Ill with advancing cancer, the Shah
left Iran in 1979. Meanwhile, one of the
Shi’a clerics exiled to Paris, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeni, named a provisional government council in preparation for his own return to Iran. When
Khomeni’s supporters defeated the
Shah’s elite Imperial Guard, Iran’s government fell.
Neal G.
Iranian militants took over the U.S.
Lineback
Embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, taking 62
Americans hostage, and the Ayatollah
Khomeni came home to a boisterous
celebration. Revolts against ethnic minorities and power struggles among
the clerics led to a new constitution. It
vested virtually all government authorIran’s unelected fundamentalist
ity in a Supreme Leader, in this case, the
leaders appear to be in a crisis. The
Ayatollah Khomeni. This established
country is chaffing under the conservaIran’s Islamic government, whereby the
tive doctrine of the Guardian Council,
Supreme Leader had ultimate authorwhich is an all-powerful appointed
ity even over elected officials.
committee led by the Muslim cleric
A year later, neighboring Iraq atAyatollah Ali Khamenei.
tacked Iran, a war that lasted from 1980
Liberal reformists are struggling to
until 1988. Meanwhile, the embassy hosfree Iran from the oppressive control of
tages were released in 1981 in exchange
these conservative Islamists through
for the United States’ release of Iran’s
open elections. But the unelected
frozen assets.
Guardian Council has vetoed large
Mohammad Khatami, a moderate
numbers of potential candidates, rulMuslim cleric, was elected president in
ing that they were not strong enough in
1997, winning 70 percent of the ballots.
their Muslim faith. (Translated, this
In 2000, moderates won the majority of
means that they are not as conservative
seats in parliament, leading to the curas the fundamentalist Muslim leaderrent showdown with the Supreme
ship would like.)
Leader and his Guardian Council.
The Guardian Council recently
The only way the unelected Guardruled that 3,000 reform canian Council could maintain
Unstable Theocracy in an Unstable Region
didates, including 80 sitting
control over the elected govmembers of the 290-memernment was to declare the
ber parliament, were ineliT U R K M E N I S TA N
ineligibility of moderates
C
a
s
p
i
a
n
gible to run for office. Derunning for office. It was a
S
e
a
lb
spite efforts by elected Presibold move, but one that diur
dent Mohammed Khatami
z
Mashhad
rectly pitted the majority
Mt
ns.
and his reformists to negotimoderates and reformists
ate a settlement, the GuardTehran
against the hardline MusSalt Deserts
ian Council seems unwilllim clerics.
Z
a
ing to budge.
So the battle is enjoined.
g
Columnist Gwynne Baghdad
Esfahan
Until now, the battle has
Dyer recently predicted that
mainly been political, but it
Iran’s struggle is likely to
IRAQ
indeed now may move to
IRAN
soon move to the streets
the streets.
(Winston-Salem Journal,
And that is Geography
Feb. 11, 2004). Frustration is
in the News. March 5, 2004.
growing,
particularly
s
#718.
among younger generation
n
S
A
U
D
I
A
G
(The author is a GeograIranian adults. They do not
ul
ARABIA
f
phy Professor at Appalachian
remember the fall of the U.S.State University, Boone, NC.)
supported government of
0
300 mi
the Shah, the Ayatollah Geography in the News 0
©2004
300 km
s
GH
ro
ANI
S TA N
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M
ou
AF
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rs
ia
KIS
IRAN IN A
POLITICAL
CROSSFIRE
Khomeni’s rapid rise to power or the
capture of the U.S. Embassy and its
personnel by radical Islamic students.
Dyer quotes one of Iran’s most
prominent and fanatical clerics as vowing to preserve the Islamic republic of
Iran “even at the price of a million martyrs.” Such overstatements are often the
gasps of a dying ideologue-in this case,
a theocratic system that appears to be
rotting from the inside out.
Iran is one of the Middle East’s most
important and historically influential
countries. With a population of nearly
70 million, Iran rivals Egypt and Turkey
as the region’s most populous country.
Eighty-nine percent of the Iranians are
Shi’a (Shiite) Muslim, making it the largest Shi’a country in the world. In general, the Shi’a denomination of Islam
tends to be more fundamentalist and its
followers more ecstatic (emotional) in
their religious practices than followers
of the Sunni Muslim denomination.
In 1941, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
became the Shah (or sovereign leader)
of Iran, when his father abdicated the
throne. His government was strongly
supported by the United States. Although he brought broad economic and
Western-style social change to Iran, he
allowed no political opposition, despite
conservative protests led by Shi’a clerics. He even exiled some radical Shi’a
leaders and declared martial law in 1978
to quell a strike by oil workers.
PA
Geography
in the
News™
3/5/04 -- P. Larkins
© 2004 maps.com