Life under the shah
After the Shah became the ruler of Iran, he was dedicated to westernizing the country. He built roads, public spaces, and modernized the country. However, many traditional people refused to westernize and believed that they should stay with traditional culture. He increased the literacy rate and created public schools. However, financial scandals and the increasing income gap made him very unpopular and so people began to fight back against him.
During the rule of the Shah, Iran was one of the most unequal societies due to a huge income gap. People who were close to the Shah were rich while peasants and others below them were very poor and often had no land to farm or jobs to work. In order to acquire money, Iran smuggled heroin and used their massive deposits of oils which they sold to countries around the world, especially Great Britain, who played an important role in allowing the Shah to rise to power. The Shah also spent lots of money in order to raise a massive, disciplined army. The sight of those soldiers would quell protests and demonstrations. The soldiers were also used to massacre the people who fought against the Shah so the uniform itself was enough to scare an entire crowd away. The Shah also employed a secret police known as SAVAK. SAVAK received special training from the CIA in order to attempt to defeat the rebellions. They were some of the most feared people in Iran due to their practices in order to extract information and to put down rebellions.
In order to gain support, the textbooks printed lies about the glories of Iranian and Persian dynasties. Those textbooks were printed in order to make the people submit to him. In order to westernize, he built many college campuses. However, he often placed armed guards to ensure that the students could not rebel or rally against the Shah. There also wasn't any free speech because if the Shah or a Shah supporter found out, they would be taken by SAVAK and be tortured and/or killed. However, the quantity of protesters overcame the Shah and he was forced to step down.
major events
Rex cinema fire; August 19, 1978
On August 19 of 1978, Rex Cinema was locked up and burned down with people still inside. Hundreds of people died in the fire. Iranians blamed the Shah and SAVAK for killing them. Later, it was shown that Ruhollah Khomeini supporters burned it down. It coincided with the birthday of the Shah's mother. It could then be said that "The royal family danced while Iran wept".
September 8, 1978: Black Friday
On September 8, 1978, a large crowd gathered and were ordered to disperse by the army. Gunmen shot at the soldiers and they fired back. In the end, many died on what was to be known as Black Friday. The media blamed the Shah and his army for massacring the protesters but the bullets that killed were mostly not army regulation bullets indicating that the gunmen killed those people, not the army.
-Aron