Page 308 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

revolution—iran 1609

The failure of women to produce genius of the first rank in most of the supreme forms of
human effort has been used to block the way of all women of talent and ambition for
intellectual achievement in a manner that would be amusingly absurd were it not so
monstrously unjust and socially harmful. • Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)

its expectation, the shah initiated a second Seven-Year The women’s suffrage component of the White Revo-
Plan which began in 1955. However, due to corruption lution changed the political status of Iranian woman for-
and mismanagement, the plan did not achieve its ever. Clerics and conservative families who did not like
expected goals.To demonstrate his popularity among Ira- the emancipation of Iranian woman opposed this suf-
nians and decrease the pressure for reforms from the frage. Consequently, uprisings occurred in the theological
administration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the seminaries and among shopkeepers in major cities.
shah announced his six-point program popularly known Clashes between the government and the opposition
as the “White Revolution” (or the “Revolution of the Shah resulted in imprisonment and exile of the opposition
and the People”) in 1963. It encompassed land reform, leaders, including a less-prominent clergyman, Ruhollah
the sale of government-owned factories to finance land Khomeini, who would play a major role and become the
reform, women’s suffrage, the nationalization of forests, leader of the 1979 revolution.
a national literacy corps, and profit-sharing plans for Along with the aforementioned reforms, other social
recruits in industry. and economic reforms were undertaken to further mod-
The goals of land reform were twofold: to gain support ernize the country.Among the most notable reforms was
from the peasants living in agricultural villages of Iran improvement of the infrastructure of Iran, including the
and to eliminate the big landlords as an influential class. construction of better medical facilities, improvement in
Although some big landlords lost their prominence, the accessibility to health care, reforms in family laws,
many retained their large holdings and became modern- and expansion of women’s rights. The modernization
ized commercial farmers and eventually were incorpo- and secularization of Iran made the shah’s leadership
rated into the shah’s political elite. Land reform also powerful and secure; however, at the same time his auto-
failed to give sufficient amounts of land and resources to cratic rule disassociated him from an important segment
the majority of peasants; thus, a massive migration to the of society. Although the economic and social reforms
cities began; the cities were not equipped to cope with the brought many improvements, they also alienated many
massive influx. groups, such as the Bazaaris (traditional merchants),
The national literacy corps was another important who consisted of hundreds of thousands of major mer-
component of the White Revolution. The shah realized chants, shopkeepers, and artisans who could not compete
that for Iran to become modernized, the people of Iran in a Western-style economy. Lack of a viable political plat-
would have to become more educated.Thus, high school form also alienated many intellectuals and students.
graduate conscripts were recruited to spend fifteen
months, in lieu of their compulsory military service of Foreign Dependency
two years, in rural villages or small towns teaching in pri- The British and Soviets had dominated Iranian politics
mary or adult literacy schools.With the help of the liter- until the early 1950s, but the United States began to alter
acy corps and the opening of more schools, technical the role of the two competing powers in Iran after the
colleges, and universities, the shah succeeded in increas- 1953 military coup. The Truman Doctrine aimed to
ing the national literacy rate from 14.9 percent in 1956 impede the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and
to 74.1 percent by 1976. This increase was a major the Middle East. Because Iran had an extensive border
accomplishment by any modern standards. Nonethe- with the Soviet Union, the U.S. administration saw Iran
less, these reforms undermined the religious schools and as a candidate for being influenced by Communist ide-
were resented by the cleric class, who had until then held ology.The first sign of the U.S. administration’s curbing
the monopoly on education through their parochial Soviet influence came in October 1955 when Iran signed
schools. In addition, a higher literacy rate meant that and joined the Baghdad Pact along with Iraq,Turkey, Pak-
political awareness in the cities, rural areas, and small istan, and Great Britain. Creation of this pact would
towns would not be uncommon. ensure Iran of the U.S. military and economic assistance