Notes 3/27

What better way to spend my Friday night than to update the blog...enjoy

Following 1906 Constitution we run into WWI and after WWI Iran is in complete disarray. Internal arguments were made that divided the Majlas into conservative and liberal groups
liberal- in favor of social reforms, wanted to replace islamic courts with more modern civil law and courts
conservatives- opposed all reforms pertaining to women's rights, islamic courts, land laws, religious minority rights, etc

At the same time the central government is very weak. The beauro was horrible, no army to speak of, the government was unable to collect taxes, and there was no way for the government to reach the country side.

By 1921 Iran is a mess. A conol Raza Khan carried out a couee. He steps in and replaces the cabinet and consolidates the government. He is commander in chief.

By 1925 Raza had disposed of the Qujars and crowned himself with the title "Shah in Shah" (means monarch). The Pahlavi dynasty is established.

Raza rules with an iron fist until 1941 when Russia and Britain invade Iran in an attempt to save them from Nazi Germany. With the Soviets and Brits in Iran, Raza resigns fleeing the country and giving up the throne to his 22 year old son Muhammad Raza Shah. The new Shah hold onto armed forces control but because of Constitution he must deal with free press, independent judiciary, competitive elections, assertive ministers, and parliament. He also finds himself facing two strong poltical movements:

Tudah Party- draws support from working class trade unions

National Front- draws support from middle class and is lead by Muhammad Mosaddeq. This movement lands a public campaign for the government to nationalize the UK owned oil company. Mosaddeq also argued that the armed forces should supervise the cabinet ministers.

It's 1951 and Mosaddeq is elected prime minister. He promptly nationalizes the oil industry. British and US are not too happy about this. In 1953 the US sends the CIA to bring down the Iran government. Mosaddeq is overthrown. But this still leaves the Shah who builds a highly centralized state based on 3 pillars:
1.Armed forces
2.Buero
3.Shah patronage system
In 1950s Shah enlarges military from less than 40,000 to more than 400,000 by 1979.

The beuro expands from a collection of scribes to 21 executive branch ministries employing over 3000 civil servants by 1979. One ministry that was strong was the interior ministry which had the authority to appoint providential governors,town mayors, district superintendents, and village headman. Also appointed electoral supervisors which supervised elections. Because of this the interior could now rig elections creating a rubber stamp legislature for the Shah. By this point the 1906 election is no longer affective.

The Shah runs with this. The education ministry grows "20 fold". The justice ministry replaces islamic law courts with a euro style civil code. Church courts are replaced with a modern judicial court system.

But on the flip side the Shah is doing "lots of bad". In the 1960s he does another move to seculize judical system by decreeing a contoverstal "family protection law". This law contradicted the traditional system of the Sharia it:

1. raised the marraige age
2.allowed women to override spousal objections and work outside the home with permission from the court
3.allowed men to have multiple wives with permission from his previous wives and the court

The Palavi state further bolstered by court patronage. It does this by Shah auguring huge land holds, buying out casinos, beach resorts, hotel, etc. He also gave 207 large companies tax exemption under the tax exempt palvi foundation.

In 1975 the Shah announces formation of the resurgent party and declared Iran to be a one party system, threatening to execute or exile all people refusing to join the party. This was designed to dig a heavy hand into the Bazzars. The pa try established its own Bazzar guilds, newspapers, womens org, professional org, and labor unions.

On eve of 1979 revolution and exiled iranian newspaper verbally dis troys Palavis and charges the Shah family with many things such as widening the gap between rich and poor, wasting resources on a giant military, becoming a military dictatorship,etc. A inner iran man Ayatolah Khomeini anti slaw who dystorys thee palavis siding with the under class. He begins to formulate new form of Shi when he calls for overthrow of Shah and gives new meaning to "Jurist's Guardinship"