Khomeini's Failed Revolution example essay topic

Revolutions are not perfect, and there are always negative aspects to a revolution. They do not always create a better country, or even resolve the issues that the revolution was for. An excellent example of this would be the Iranian Revolution. Other than being one of the three major turning points in the twentieth century in the Middle East, it showed that a revolution might not evolve society in a positive way. The actions of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which were intended to improve Iran, instead destroyed a society that was once peaceful and diplomatic. During the period of the Shah, Iran was at its height with its alliance with the West.

Both, the East and the West competed for stronger political and economic ties with Tehran, the inviting center of international trade and politics (p. 20). This shows the impact Shah Pahlavi made by trying to modernize the country. By making other nations crave Iran, it would make Iran have more power and it would show its interdependence and interaction with the outside world. To prevent progress, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi also wanted to modernize ancient Iran by breaking the hold of tradition, both social and religious. Also, he wanted to replace regional trade, agriculture and handicrafts with Iran's oil resources (p. 43). Not only did Pahlavi use politics to move forward with Iran's status, but he also used social and economic techniques.

He realized other nations craved oil and he used that to replace Iran's centuries-old method. In addition, he regressed from being too religious and proceeded to the idea of westernizing the country. With many ways of setting Western lifestyles and technology with political strategy into Tehran along with the rest of Iran, the Shah created a comfortable and desirable place for Iranians and foreigners. Every effort made by the Shah was ruined in 1979 when a revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took away Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi's power and destroyed Iran's reputation.

"Over the next decade, a new set of images, strong and persistent, became synonymous with Iran: Hostage seizures. Suicide bombings. Teenagers serving as human minesweepers on the battlefront. Women hidden behind black chador's. Mullahs toting rifles and leading mobs in chants of "Death to America" (p. 20)". All of Khomeini's promises to the people (before he became dictator) about more freedom and democracy were eliminated when he came into power.

He began to base everything on religion and became a strict monarch, which put its toll on the country and its people. Moreover, Khomeini made his people believe anything he said. For example, when a few Iranians encountered American hostages at one point, one hostage described, "Most of them had probably never seen an American before. I think a lot of them were surprised to find out that we didn't have horns (p. 78)". The Iranians were so hypnotized that they didn't even think about what Khomeini lectured about, they automatically believed it like machines. They assumed that the United States was such an "evil" place that no human would ever live there; however, when they encountered Americans it was a shock to them and ironically, they became interested in learning about them.

After Khomeini replaced Shah Pahlavi, Iran began to fall from the high position it had before 1979. The Imam's death in 1989 did not end the Islamic Republic and his failed revolution has made such a massive impact on Iran that they can still be seen today. For example, Khomeini promised that he would create an Islamic utopia which would allow Iran to defeat outside oppressors and reunite the Islamic world. (p. 207) Instead, this unfulfilled pledge cost Iran's international acceptability in the Islamic world. He did the complete opposite of what he assured the people and isolated Iran from the rest of the world with his tactics.

In addition, unemployment, inflation, shortages and prices were all several times worse when compared to the final year that the Shah ruled (p. 208). Now it was even harder for the Iranians to support themselves and live a comfortable life with all these additional problems. People put their trust in this man and he severely let them down in every way. Rather than creating a successful revolution that would benefit the country and future generations as a whole, Khomeini left Iran with worse conditions than what the country had to begin with. Although Revolution is a justified means of changes, it may not always be a good change, which was the case with the Iranian Revolution. The people acknowledged Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini because it sounded like he was looking forward to a better future for Iran and the populace wanted to evolve as well.

However, Khomeini had different ideas in mind and as he unfolded them, he lapsed Iran's progress. Khomeini's failed revolution has hurt Iran in many ways and now it is up to his successors to determine Iran's future.