massive changes that have occurred.
And ari,
You call the revolution “choosing a spiritual path?”…
You’re not encapsulating anything here, mate.
I could post a bunch of pictures of Germans wearing lederhosen, and say “this was Germany before the second world war.
It would serve pretty much the same purpose.
The correct international name for the language spoken in Iran is according to the Oxford British Dictionary “Persian”. Americans have chosen for some reason the internal name of the Iranian language “Farsi” instead of the internationally recognised term of Persian.
For a proper intellectual discussion why using the term Farsi instead of Persian is harming our identity in the international community, please read this excellent article from Ancient Circle of Iranian Studies:
http:// cais-soas.com/CAIS/Languages/persian_not_farsi.htm
This brings back some memories of my childhood. We lived in a neighborhood where a large number of families that fled Iran after the Shah fell moved in. Most of these families were middle class. The parents were doctors, lawyers, and engineers. It appears the entire middle class in Iran fled when the Revolution occurred.
While I was friends with the kids; most of the parents were very supportive of the Shah and viewed him as a great leader who kept the religious nutcases under control. Most of the families had similar pictures to those posted above from their homes in Iran. The entire culture at the time of the Shah appeared to be very progressive and westernized…. at least from the photo albums of these families.
So… Let’s get this right. If you dressed that way in Iran today you’d be considered immodest and immoral.
But since the people in the photos were in the Islamic revolution, doesn’t that make the resulting state the product of immodest and immoral people ?
@IranMonger
You must be a very young Iranian. Unfortunately the Islamic Republic’s brainwashing methods has been effective on some of our youth. Do you really believe these people on the pictures were Zoroastrians?
These people are Muslims. My parents are Muslims, and when I see their pictures when they were young, they were dressed like that. We never belonged to the upper class and came originally from poor conditions in Eastern Iran. What you see on those pictures was the normal way of dressing in Tehran. In the Caspian Sea people were swimming in bikinis and no one was “checking out” each other. I have pictures proofing that. The more a society is closed and limits the very basic rights of human being, the more people get attracted to what they don’t have. Your view of pre-revolution Iran is much distorted.
one things for sure, the muslim hierarchies in Iran like other religious hierarchies before them are controlling and cruel to non-believers or dissenters, the past 2000 years has seen various elements of the christian church destroy each other, the jews seem to have been persecuted forever, now they are doing the same to the palestinians, the buddhists seem to wrap their politics around national identity (quite possibly the cruellest of the lot), the hindus have massacred millions over the centuries.
While I think the freedom to worship is a human right, persecution in the name of religion is a hate crime of undeniable scale.
The Iranian government will fall, its just time.
RIP Neda
How encapsulating these pictures are can be argued one way or another. In the end, nothing can be so easily summarized.
But this warrants reflection: walking around modern Tehran you will no longer see anything akin to these pictures.
The Shah was no picnic, but at least the direction he had Iran pointed would have eventually led to more openness, freedom, and yes, success for the rural poor. The Islamic Revolution traded one set of onerous restrictions that would have led to more freedom for another set of onerous restrictions which is static and stagnant.
http:// samizdata.net/blog/~pdeh/epicFAIL.jpg
My middle-class family came from Tehran, Iran to U.S. and Canada in the late 1970s-1980s. All of of our family albums look like this. It pains us to see it now. When those of us travel back to visit (those of us that can without being in fear of arrest) the feel and atmosphere just isn’t the same. We are all nominally Muslim, but extremism wasn’t what any of us imagined or intended. And we watch in fear of what is happening to the U.S. now as well…
/we call if Farsi at home
//we don’t care if you call it Farsi or Persian
It makes me wonder — if this is what happened to Iran after the Islamic Revolution, what might happen to the US if (extreme) conservative Christian beliefs become status quo in our government? Although these images are likely not representative of the entire country in the 1970s, they are in stark contrast to most western views of country today. It is a little frightening to think that a country could flip so radically in 30 years, all under the guise of “morality” and religious “wisdom.”
There were miniskirts in Afghanistan, too, back in the day:
http:// cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/19/afghan.untold/index.html
Houman, you are correct. Iran before the Islamofascist regime was a very different place. It was far more like the West than some 8th century backwater. People were not uptight like they are now, and didn’t worry about psychotics requiring certain clothing. Women were achieving greater rights and position in society. Yes, things were less modern in the countryside, but in the cities, this is what it was like.
The country was prosperous. Iran had good relations with Western nations, including Israel. In fact, Israeli pilots were training Iranian pilots to fly fighter aircraft, and doing it in Iran. Iran had three legal breweries, making beer. It was a modern nation.
The Shah was accused of brutality. His Savak actually did come down hard on Islamists. From my perspective, they had the right target. They just didn’t come down hard enough.
On the language, Houman is correct, you should use Persian. It is all the same word anyway. The F/P are actually pronounced similarly, so it may be pronounced Parsi, which is close to Persia or Parthia, the old Western name for the nation. Persian is preferred.
Two weeks after Khomeini came to Iran, my family and I left Iran. I was only 17 but remember clearly how life was. Iran and its people had the Right to choose to dress as they wished; more traditional and/or religious families did not allow their female family members leave the house without the proper coverings which is now mandatory. When there was no credit cards as such, most people lived contently and comfortably with their income. Now, one must have several jobs and live and share the same home with his married siblings in major cities to be able to afford their meals for his wife and children every day. I am sorry to say that in most parts of Iran the village life has changed to worse since this regime has taken control of Iran.
Before the revolution, all religions were respected; there were many mixed marriages among the Persian Muslims and Persians who were of Jewish, Christian, Armenian, Zoroastrian and Baha’i faiths. There were schools which were managed or directed by the church in Isfahan; my cousins were sent to them because my uncle believed it was the best for his kids even though he was a devoted Muslim man. Now, I know of a young man who was arrested because he was of the Baha’i faith, a non-Muslim, who was put to jail over 25 years ago and is still in there waiting for someone to speak up for his Rights!
You see Iran, although in some opinions was considered westernized, gave and allowed SOME choices, options and rights to its people which NOW if one is not part of the “Family”, one shall not have it.
Although many might think it differently, but Iran was in the verge of immense growth in many ways that we will never know. One thing I am sure of is that this so-called Islamic regime entered people’s hearts and minds with soft spoken words and promises, and as soon as it stepped over the threshold, it turned around and locked the door to everything human and showed its true color of fascism, radical dictatorship and thirst for blood while their sons/family members are allowed to travel the world, spend money that in reality does not belong to them, pay over $2 Million to be taken to the space by Russians just to view the earth from above and drive canary yellow Lamborghini in Tehran; I saw it with my own eyes in the summer of 2008.
It is sad to witness that several thousand years of history, culture, language and tradition got damaged by those trusted few. In the 7th Century when Arabs invaded Persia in the name of Islam, they burnt most libraries and rape to purify the blood. Now, in the name of Islam handful opportunistic men have taken control of the country. They will kill and torture but will not set it free.
pitkat said, on May 11th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
It makes me wonder — if this is what happened to Iran after the Islamic Revolution, what might happen to the US if (extreme) conservative Christian beliefs become status quo in our government?
Pitkat, you are the victim of leftist propaganda. In America, the left restricts liberty. Conservatives are where the libertarians reside. They are dedicated to smaller government, greater liberty and adherence to the US Constitution. “Extreme” conservatives? Like who? William Buckley? Conservatives would restore liberties we have been losing. Socialists and other statists would tax you into servitude to the government.
damn, iran has some cute bitches.
I am of Iranian decent, and yes this may depict a different picture from what others have told me; but never the less this is how some lived and were happy. This is the same today in “westernized” culture the elite dress differently then the poorer areas. Lifestyles are more affluant due too technoglogy and the ablity to spread images quicker within this more “advanced” countries. There is still suppression as well but thos who choose to be religious and live that way (i.e. the amish) can and will, it is not forced on them and religion although not completely seperated yet out of politics is slowly being diminished. In Iran there really is not much choice, the poor still live the same way as they did back in the 70’s…why were we given intellect if not too advance who we are as humans…there is alot of hate out there and sadly, today, the radicals whom attack for whatever reason kill too many innocent people…if they want to live that way, then pick up a pen instead of a bomb and prove that religion is not as evil as it is being portrayed everyday. You can hate the “west” for their influence…you can hate the “russians” for their influence…and they can hate “radicals” for their influence…but hate only leads to more hate, and thus only leads to casulaties.
Honestly It is cowardly to kill women and children no matter who you are. These pictures depict a time were these two cultures could coexist, unfortunately for some this was not a “healthy” way to live and thus the revolution, which gave no the poor zero opportunity to grow and become something better. The wealthy families are still wealthy in iran and the poorer stay poor…In the western culture there is atleast a chance to become something better and i dont mean money, i mean education, religion and family(i.e. health).
Durka
Clearly a troll. Do you call German deutsche? or French Francais? Probably not. Using the word Farsi is just someone trying to portray themselves as an intellectual.
Looking forward to the similar series, USA before Obama Hope and Change and after.
What most people don’t understand is that the Shah was overthrown due to the Carter administrations efforts to increase free speech in the country.
The US gets blamed no matter what.
There has been no happiness in Iran since and the world is a much more unstable place due to US intervention here.
@ari
“the hindus have massacred millions over the centuries. ”
funniest thing I have seen all day.
Iran looks like hell now. They wouldn’t have pictures like this for propaganda. A fundamentalist-imposed dress code sucks no matter what.
Oh look, blame the problems in Iran now on the US. Brilliant. By blaming the US for everything, no need for the Iranian government to accept responsibility for anything. They’ve got a propaganda campaign going on.
Skoonj said:
“Pitkat, you are the victim of leftist propaganda. In America, the left restricts liberty. Conservatives are where the libertarians reside. They are dedicated to smaller government, greater liberty and adherence to the US Constitution. “Extreme” conservatives? Like who? William Buckley? Conservatives would restore liberties we have been losing. Socialists and other statists would tax you into servitude to the government.”
As an american and a seeker of truth… I can tell you that liberal does not equal liberty.
Dear Shabnam,
I totally agree with you. My mother used to be a runner at her college. She has a picture of herself in the runner’s athletic suit during a competition in a fully packed stadium. And you can imagine how these athletes suit looks like, very free and shows a lot of skin. Now guess which city that was? No it wasn’t Tehran, it was Mashhad, the holy conservative city !!!!
It is true; these two cultures could coexist easily back then. But be sure soon when we have toppled the regime, all this tolerance will be back.
On another note regarding using the term Farsi or Persian; since I can very well imagine none of you will bother reading that long scientific article I sent you earlier, please allow me to highlight some important points and leave it to you thinking about it.
I leave out the boring historical part and focus more on the identity part. Our Identity is clearly shaken nowadays. Who are we? If you ask any Western people who the Turks are, they know Turks are non Arabs, speak Turkish and have their own culture. If you ask who Iranians are 90% would think we are Arabs and speak Arabic. Ira(n)(q) who cares right?
For all the great things Reza Shah the Great did, he made one big mistake changing the international name of Persia to the internal name of Iran. (there is an excellent blog this regarding) It would be like changing the internationally recognized name of Egypt over night to Mesr. Who would know what Mesr is? That would damage severely the tourism alone and their identity. This is exactly what happened to us. Thousands of year’s historical association with Persia went down over night by replacing it to Iran.
Today most Arab Sunni countries – having always hated Persians and Shia – have united to change the name of the Persian Gulf to the Gulf. One of their vetoes’ is, that where are the Persians? If our International name was still Persia, do you think anyone would have dared to change this? A very similar situation here is the Indian Ocean next to India.
We are loosing our identity day by day and we are being forgotten who we are, what our language is, what our culture is about. Think about it this way, every country has an internal name and an international name. French is the international one, while internally its Francais. Why don’t English people change French to Francais? It’s more correct right? But some are doing this for Persian to Farsi. Why? Same with German, where the internal name is Deutsch..
Now to country names, Deutschland is the internal name, while Germany is the international name. Japan is called internally Nipon. Egypt is Mesr. Scandinavian countries have a complete different naming for their countries internally. I could give you hundreds of examples. How about we call Arabic from now on Al-Arabia, since its the internal name?
Why on earth should Iran be treated differently? Why are they using our internal name? I want them to use our internationally recognized name Persian, so that our identity is not being forgotten. We are still there and we speak Persian!
Today its the Persian Gulf,
Tomorrow its the three islands,
Day after Tomorrow Iran is only Tehran, Kashan, Shiraz, Isfahan and Mashhad…
Think about it!
Houman,
I’m completely with you in respect to the use of the words Persia and Persian internationally.
The following photo used earlier in this page was me and my friends in elementary school:
flickr.com/photos/rshoraka/1626235363
Not much diversity.
Heh.
This is a nice account of “American style democracy” read as “plutocracy enriched by consumerism” in action.
Suggested reading- “All the Shah’s Men” which is an account of how hegemonic practices of the United States propagandized the Iranian people and used other tactics to install their leader of choice in place of an actual democratically elected leader: Mohammad Mosaddegh. As books go, it’s a little less dry then most historical accounts but a little too “novel-y” for my tastes.
It only follows logically that Iran began to outshine the US even as a consumer driven plutocracy, so again, under the direction of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Carter administration overthrew the Shah’s regime using similar tactics.
Not really sure where all the comments about clothing restrictions are coming from. Videos of the election riots in 2009, and there are MANY, show what could be street scenes in any western/European city, as far as fashion-a lot of jeans and t-shirts, some shorts, and some cleavage by the girls. No burkas, or even head scarves for that matter. No miniskirts, for sure, but they’re not really “in” now, are they? It seems the educated youth of Iran have reached the limit on having their intelligence insulted, and their ability to think restricted by tyranny, masquerading as religious guidance. American youth haven’t reached THAT level, yet, but there is a growing revulsion to being lied to, by both major political parties.
>Videos of the election riots in 2009, and there are MANY, show what could be street scenes in any western/European city, as far as fashion-a lot of jeans and t-shirts,
Yes, there were those.
>some shorts, and some cleavage by the girls.
But not those. You’re thinking of protests by Iranians abroad. All the Iranians within the country wore their headscarves and showed no legs or cleavage.
The “best” comments here are made by clearly non Iranians. Comments like from T.C. mixing up protester pictures from inside and outside Iran, shows how little Western people know and understand the situation in Iran. He doesnt even know what you will be arrested by the Islamic moral police the moment you stop wearing a head scarves or wear un-Islamic cloth according to regime’s standard. Then you may be lashed and imprisoned.
These comments show how little they understand that today there are – unlike 30 years ago – no personal freedom neither freedom of expression on top of having no political freedom. 31 years ago, perhaps only the latter was true, but at least people could choose to wear what they wanted, whenever they wanted. Which means wearing hijab or mini skirt was up to the people to express themselves. No one meddled in your private life, no one limited your freedom of choosing what you like to do in your spare time. Today all that is gone and people in Iran are suffering.
This is exactly the point the person who posted these pictures was trying to proof. Instead we get more non sense comments from non-Iranians who are trying to bash capitalism, while they are living and enjoying themselves in free market societies, huh Mr James? I am myself an admirer of Dr Mossadegh, but what does the right of personal freedom has anything to do with Mossadegh or Shah? Mixing up topics? We are not talkign about political freedom but personal freedom.
The only hope we have, is ourselves.
To all the people saying, Persian is not a language “its called farsi”, you’re absolutely ignorant. In english, we don’t call French “francais” or German “deutsche” do we? Not to mention saying farsi is insulting to any real persian anyway as its an arab word. I believe somebody already stated this, I just wanted to enforce it.
And to the people saying that it was the Shah who put mossadegh out of power, again that’s just asinine. The shah expressed his support for Mossadegh numerous times. The west did not like him, and so when Mossadegh was forced to step down by the CIA coup the shah had no choice but to step back in and stop the country from going into shambles.
If America is not careful they are going to go the same way…
The religious right has far too much power/influence, already in America people are being targeted (in a Mccarthy style fashion) by the Christian right because they teach children evolution (i.e based on science not from an old book – I know which one I trust..)
Just think you may have photo’s from today showing what it was like before the Christian right took over – when you had freedom..
i know ,people in iran are beneathing , they wanted better life and they thought the revelution is the true way,but they did’t know the result of this work,cause the revelution was INVEIGLEd by some PAWKY leaders,ahhhh,it is painful,so painful than anyone can think about it,please don’t judge about iranian,they coulden’t ACHIEVE what they want. it is so painful, the people you see in TV are’nt all iranian people ‘ they are a little of 75 million.( max 500,000 ), the iranian people are the best! and they love all people through world.
…….> this kiss for all :*