Showing posts with label Iranian Revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iranian Revolution. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Crown Prince of Iran Opens Up on the Revolution & Mistakes Made by Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Nov 18, 2023 | Patrick Bet-David interviews Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince of Iran. They discuss the seismic events of the Iranian Revolution and how it shaped Iran and the entire Middle Eastern region. Reza Pahlavi offers his unique perspective, reflecting on his family's legacy and the tumultuous events that have marked Iran's recent history. The conversation shifts to the current situation in Iran, where Patrick and the Crown Prince discuss the ongoing challenges faced by the Iranian people, the state of governance, and the international community's role in the region. They delve into what life is like in Iran today and what hope lies ahead for its citizens.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Monday, February 11, 2019
The Iran Revolution at 40: From Theocracy to ‘Normality’
Ecstatic Iranians danced in the streets, playing cat and mouse with soldiers as lingering pro-government sharpshooters fired from the rooftops. Families joined in mass protests, as vigilantes ransacked liquor stores and people kissed the foreheads of turbaned clerics leading the revolution. » | Thomas Erdbrink | Sunday, February 10, 2019
Reporting from Iran's 40th Revolution Anniversary Celebrations l Al Jazeera English
Iran organises the nationwide rally every February 11 to highlight the size of grassroots support for the revolution, which replaced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's government with an Islamic Republic under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Thousands of others also gathered in other cities, including the holy city of Mashhad. Al Jazeera's Zein Basravi reports from Mashhad, where he provides a first-hand experience of celebrations.
Additionally, Foad Izadi, professor of international relations at Tehran University, tells Al Jazeera how Iran has taken a more militaristic approach to diplomacy as a result of US President Donald Trump's decision to break the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Iran 1979: Legacy of a Revolution - Featured Documentary
So how has the revolution managed to sustain itself through war, international isolation, economic sanctions, and regional turbulence? And how has Iranian society changed since the seismic upheaval of 1979?
Rageh Omaar went to Iran to find out. This film was first broadcast in August 2009.
Friday, February 10, 2017
1000s Rally in Iran Celebrating Islamic Revolution
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Inside Story: The Islamic Revolution Turns 35
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Militant Islam enjoyed its first modern triumph with the arrival in power of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in 1979. In this series of three programmes, key figures tell the inside story.
Former US president Jimmy Carter talks on television for the first time about the episode that, more than any other, led American voters to eject him from the presidency. Iran's seizure of the US embassy in Tehran and the holding of its staff for 444 days took more and more of Carter's time and energy. His final days in office were dominated by desperate attempts to secure the release of the embassy hostages. Those who sat in the White House with him, planning how to rescue the hostages, how to negotiate their release and, finally, wondering whether anything could be rescued from the disaster, all tell their part in the story.
Other contributors include former vice president Walter Mondale, ex-deputy secretary of state Warren Christopher and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. The other side of the story is told by top Iranians: Ayatollah Khomeini's close adviser, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri; his first foreign minister, Ebrahim Yazdi; his negotiator with the US, Sadeq Tabatabai; and the founder of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rafiqdoust.
Friday, February 11, 2011
DIE PRESSE: Der Iran feiert am Freitag den 32. Jahrestag der Revolution. Präsident Ahmadinejad nennt die islamische Bewegung die einzig überlebensfähige Ideologie.Hunderttausende Menschen haben sich am Freitag im Zentrum der iranischen Hauptstadt Teheran zu der Feier des 32. Jahrestages der Iranischen Revolution versammelt. Präsident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rief in einer Ansprache auf dem Asadi-Platz den Westen auf, sich nicht in die Geschicke Ägyptens und Tunesiens einzumischen. Zugleich äußerte er seine Unterstützung für die Proteste in Kairo.
"Ich sage den Völkern und der Jugend der islamischen und arabischen Länder, insbesondere den Ägyptern: Seid wachsam. Es ist euer Recht frei zu sein, eure Regierung und eure Führung zu wählen", sagte der Präsident. "Die Islamische Revolution war ein Anfang mit einem offenen Ende und sollte nicht mehr als nationale, sondern vielmehr als globale Bewegung betrachtet werden." "Kapitalismus wird zusammenbrechen" >>> Ag. | Freitag, 11. Februar 2011
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The Iranian Revolution of thirty years ago is now grinding to a halt. Islam has proven to be a brutal force to reckon with; yet the people will tolerate it no longer. Its time is up. The régime is coming to the end of its lifetime. It's drawing its last breath.
The mullahs and Basij (بسيج) can extend the life of the régime a little longer by the use of brute force; but in reality, they have come to the end of the life of the régime. The people can tolerate such brutality no longer. Common sense must prevail.
When the religio-political system falls, as it surely must, then the good people of Iran, the people who have culture and history, will be able to resume a more normal life – a life free of Islamic restrictions. The sooner this happens, the better. We can only look forward to that inevitable day. – © Mark
Sunday, December 13, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: EVERY evening before dinner, Mohsen Sazegara disappears into the basement of his cosy suburban house in Virginia and makes a 10-minute home movie to post on YouTube.
Far from showcasing the talents of his sons or pets, Sazegara’s videos are of protest tactics aimed at bringing down a regime. His house is the epicentre of what he hopes will be the world’s first technological revolution and his videos are watched more than 6,000 miles away in Iran.
Six months after the disputed presidential election in Iran, the opposition has refused to give up despite a crackdown that has seen arrests, beatings, torture and show trials. Co-ordination of the so-called green revolution has increasingly moved overseas, where exiles are using the new media to spread the message.
Last week, when tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Iran in some of the biggest demonstrations since the elections, Sazegara had been sending instructions via Facebook, YouTube and email.
He stands in front of a green baize screen decorated with a V for victory and the movement’s slogan, “Green means resistance until spring comes”. After a brief assessment of the day’s events, he offers Iranians new ideas for fighting the regime.
They have good reason to listen. Thirty years ago, as a young revolutionary, he helped to topple the Shah, putting today’s Islamic regime in power and working as a speechwriter for its founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Sazegara was one of the founders of the Revolutionary Guard. Now he is teaching protesters how to tackle the force.
“In one part of my life I was involved in creating something; now, after 30 years, I’m trying to destroy it,” he said. >>> Christina Lamb in Virginia | Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Women were active in the events surrounding the Islamic revolution in Iran 30 years ago, but the Islamic Republic has been criticised for reversing many of the rights women won under the Shah's regime that was overthrown by the revolution.
Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003 for her work on human rights in Iran.
She tells the BBC World Service how women have responded to changes in their legal status over the past 30 years and how her hopes for Iran's future lie with women and the young.
The slogan of the revolution was 'Independence and Freedom' and they said that the Islamic Revolution would bring this.
Back then people were really hopeful because they really wanted independence and freedom.
Unfortunately after the revolution, while the country was more independent than before, the freedom that people were expecting did not come about.
Only five months had passed since the revolution when the Revolutionary Council took away all the rights that women had won over the previous years even though the new constitution had yet to be passed and the new president had not been elected.
It was in 1979 that a law was passed allowing men to take up to four wives, another law was passed stating that after a divorce the father would have custody of the children and women lost the rights they had gained. >>> | Thursday, February 12, 2009
Listen to BBC audio: Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi discusses the impact of the Iranian Revolution on the country’s women >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Monday, February 09, 2009
Three decades after Iran's Islamic Revolution, activists who took part in the events that saw the Shah toppled – and which ushered in an era of unrelenting hostility to the West – despair at how their dreams have been so little realised
When Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Tehran, Hamid Reza Jalaiepour knew exactly what to do. A student activist, he had spent spells in the Shah's prisons for handing out revolutionary pamphlets and organising his classmates to protest against the authorities. Alongside 1,500 comrades, he now headed to the airport determined to join a guard of honour to protect the returning cleric from counter-revolutionaries.
"It was so exciting," he remembers. "So many people came to the airport that we lost each other in the crowd. It was like a sea of people, and I was only able to glimpse the Imam through a car window."
Close to three million people were believed to have thronged the streets on that winter day, bringing to an end the rule of Mohammed Reza Shah, who had ignominiously fled a fortnight earlier.
Now, as Iran prepares to celebrate the 30th anniversary of its revolution on Tuesday [already celebrated], many of those who ran through the streets of Tehran in 1979 are disappointed with the results.
As students, their behaviour shook the world, bringing down the American president, Jimmy Carter, and unleashing a wave of revolutionary fervour that utterly changed the Middle East – inspiring militants in Lebanon, the Occupied Territories and Iraq.
Almost overnight, the West's most steadfast ally in the Muslim world had become a violent and volatile enemy, where mass crowds raised their fists to chant "death to America". The students, mullahs and intellectuals who packed the streets were convinced that they had struck a blow for freedom against the imperialist might of the world's strongest powers.
"The revolution was very genuine and popular," believes Ebrahim Yazdi, who served the revolutionary state as foreign minister and deputy prime minister before falling out of favour. "It was unavoidable because of the policies of the Shah and the foreign countries who supported him."
Yet the Islamic Republic created by Mr Yazdi and his comrades failed to live up to the dreams of a Muslim democracy, in which sagacious ayatollahs would stand as guardians of the democratic wishes of the people.
"What is happening now is a disaster," says Mahmood Delkhasteh, one of the first young soldiers to heed Khomeini's call to desert the Shah's army and join the revolution. "Many people regret participating."
Within months of the revolution, the euphoria had evaporated as the rival factions began a brutal battle for control of the country, which ended with a repressive state that imprisoned and executed thousands of political prisoners – including many of the revolutionaries themselves. >>> By Angus McDowall, former Tehran correspondent | Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
Monday, February 02, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Iran yesterday rejected the idea of improved relations with the US unless there is a sharp change of policy from President Barack Obama, as the country began celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
The intelligence minister, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie, denied a report that there had been secret contacts between Tehran and Washington about the contentious nuclear issue. "There have been no official negotiations with the Americans," he said, referring to a report from the US Pugwash Conferences, a non-governmental organisation, claiming that Obama advisers and Iranian officials had met in Europe several times.
Iran also denied that its foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, would meet US officials at a conference in Munich which the US vice-president, Joe Biden, will be attending. Expectations are mounting for a positive response from Tehran to Obama's dramatic call for Iran to "unclench" its fist, amid reports that the new administration is considering further gestures.
But the 1979 anniversary celebrations are striking an inevitably militant tone, which makes it hard to sound "soft" on the traditional enemy of the revolution.
On Saturday morning bells and sirens marked the moment on 1 February 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini landed back in Tehran after 14 years in exile. Ten days later, the shah's rule effectively collapsed. The anniversary was early because this is a leap year in the Iranian calendar. >>> Ian Black in Tehran | Monday, February 2, 2009
Listen to Guardian audio: Iranian Revolution: 'Posters, Bunting and Fairy Lights on Government Buildings': [Guardian] Middle East editor Ian Black reports from Tehran as celebrations mark the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution >>> | Monday, February 2, 2009
THE SPECTATOR: The Iranians Look Very Frightened
As was entirely predictable, the Iranian government has reacted with utter contempt to the exciting new approach of US President Obama towards resolving the crisis over Iran’s nuclear weapons programme:
US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of ‘domination’ has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. ‘This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,’ Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. ‘Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,’ he added.>>> Melanie Phillips | Saturday, January 31, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
Sunday, February 01, 2009
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>
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