Photos show what Iran looked like before the 1979 revolution turned the nation into an Islamic republic

For almost 40 years, Iran was ruled by the Shah, who led the country through a series of sweeping changes.

The Shah pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernization in the decades before the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Under the Shah’s rule, Iran’s economy and educational opportunities expanded. Britain and the US counted Iran as their major ally in the Middle East, and the Shah forcefully industrialized large segments of the country.

But the Shah’s increasingly authoritarian measures and his eventual dismissal of multiparty rule set the stage for the infamous revolution, which resulted in the Islamic republic that remains in Iran to this day.

Photos show what life was like in Iran before the Islamic revolution changed everything.

From 1941 to 1979, Iran was ruled by King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah.

Due to Iran’s large supply of oil, proximity to India, and shared border with the Soviet Union, Britain and the US fully backed the Iranian government.

However, even before the Islamic Revolution, the Shah’s grip on power was unsteady.

Communists and religious members of society disliked the Shah and his pro-Western government.

In 1953, the Shah had to flee Iran after a Western-backed coup to overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh failed.

A second coup succeeded in overthrowing Mosaddegh, who wanted to nationalize the Iranian oil industry to Britain’s chagrin, and the Shah returned to the country.

Reza Shah undertook a series of reforms aimed at turning Iran into a modern westernized nation.

These reforms included the structuring of Iran around a central Iranian identity, the often brutal suppression of tribes and their laws in exchange for a central government, and the expansion of women’s rights.

Reza Shah attempted to make religious observance subservient to the state.

Part of Iran’s method of achieving this was through the banning of veils in public.

Women were also encouraged to attend school and receive an education.

Although Reza Shah’s intentions were to turn Iran into a modern westernized state, his bans on religious garments alienated and frustrated religious conservatives and traditionalists.

Despite the backlash from religiously observant members of society, the Shah managed to create a seemingly cosmopolitan city life.

Women and men mixed freely, and educational opportunities were extended. Western clothing and norms also became ingrained into large segments of the Iranian population.

Leading the charge for westernization was the Iranian royal family. Pictured below is Empress Soraya.

The Shah and Soraya were married on February 12, 1951. Soraya wore a Christian Dior gown embroidered with 6,000 diamond pieces and 20,000 marabou feathers.

Soraya and the Shah divorced in 1958 after failing to produce an heir. Soraya’s departure from the royal family was welcomed by some, who thought her German and Catholic background made her untrustworthy.

Under the royal family’s invitations, Iran became a popular destination for celebrities and heads of state. Here, an Italian actor and her husband visit a sports competition as guests of Iranian Princess Ashraf.

The Iranian royal family reciprocated and widely toured the world’s capitals. Here, the Shah and Soraya met with Winston Churchill in London.

In 1959, the Shah married Farah Diba. They welcomed four children, though none would get the opportunity to become an heir because of the revolution.

Toward the end of the Shah’s reign, the royal family attempted to rally the country around an increasingly historic nationalism based on the preceding Persian empires.

In 1967, the Shah took the old Persian title “Shahanshah,” or King of Kings, at a coronation ceremony in Tehran.

Celebrations funded by the government were also launched throughout the country to honor the Persian roots of Iran, such as a gymnastics display in 1975 honoring the founding of the Persian Empire.

Despite Iran’s views of the past, the government continued to value education and child development.

Tehran funded study abroad in Europe for Iranians, and schools and clinics were built throughout the Iranian countryside to care for poorer children as part of the Shah’s “White Revolution.”

High oil prices and relative stability in the Middle East contributed to a growing business class in major Iranian cities.

Iranians swam in an octagonal swimming pool at the guesthouse of the Iranian National Oil Company.

By 1975, Reza Shah abolished Iran’s multiparty system and concentrated ever-greater amounts of power in his own hands under the government-permitted Rastakhiz (Resurrection) party.

By January 16, 1979, Reza Shah fled Iran during the Iranian Revolution.

The revolution started off as a popular movement fueled by outrage against government extravagance, corruption, brutality, and the suppression of individual rights before being taken over by Ayatollah Khomeini.

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