It’s important to bear in mind that those pictures show well-off urban people, who were by no means the majority.
During the first half of the 20th Century, even up to the 70s maybe, there was a growing sentiment amongst well-educated people throughout the Islamic world that secular societies like those of Europe and the US would be the way forward for their own countries.
Egypt for instance made great progress towards a more modern society under President Nasser. Before the 2 world wars, Turkey famously had Ataturk. These leaders framed religion as a personal matter while positioning the secular state as the vehicle for modernization, anti-imperialism, and economic progress.
Things were not all sunshine and rainbows of course, and there was terrible inequality and governments tended to be authoritarian. Rather than working tirelessly to foster more fair and open societies, the US and European govts were quite happy to exploit the nascent regimes for economic gain (typically access to oil) and political advantage (over the USSR).
Shitty behavior by US and European govts went a long way to destroying any good reputation and moral standing they may have had in the Middle East. Examples include, but are not limited to, the CIA coup that installed the Shah in the 50s and the 1956 Suez Crisis, where Britain and France held secret meetings with Israel and devised a plot where Israel would attack Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula, giving Britain and France a pretext to intervene militarily as “neutral peacemakers” to secure the canal zone.
It’s so sad that people act like there’s two diametrically opposed options - an illegitimate CIA puppet government robbing the country blind, or Sharia law under muslim extremist rule - when in reality one gave rise to the other.
The Iranian people are free under neither, no matter how pretty the propaganda pictures are. We have to dare to imagine a world without autocrats.
It’s important to bear in mind that those pictures show well-off urban people, who were by no means the majority.
During the first half of the 20th Century, even up to the 70s maybe, there was a growing sentiment amongst well-educated people throughout the Islamic world that secular societies like those of Europe and the US would be the way forward for their own countries.
Egypt for instance made great progress towards a more modern society under President Nasser. Before the 2 world wars, Turkey famously had Ataturk. These leaders framed religion as a personal matter while positioning the secular state as the vehicle for modernization, anti-imperialism, and economic progress.
Things were not all sunshine and rainbows of course, and there was terrible inequality and governments tended to be authoritarian. Rather than working tirelessly to foster more fair and open societies, the US and European govts were quite happy to exploit the nascent regimes for economic gain (typically access to oil) and political advantage (over the USSR).
Shitty behavior by US and European govts went a long way to destroying any good reputation and moral standing they may have had in the Middle East. Examples include, but are not limited to, the CIA coup that installed the Shah in the 50s and the 1956 Suez Crisis, where Britain and France held secret meetings with Israel and devised a plot where Israel would attack Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula, giving Britain and France a pretext to intervene militarily as “neutral peacemakers” to secure the canal zone.
It’s so sad that people act like there’s two diametrically opposed options - an illegitimate CIA puppet government robbing the country blind, or Sharia law under muslim extremist rule - when in reality one gave rise to the other.
The Iranian people are free under neither, no matter how pretty the propaganda pictures are. We have to dare to imagine a world without autocrats.
So after islamic revolution iranians (especially women) lost nothing?