Iran Before 1979: The Path Not Taken
There’s a strange modern habit of pretending that history only began once the people we currently dislike came to power.
Iran did not begin in 1979.
Before the Islamic Revolution, Iran under the Pahlavi dynasty, particularly under Mohammad Reza Shah, was in the middle of what can only be described as an aggressive national modernisation project. The country experienced rapid industrialisation, infrastructure expansion, economic growth, and rising literacy rates driven by oil revenues and state-led reform. (Wilson Center)
Tehran in the 1960s and 70s was not Kabul under the Taliban. It was closer in atmosphere to southern Europe. Universities were expanding. Women were entering professional fields. Western-style legal reforms had begun replacing clerical courts. A national push toward science and technological development was already underway. In fact, by the late 1970s, Iran’s scientific output was surpassing that of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. (arXiv)
Let that sink in for a moment.
South Korea today builds spacecraft and microchips. Iran builds morality patrol vans.
That fork in the road was 1979.
The Revolution That Promised Everything
The Islamic Revolution promised three things in particular. Social justice. Freedom. Independence from foreign influence. (Brookings)
What it delivered instead was a theocratic system that replaced one form of authoritarianism with another. The 1979 uprising overthrew the monarchy and established an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, fundamentally reshaping Iran’s political and cultural life. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
Trade unions were dismantled. Political pluralism disappeared. Secular and leftist groups who had also opposed the Shah were eventually purged by the very revolutionary government they helped bring into existence. (Red Flag)
Women who once walked freely into universities and workplaces found themselves subject to new legal restrictions over dress, movement, and employment.
Human rights organisations and even the United Nations have repeatedly criticised the Islamic Republic for systemic abuses and political repression that have persisted for decades. (Wikipedia)
Revolutions love slogans. Economies prefer stability.
Iran’s economy took an immediate hit after the fall of the Shah, followed by stagnation through the 1980s due to war and structural upheaval. (Wilson Center)
Real national income per person actually fell dramatically after the revolution and, decades later, still had not returned to its 1979 level by 2016 in constant international dollars. (Wikipedia)
The national currency, once trading at roughly 70 rials to the dollar in the late 1970s, collapsed over time to tens of thousands per dollar. (Wikipedia)
Modern Iran now operates under a vast state-linked economic system involving military-controlled foundations and networks that dominate entire sectors of industry.
Not exactly the decentralised people’s economy the revolutionaries were chanting about in the streets.
One of the more tragic ironies is that the revolution occurred precisely when Iran was on the cusp of a technological and institutional ascent similar to the East Asian development model.
Counterfactual economic studies now suggest that the 1979 Revolution created a lasting divergence in GDP growth and institutional development when compared to a theoretical non-revolutionary trajectory.
In plain English, Iran may have spent the last forty-five years becoming South Korea.
Instead, it spent them becoming sanctioned.
The Conclusion Nobody Likes
Was the Pahlavi system perfect? No. It was authoritarian, Western-aligned, and deeply flawed in its own ways.
But revolutions do not always replace bad with good.
Sometimes they replace imperfect modernisation with permanent ideological rigidity.
1979 was not just a regime change. It was a civilisational pivot. A decision to abandon a secular national future in favour of a religious-political experiment that continues to define Iran’s internal struggles and international isolation to this day.
History is full of turning points.
This one still hasn’t stopped echoing.