What life was like in Iran before the 1979 Islamic revolution

Having often been “dismissed as politically irrelevant”, Pahlavi has “gained new prominence in recent weeks as Iranian protesters chanted his name and reposted his social media appeals”, said NBC News. Some were seen flying the pre-revolutionary “Lion and Sun” imperial flag.

But it “remains unclear” if the 65-year-old, who fled Iran with his parents when they were overthrown in 1979, has the “political organising skills and enough support inside Iran – or in the White House” – to bring about a return to monarchy.

What was life like before the revolution?

The Iranian revolution is regarded as one of the most important geopolitical events of the 20th century. It set the template for a new form of political Islam and ushered in a deeply conservative theocratic state that exists to this day.

But before Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution “transformed every aspect of Iranian society”, Iran was “a very different world”, said International Policy Digest (IPD).

For nearly 40 years up until 1979, the country had been ruled by the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. During his autocratic reign, “Iran’s economy and educational opportunities expanded” as he “pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernisation, allowing some degree of cultural freedom”, said Business Insider.

During this time, women’s rights were also greatly expanded. Women were “encouraged to get an education” and were allowed to mix freely with men, said IPD. They gained the right to vote in the mid-1960s and the first female representatives were elected to parliament. The hijab was also outlawed, and women were encouraged to dress in modern Western-style clothing, said the BBC.

However, the Shah’s pro-Western liberalising agenda did not extend to the terms of his own rule. He did not allow dissent of any kind in his regime and “his increasingly authoritarian measures and his eventual dismissal of multiparty rule set the stage for the infamous revolution”, said Business Insider.

What led to the revolution?

While the Shah’s reforms were welcomed by some sections of society, for many it was too much too fast.

“In his efforts to modernise, the Shah overreached,” said International Policy Digest “Younger Iranians didn’t mind the hijab ban; older members of society had a much more difficult time assimilating. The oppression people felt led to the emergence of leaders who called for a return to traditional values and eventually led to the Revolution of 1979.”

Ayatollah Khomeini, who had been living in exile since the early 1960s, became the personification of a growing wave of opposition to the Shah’s brutal rule and lavish lifestyle. While discontent had been brewing for years, many date the beginning of the 1979 revolution to the January 1978 student protests in defence of Khomeini, after the government newspaper Ettela’at labelled him a “British agent” in an article entitled ”Iran and Red and Black Colonisation”.

Despite his later reactionary turn, he was able to mobilise support from a broad coalition of different sections in Iranian society – from religious conservatives in the countryside to left-wing young radicals in the cities – and perhaps most surprising, given what was to come, also a large proportion of women.

Are there parallels between 1979 and today?

Since the 1979 revolution swept away the Shah and ushered in an era of strict Islamic rule, “Iran has been no stranger to protests – or to their violent suppression”, said The Christian Science Monitor.

Thousands took to the streets in 2022, outraged at the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who died in custody after being detained by Tehran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.

The wave of protests that started in late December 2025 – initially driven by anger at the cost of living and tanking Iranian economy and currency – were even more widespread. But, having been caught off guard at first, the regime was quick to brutally crack down on the protesters and reassert its control.

This is perhaps the biggest difference between 1979 and today. While the Shah was reluctant to use the army and security apparatus to quell dissent, the current regime has no such compunction and appears willing to fight to the end.

“What the Iranian revolutionaries need now more than anything else is a Khomeini,” said David Patrikarakos on UnHerd, writing in 2022, in the wake of the Amini protests. “They know they want the regime gone but they have no one to hold up in its place. For a revolution to succeed, it’s not enough to be against someone; you have to be for someone else. It’s not enough that Khamenei loses. Someone else must win.”

In light of the most recent wave of unrest, the crown prince in-waiting Pahlavi will be hoping that someone is him. Many inside and outside Iran are not so sure.