Further reading: Richard King, Orientalism and Religion
(New York: Routledge, 1999); Edward Said, Orientalism
(New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980)
the second and last shah of the Iranian Pahlavi
dynasty
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi succeeded his father
Reza Khan in 1941 and reigned until 1979,
when he was overthrown in the popular revolu-
tion that ultimately led to the creation of the
Islamic Republic of iran. As crown prince of
Iran, Mohammad Reza lived a life of luxury that
was very dissimilar to the ascetic habits of his
father, reza shah pahlavi (1878–1944). Though
forced through military school in Iran and given
a university edUcation in Switzerland, the young
prince failed to display any leadership qualities
and, as a result, was routinely reproached by
his intimidating father as cowardly and weak.
Nevertheless, after Reza Shah was compelled by
the Allied forces to abdicate his throne in 1941,
Mohammad Reza became the second shah of the
Pahlavi dynasty.
Obliged to rely on the support of the United
States and Britain to secure his aUthority,
Mohammad Reza continued the Western-inspired
socioeconomic reforms of his father. At the same
time, he retracted many of the religious restric-
tions—such as the outlawing of the veil—that
had been imposed on Iran, and allowed the Ulama
greater religious freedom. Building on the massive
accumulation of wealth that resulted from Iran’s
sale of oil and natural gas, the new shah instituted
a development and land distribution program he
called the White Revolution in the 1960s, which
not only privatized businesses and nationalized
forests, but also for the first time gave Women the
right to vote.
Yet, because of his reliance on Western powers,
Iran was increasingly required to comply with the
political, strategic, and economic demands of its
British and U.S. allies. When the shah unilaterally
sold the rights to a quarter of the world’s proven
oil supply to the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Com-
pany, he unwittingly unleashed a resurgence of
nationalist sentiment led by Iran’s prime minister
Muhammad Musaddiq (also spelled Mosaddeq, d.
1967) and his National Front Party. In 1953, rid-
ing a wave of anti-imperialist sentiment, Musad-
diq’s party forced Muhammad Reza Shah into exile
and assumed control over the state. However,
when Musaddiq moved ahead with his plans to
nationalize Iran’s oil, he was forcefully removed
from power under a secret CIA (U.S./Central
Intelligence Agency) operation codenamed AJAX,
which reinstated Muhammad Reza as shah.
By the 1970s Mohammad Reza Shah, now
propped up on the throne by the United States,
had abolished the country’s party system and
effectively annulled its constitUtion. The lack of
political participation in the state, as well as the
loss of national and religious identity in the face of
Western cultural hegemony, led to waves of pro-
tests throughout the country, to which the shah
responded ruthlessly through his dreaded secret
police force, SAVAK (Organization for Intelligence
and National Security). These repressive policies
ultimately led to an alliance between Iran’s clergy,
its intellectuals, and its merchant class, headed
by the shah’s most vociferous critic, the Ayatollah
rUhollah khomeini (d. 1989).
Although sent into exile in 1964, Khomeini
continued promoting anti-imperialist activities
against the monarchy until January 1979, when
the shah was once again ousted from power. The
political vacuum left behind by his departure was
filled by Khomeini (r. 1979–89), who employed
the language and symbolism of Iran’s state reli-
gion, shiism, to implement his ideology of the
wilayat-i faqih (the guardianship of the jurist),
and inaugurate the Islamic Republic of Iran. One
year later, in 1980, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died
in exile in Egypt.
See also colonialism; iranian revolUtion oF
1978–1979; politics and islam; secUlarism.
Reza AslanK 478 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi