The Iranian Revolution (project by Benjamin Mo)

For this project, I decided to explore the subject of the Iranian Revolution by interviewing three people who were present in Iran around that time (1978-1979). During these interviews, I sought to understand the social and political turmoil that occurred. I also wanted to know what everyday life was like as well. In my interview with Gregory, I wanted to know what being an American in Iran was like. In my interview with Nancy, I wanted to know what being a woman (who is also American and pregnant) was like. In my interview with Aziz, I wanted to know what being an Iranian at the time was like.

THE INTERVIEWS: TRANSCRIPTS

1. Interview-ee: Gregory
Subject: Iranian Revolution

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When were you in Iran back in the 1970s?
Let’s see…: I was there for about four and a half years, and I left in December of 1978, so I should have been there from 1975 to 1978. We left right before 1979 because of the turmoil of the revolution; Nancy was about 8 months pregnant, so the Iranian friend we stayed with urged us to leave.
6 months before the revolution, we all thought the riots would pass, but people could see that this unrest wasn’t going to go away.
The worst part of the revolution, or rather the process leading up to the revolution happened with martial law. Tanks and jeeps would be roaming the streets…soldiers holding machine guns would patrol around and stare at people. There was also an enforced curfew at 8pm.
I’m sorry, where were you at the time?
Oh, I was staying in Shiraz, which was a city in the south of Iran. So, where was I…
Martial law…uhm…stuff….
Right right right…
However scary the hostile military presence was though, people still resisted. Many businesses went on strike; even the electric company supported the protests. At 9pm, the electric companies would shut down all of the power, and people would go onto their rooftops in the pitch-black dark and scream anti-shah slogans. The police couldn’t do anything because people were still in their property and it was impossible to see who was screaming or not. It was very eerie as people in their houses would just hear a loud, unending roar.
What led to all this craziness?
Well, it’s mostly due to Carter. The shah at that point was heavily influenced by the president of the United States.
Carter pressured the shah to allow more human rights as a condition for further foreign aid. The shah was forced to back off the SAVAK…
That’s the secret police, right?
Yes. Anyway, the shah had to loosen the SAVAK’s power over the people and allow the freedom of the press.
Before all that, the daily newspaper was essentially a propaganda newspaper supporting the shah. The SAVAK also made sure that no one criticizes the shah. After the shah was forced to allow more freedom of the press, certain kinds of editorials suddenly appeared in the daily newspaper; people were allow to speak about the government without fear of persecution.
The newspapers also became much more popular. I saw people waiting in long lines just to get the daily news.
People also began to talk about the criticisms of the shah. Formerly, the news only gave good news about the shah, but by then, the people could talk about all the bad things that weren’t censored anymore.
This began a snowball effect, as the people in the Middle East tend to use speech as the method of communication. The rumor mill was very fast in Shiraz; Rumors began to circulate wildly.

What kinds of criticisms did people talk about?
One big topic was the SAVAK. People transferred stories about someone they know who mysteriously disappeared. These rumors usually have a basis in reality, but the SAVAK could have done nothing, and these stories that get exaggerated from person to person would still reach everybody, and everybody would hear of countless mysteriously disappearances or deaths that the SAVAK was responsible for.
Another reason for the unrest was oil. Iran was a huge source of oil, so oil leads to increased wealth and fuels modernization. People were concerned that the shah was stealing oil money for his own use in addition to the foreign countries that were already taking much of the oil profits.
Modernization was a strange subject. Some people wanted nothing to do with it. Other people want to be as advanced as the West, but retain traditional society. Some jus want modernization.
How modern did Iran become under the Pahlavi shahs anyway?
Well, the streets were paved, and houses looked more modern, but modernization was overall limited.
I still don’t get what that’s like…
For example, phones were still rare. People also didn’t use the phones much, unless they want to call someone way too far away, in which case they would borrow the only phone in the town.
I’m sorry, so back to the revolution stuff…
Right, uh let me see…what’s important…Oh!
Around that time, OPEC started to raise oil prices for the west. The shah was becoming very condescending toward the US, so US and Iran’s relationship became more of a focus.
Meanwhile, the people of Iran were very restless and had a mentality like they were in the party. The street demonstrations felt to them more like an event; people would just invite people, anyone would join in the yelling and protests.
The demonstrations began to end in shootings from the police and SAVAK. After 7 days and 40 days after each demonstration, people held another demonstration in memorial of the deaths. Holding those two demonstrations was part of Shiism (the emphasis on mourning and martyrs). Eventually, the demonstrations and violence escalated to the revolution.
During the revolution, more and more demonstrations were held, and eventually, the soldiers started putting down their guns and joined the crowd. After all, they fought to protect the people. People even began running into the unguarded armories and taking up arms.
After the revolution, the royal family power-wise morphed into the clergy.
What was life in Iran before the revolution?
Well, the rural areas were about the same through the 1900s. The cities in contrast had education, streets, cars, stored, etc. The urban people always felt that they were representative of Iran and called the rural people “stupid donkeys” for their ignorance of what goes on in the city.
During the Pahlavi shahs’ era, an upper-middle class began to emerged in addition to the rich and the poor. The shah tried to increase literacy in Iran, even in the rural areas. Rural people were required to join the military for 2 years to learn how to read and write.
More literacy led to more professionals, so people began to have access to social mobility via education; if you had an education, you wouldn’t be stuck as a waiter or have to take over for your father’s small shop. This social mobility put a lot of pressure on Iranian students. Sometimes, I saw Iranian teens, all holding textbooks, meeting up in the street under the street lights to chat and study. Also, only the top 1% could enter the university in Iran, so there was a lot of competition; People also began to leave Iran to acquire education.
Did education, or life in general, change much after the revolution?
The current government also disallows protests because of how the Iranian Revolution kind of spiraled out of control.
Life also became strictly traditional; for example, music other than religious music was not allowed. People had to go by the Koran and conduct prayer five times a day. Men’s and women’s roles also became extremely strict; women had to cover much of their bodies and wear veils.
Rural people especially came under the mullahs’ influence. Rural people began to move into cities and brought their Islamic educated ideas. The cities also became critical of westernization and science.
Currently, employment rates are really high in Iran. There are very few economic prospects. The younger people, who account for about 70% of the population (the older generation was reduced in the war), could really see nothing to do and many resorted to breaking the Islamic laws secretly and do drugs, drink alcohol, have parties, and play music. Now, there is a hug cultural movement where younger people are starting to bend the rules a bit; for example, women will still cover their bodies, but the cloth may be slightly see-through.
Education has become…Islamic. I mean that universities are dictated under Islamic law.
What about significant events after the revolution?
First of all, I should say something about Islam in Iran. Iran is unique in the Muslim world as being a country that is pretty much entirely Shiite instead of Sunni. Shiism places a great emphasis on martyrdom. Shiite Muslims greatly revered the famous martyrs Ali and Hussein. There was also an emphasis on open emotions; people would mourn and cry and be all emotional.
Soon after the Revolution, Saddam Hussein ordered an attack on Iran, and the Iran-Iraq war began. Iranian mullahs would get people riled up to be martyrs in battle. This new religious government manipulated young people’s emotions—around your age—to fight in the war.
There was also the Hostage Crisis in Iran. Iranians stormed the American embassy in Iran—that was an action that was very unheard of…
Why?
Embassies were the exclusive property of the foreign country they represented…
So the embassies are like the foreign countries in another country.
Right. The embassy was subject under American law and was under American jurisdiction. The hostage crisis was almost like an invasion. Naturally, America’s distrust of Iran began there.
What is it like being an American in Iran back in the 70’s?
When Nancy and I were in Shiraz, we taught English in some universities. Those classes were immensely popular because they were the only classes that were co-ed.
Being an American in Iran wasn’t bad during the first 3 and a half years of our stay. People were happy to meet foreigners. However, after the whole anti-shah rumor mill thing started, anti-American sentiments grew, and within 6 months, people were saying “Yankee, go home!” instead of a hello.
Iranians began developing a mob mentality, and one day, the students in the English class began to boycott. The people who were still there, including me, left quickly after a protest mob came to the Iran-American School (name gave it away) and threw rocks through the windows. Luckily, a friend knew about the protest in advance and was there with a car. We managed to escape.
We quickly realized that it would too dangerous to live in Shiraz any further, especially with Nancy in the late stages of pregnancy. Airports were mostly shut down, but the travel agency opened up every few days, and we bought a flight to Bahrain.
Once we got to Bahrain, I suddenly noticed how tense I was. I saw with a shock that this tense attitude had been building in Iran gradually; all of Iran now is in this state of hysteria.
What we knew of Iran after we left came from news broadcasts from BBC. The American news had almost nothing to do with what was really happening in Iran; I guess they only told you what they want you to hear.
So, who do you think was at fault for all that trouble; mass hysteria sounds incredibly horrifying…
Well, the unrest exploded after Carter’s policies; previously, foreign policies had almost nothing to do with enforce human rights. However, he was a bit too nice for his good, and didn’t see that freedom of speech was the trigger. Carter’s actions made him look extremely bad; the hostage crisis probably got Reagan to win the election (in fact, he sort of made a deal with the Iranians to not let go of the hostages until after the elections).
Of course, the shah took a lot of the blame. People saw the shah as a puppet of the Americans; many parties tried to influence the general population by undermining the shah for his relationship with the United States. Much of the anti-American sentiments came from clergy propaganda (However, I should mention that the average Iranian likes and still likes Americans…
So who were the crazy Iranian guys on the news?
They were the more religiously zealous fundamentalists, who account for very little of the population of Iran.
So, anything more to talk about…

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2. Interview with Nancy

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What was Iran like leading up to the Revolution?
Well for a few months before we left Iran, martial law was in effect. That meant that there was essentially a country-wide curfew after sunset. The lighting companies or electricity companies, I am not sure which, went on strike, so after sunset, all the lights in the city went out. They were truly showing unity in the protest movements. It wasn't just the fundamentalists, or the students... this was really a nationwide movement. People from all walks of life were participating. When the lights went out, people would gather onto their roofs and chant into the dark. You could hear people screaming from their roofs, "La Illahu Il Allah (There is no God but God)," "Death to the Shah," or "Long live Khomeini." I remember the first night we heard it, we were inside but a window was open. We thought there was a radio or TV on somewhere. We were living at a Sufi center which had a courtyard, so we went outside and we could tell that it was just the sound of the whole city. I'll never forget... we were living on the outskirts of the city, but when it was martial law with no lights in the whole city, sitting in the courtyard, the stars were just so clear.
What were you doing in Iran?
Well, Greg and I were both attending University in Shiraz. We were also teaching English as a second language at a school in Shiraz.
There was one interesting thing about that school—I think Gregory would have told you about this, too—the Iranian students were segregated by gender, and our English class was co-ed. So, the class was extremely popular; must have been the sexual tension or something. During the first class, I had trouble calming the students down and getting the class under control, but I learned to be a bit more strict and the class quieted down after that first few classes.
So, what was it like being an American in Iran?
Well, the first several years were fine. People would always say "Hello, Mister" to Gregory on the streets, and in general, no one had any problems with us. Americans were interesting, definitely not bad, by any means. But there were certainly certain problems that arose as an American woman that I never had to experience in the States. Due to American TV or whatever, Iranian men had this strange conception that American women were promiscuous. I remember when walking down the street, even at the beginning, I would have to navigate through crowds, always making sure to watch out for men who might touch me.

Did the men treat Iranian women that badly too?
Oh, they would in general treat the women there with more respect that they would to an American woman.
I’m not saying that everyone was like this; most people were reasonable, but there were enough men with strange expectations of me, so that I was careful of where I was walking. In the five years we were there, I had several really negative experiences, being grabbed or groped. Not a ton, but even once makes you feel pretty sick.

So how did the Iranians treat you after the revolution stuff started?
Gregory went to a school much closer to home than mine. He walked down the street to get to his classes. I, on the other hand, had to bus about 30 minutes to get to school. Once things started getting bad in Iran there were more incidents where things were odd feeling. I remember one day some SAVAK police came onto the bus on the way to class. It was a very awkward feeling as an American on the bus when that happened, since the SAVAK was both hated and associated with American influence.
Another incident was after students started going on strike. We were living with Iranians, and we trusted their opinion very much. They thought the situation would blow over and that I shouldn't miss school because of it, so she encouraged me and convinced me to go to school anyway. I then became the American woman breaking the strike. It probably was a bad decision socially and politically.
Things also changed a lot in people's general attitude as revolutionary fervor built. Instead of saying "hello Mr. , Mrs.” to Gregory and me, people would say, "Yankee go home." With their accent, it sounded like, "Yonkee go home." I could get by alright by wearing a Chador, which is a full cloth covering that women would pull around themselves. No one would know I was American, but if I walked with Greg, people would know. I always stood out a little, though, since I was generally significantly taller than most Iranian women. I couldn't find shoes that fit my feet, either, other than these horrible platform shoes, which made me even taller.
I understand you were pregnant when you were in Iran. What was that like?
Well, the most notable thing was that workers started going on strike and most hospitals shut down. I was able to get my first ultrasound, and after that, medical care became a lot less reliable. Beyond that, there was a palpable sense of danger for me because if something happened to me it could affect the baby. It was hard to get baby clothes and supplies because it was difficult to go out. What ended up happening is that Gregory would be the one who would go out, and our friends would keep me at home where I'd be safe. Instead of getting baby clothes, our friends were sewing us things for the baby.
I did keep working while I was pregnant. We were working, like I said, at an English school. I was about 6 months pregnant and Greg and I had gone to work. The institution we worked at had the word "American" in its name, so it was a pretty easy target. There was a huge mob gathered outside and people started throwing bricks in through the windows. Luckily a good friend of ours had heard about it and was there to pick us up and we didn't come to any harm.
Wow, that sounds terrifying. What was it like having the rest of the neighborhood hate you two so much?
Well, don't get me wrong. There were a lot of reasonable people. Of course the people of Iran were worked up, but there were still a lot of people helping us and concerned about us. I know that my students really loved me. I remember there was a bombing in a department store at one point. The students had heard about it on the news and apparently an American woman was killed. When they saw me, they started crying, because they had been so afraid that it was me; it turned out that the American woman’s name was Nancy, too.
So when did you decide to leave Iran?
We had been planning to stay until after Aaron, we decided the name afterwards, was born, so we weren't planning on leaving. Things were getting really tense and someone called the people we were staying with. They were claiming that we were CIA agents, and they started threatening our lives. Our friends decided it would be better if we stayed somewhere else for a while and talked to a friend of theirs. We ended up staying with a different friend who was the daughter of one of the local tribal "kings."
During this time, the hospitals were shut and I was thinking more and more about what I was going to do about having a baby. I was 8 months pregnant before we decided we needed to go. We hadn't been approaching the situation urgently because all of our friends insisted that this would pass and things would go back to normal. Protests and movements are not uncommon in Iran, so people didn't really see things getting as serious as they did. We finally decided to go so we had to get to the embassy, get our paperwork, find flights out of the country... and I was 8 months pregnant, so I was worried that they would not let me onto a plane. We had a friend who knew a doctor, he got the doctor to write us a letter saying I was alright to fly. But because everyone insisted things would blow over, we left most of our belongings in Iran.
When we were at the airport, it was interesting, because there were no x-ray machines or anything like that at the time. I wanted to try to hide the fact that I was so pregnant, so I put on this big jacket and held my bag in front of me, but of course, since they couldn't check me otherwise, and I was wearing a big coat, they had to pat me down. They asked me, "Are you pregnant?" I said, "Just a little!" And I guess that was good enough. They let me through.
Anything else I can add? I’m sorry if that wasn’t enough or anything.
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3. Interview with Aziz
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How old were you in 1979?
I actually left Iran when I was 18 years old in 1975. I was actually very lucky because I graduated from high school and was able to come to the United States. The Shah was in power then, so getting visas to come to the states was easy. I went to the embassy in Tehran, which of course was then held up after the Revolution. It's something I'm thankful for, that I left before the Embassy was shut down.
When I came to the States I had already taken an English test. They make you take a test before you left. They needed to verify that you had both language abilities and financial ability. Thankfully, my family was able to support me. I came straight to Seattle and went to language school. I was in classes for a month and a half and was able to go straight to college level work after that. I guess my English was pretty good.
Where did you live in Iran? What was it like there?
I grew up in Abadan, which is where the oil refineries were. The refinery there was, at the time, the sixth largest in the world. As a consequence there were a lot of people from other countries working there and ships were coming in and out of the ports all the time.
My family owned a general store there. When I say general store, I mean, they would find whatever they thought would sell, and sold it. They sold greeting cards, cameras, ice cream... anything. We even sold Rolex watches. So I was a high school student with a Rolex watch. Looking back, that was pretty silly. At the time I thought it was such a pain because it was the kind of watch that you had to wind.
Education was extremely important to my family, so I was enrolled in a private school in Iran. That probably had a lot to do with why my English was so good, and why I was able to come to school in the States.
What was it like, coming to the United States?
Well, they used to show a lot of American TV in Iran. They either showed television about crime and drugs, or soap opera style shows like Days of Our Lives. Because of that, I had a pretty distorted idea of what it would be like in the United States. I figured if I walked down the street, I would get mugged, based on what I'd seen. I actually have a funny story about that. When I came to the US, i came straight to Seattle, but I needed to switch planes and airports in New York. I got a taxi, and all I had were travelers checks. I gave the driver a travelers check for 10 dollars because that was the smallest I had, though the meter showed 4 dollars. He took the check and I freaked out thinking he was stealing from me. But when I got to Seattle a very nice man helped me with my bags and drove me to my dorms, even though he lived in Bellevue. I realized that people here aren't like they were on TV.
I also found the Highway systems here to be very impressive. I doubt you could imagine how much better they are than the highways in Iran. The driving there is unimaginable, and people don't really consider one-way streets as a barrier for going the other direction.
Did you ever go back to Iran?
I went back to Iran only once, in 1978. It was about 6 months before the revolution. I had to go to Tehran first because that is where my flight came in. There were big protests happening in Abadan at the time because someone had burned down a cinema while people were in it. Everyone was blaming their opposition for what happened. This spiraled into riots and protests and people were getting shot. My mother called me and told me I should wait for a week in Tehran for this all the blow over. The cinema had been across the street from my house. I stayed in Tehran for a week and then came to Abadan. My brother and I went out one night to the Bazaar and they declared Martial Law. There were army trucks with soldiers all over the streets.
In the summer it gets very hot there, maybe about 125 degrees and humid, so it's common for people to sleep outside on their roofs, since there was no air conditioning. But when you are on the roofs you could hear all the soldiers screaming at people out on the streets. It was a pretty scary time. I ended up there for 3 weeks, and I haven't gone back since.
I do have a friend who went back since then, in about 1994, and his story is pretty crazy. He went to school at the University of Washington. Before the revolution there were many political groups against the Shah. He would check out these groups at the UW. He got married, had kids, but father passed away in Iran. He went back with his wife and kids. He sent his family back but stayed an extra week in order to deal with family issues there. He had to go through several ministries to be able to leave Iran again. The last ministry was the security ministry. They told him he can’t leave because he went to these meeting at the UW. He said the meetings were against the shah just like them. They said "No it’s very bad." They pulled out a file on his father and about him. They want to know about other Iranians in the US and asked him to give them information on other Iranians he knew in exchange for them letting him out.
It's so sad because people really wanted the revolution for more freedom, and instead we got another dictatorship. They rule by intimidation and no one can say anything against he government. This new regime can manipulate the religious and uneducated to use violence against protesters. They follow anything the Mullahs say. At least with the shah, you had a lot of freedoms as long as you didn't criticize the government. This new regime, they took away the people's ability to speak out as well as their freedoms to dress or do what they wanted. In that way, I think the current protests in Iran are even worse than in 1979. The government is even more heavy handed.
At the time of the revolution, Khomeini was saying, "I just want to be a teacher." Declaring that he wanted no part in politics, which made him a safe figure for people to rally around as a symbol. No one thought he would take power, since he claimed to have no interest. People wanted a democracy, not what they got.
What is it like following Iranian politics from the United States?
Well, there's a lot of information you just don't get here in America. I remember one thing that stuck out to me when I was watching the protests on TV during the Revolution, was there were a lot of people and men wearing those religious head coverings. When I was there in 78, no one was wearing those. I thought, "I guess everyone picked up on that trend since I left."
There’s also things that people just don't hear about in general. For example, there are three accepted religions in Iran. Muslims, Jews, and Christians, are protected as they follow sanctioned religions. But other religions in the country were really badly persecuted after 1979. The B'hais in particular, were really run out of the country.
The mullahs there also really take advantage of people. They take people's land and say that it is for a "charitable organization." However, they benefited much more from the land than any of the people—like orphans, widows, the poor…-- that they were supposedly helping.
Speaking of using money dishonestly, Iran gets lots of money from oil, but the government spends it all on sending arms and money to Hezbollah and Hamas outside the border. They ignore the people in their own country, trying to exert their power abroad instead. Iranians and Arabs have a lot of tension; I think this is why Iran wants to exert political power in the region.
But Iranians are still a very unified people in a lot of ways. If you give us a common enemy, people can rally around that. In the Iran/Iraq war, for example, Saddam captured a port near Abadan. It was a huge miscalculation on his part, since it served to really unify the people in Iran against a common enemy at a time when there was a lot of political confusion and strife.
Uh, is there anything else?
Hold, on, …let me check these notecards… um, no.
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