IRAN:


(IN NIZ BOGZARAD) “THIS TOO SHALL PASS”


I moved with my parents to Teheran in 1971, and having spent 7 years there, I have a great affection for Iran (the Farsi name for Persia), and its wonderful people, and its rich and epic history. Even if the history of Iran since its name change in 1935 has not been a happy one.


I have often thought about writing an article about Iran on many an occasion over the past 10 years, but recent events make it particularly topical. The title refers to an Iranian proverb, which is in many ways a metaphor for Iran’s long history, which has seen the country invaded, destroyed, transformed and new empires emerge on many an occasion over the past 3,500 years. The saying thus reflects the knowledge that time is a great healer, and that even when their situation appears helpless and desperate, “this too shall pass” (enshallah!). This article is more a collection of observations which, for those that are less familiar with Iran, will hopefully offer some insights into how modern Iran evolved and, what in the longer run may bring about change in Iran, while hopefully dispelling some misconceptions.


As with my previous article on Russia, it is worth recalling some of the key events during the past 100 plus years in Iran, especially the extent to which other countries have intervened in Iran, and how that experience has shaped the country, and the reaction function of both its leaders and the broader populace. But one point to observe in passing, which may come as a surprise to many, is that due to its long history of conflict with all of its neighbours over the country’s long history, Iran has rather less in common with most of them in cultural terms, but does in fact have much in common with India.


Be that as it may, the history of modern Iran can probably be traced back to the Great Persian Famine of 1870–1872, in which up to two million are estimated to have died, and which followed numerous wars with Russia, and resulted in the Persian Constitutional Revolution that eventually unseated the Shahs of the Qajar Dynasty. It also took place during the era of The Great Game in which Russia and Britain contended for influence over Iran, above all for control over energy and other resources in the region (which indeed spawned the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which we know now as BP).


During World War I Persia was formally neutral, but was in fact occupied by, or rather fought over by Britain and Russia on one side and Ottoman forces on the other, which only served to fracture the country even more. Ultimately post World War I, this led to a very short-lived attempt to establish a British protectorate, and the military coup that brought Reza Kkan and the Pahlavi family into power as PM in 1921, and then as Shah in 1925. Even in that brief period before the Pahlavis, the persistent interventions by foreign powers are very clearly evident, and what followed was to be no better. Reza Khan was an officer in the Persian Cossack Brigade (sic) prior to military coup, which overthrew the Qajars, though the coup was in fact aimed at unseating the corrupt and incompetent officials running the country, which has been a meme that is sadly typical of Iranian governments for a protracted period.


Reza Shah certainly helped to modernize Iran, with radical reforms which reorganized the military, civil service and government finances, and saw the introduction of schools, a rail network, buses and the telephone. However his was a secular, but very authoritarian regime, and much of the legislation that was introduced, for example encouraging men to wear western clothing and women to discard the hijab, created very deep seated resentment among the more deeply religious. Protests against the legislative reforms (which amongst other things were seen as violating Islamic rules on gender segregation) were met with brutal force and repression.


6 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | May/June 2018


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