Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ran over a dog in America they would be prosecuted for doing so, but if an American ran
over an Iranian in Iran he could do so with impunity. The shah reacted by banishing
Khomeini.
In 1971 the shah organised lavish celebra-
tions for the 2500th anniversary of the found-
ing of the Persian Empire, hoping to fan the
flames of nationalism. More than 60 interna-
tional monarchs and heads of state came to the
party, held in a purpose-built tent city (
Click
Iranian culture to the world, but at home it en-
couraged those who saw the shah as wasteful.
Ironically, the 1974 oil price revolution also
contributed to the shah's undoing. In just one
year the income from oil shot from US$4 billi-
on to US$20 billion, but the shah allowed US
arms merchants to persuade him to squander
much of this on weapons that then stood idle in
the desert. As the world slipped into recession,
oil sales slumped and several planned social
reforms were cut.
Shah of Shahs,
by journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski,
is a fast-paced yet perceptive account of Iran in the
decade leading up to the revolution, written in a
style that draws attention to the absurdities of a
deadly serious situation.
My Uncle Napoleon,
by Iraj Pezeshkzad and pub-
lished in the early 1970s, was an instant bestseller.
In 1976 it became a TV series, and its story - of
three families living under the tyranny of a para-
noid patriarch - became a cultural reference point
in the lead-up to revolution.
The Revolution
Since the beginning of the Pahlavi dynasty, resistance had smouldered away and occasion-
ally flared into violence. Students wanted faster reform, devout Muslims wanted reforms
rolled back, and everyone attacked the Pahlavis' conspicuous consumption.
The opposition came from secular, worker-communist and Islamic groups whose com-
mon denominator was a desire to remove the shah. Exiled Ayatollah Khomeini was an in-
spirational figure, but contrary to the official Iranian portrayal much of the organising was
done by unionists, communists and ordinary middle-class citizens.
As the economy faltered the opposition grew
in confidence and organised massive street
demonstrations and small-scale sabotage. The
shah responded with brutal force and his secur-
ity agency, Savak, earned a reputation for tor-
ture and killing. In November 1978, he im-
posed martial law and hundreds of demonstrat-
Reading Lolita in Tehran,
by Azar Nafisi, is nomin-
ally a work of literary criticism, but in reality Nafisi
writes a moving memoir of her life in Iran after the
revolution.
