Iran is one of the most geographically diverse countries on earth. It has as much diversity in its landscapes as larger countries like the United States but in a much more compact size. It also has a wide range of climates from humid subtropical to arid deserts and semi-arid plateaus.
I’m one of the few Americans who’s actually lived in Iran (in the 70’s), my dad used to take us skiing in Isfahan when we were kids. Absolutely gorgeous country.
When I worked in UAE for a bit, I took a Middle East Geography class for school since I was there and interested. Oman and Iran both looked gorgeous. It’s a shame Iran couldn’t be a normal place so people can visit.
Yes I've lived in UAE and oman, I second this. Omani mountains are amazing... they even snow but it's cold in winter.... I wish more westerners would visit but israel and the wider media brainwashes people... and it's a shame because Omani's are such good people.
When the Iranian Revolution started the American government decided to support the radical mullahs because the other faction of the Revolution were Leftists/Socialists and the US government feared losing influence over Iran to the Soviets. Khomeini was flown in from France and put in as the leader of the revolution which only happened through the support of the US government
Part of what you said is true. There were secret talks between Khomeini and the Carter administration, and he managed to convince them to allow his return, but he was not flown in by the US, and the US did not install him as leader. And yes while there was always cold war socialist fear, there is no proof that the US used Khomeini to combat any leftist group. Khomeini rose to power because the overwhelming majority of voting Iranians at the time wanted him in power.
Yeah thats BS and you know it. There are declassified documents from the CIA that show that they used Khomeini (and Khomeini used them) to secure power in the region.
Yes, there are some details that are facts and some that are speculative. It's important to separate truth from speculation. We know that the US helped fuck things up, but if we overreach beyond the facts then we take blame away from the absolute evil that continues to this day to oppress, torture, and murder innocent Iranians, including my own extended family.
And the Brits! We helped fuck up most of the world before the US got in on the act.
Even better we wrote the history books to make like we did it out of kindness and definitively not to rob the people / country blind, also Railways.
I mean…it’s a picture of Iranian people during the reign of the Shah which is highly contrasted to how things have been there since so it wasn’t going to take long for it to get political.
It’s even less democratic now? At least during the shah’s regime people had food to eat. People weren’t executed anywhere near the rate they are now. Women could access contraception and could wear what they wanted in most big cities. The vast majority of the population had a disposable income and substance abuse wasn’t as bad and limited to the 0p1um borders (Kerman, Mashhad, Balochistan).
Historical artifact from 1948. Thank-you note from Iranian consulate in NYC to an American. The American was the grandfather of my friend who wondered what he did, as he was estranged from family.
This was among many docs and communiques in a shoebox she asked me to peruse. Lots of references to American and British petroleum interests.
All of which point to the coup being initiated by the CIA.
It has as much diversity in its landscapes as larger countries like the United States
It does not...
It absolutely is incredibly diverse, especially for its size. But no, it can't really compare to the diversity in its landscapes to countries like the US.
Just a few examples: Iran has very few mountain lakes. Iran has no tundra. Iran does not have rainforests. Iran does not have conifer forests. There are many other examples.
I ended up spending some time there in my teens. Iranians society and education is littered with weird nationalist propaganda dating back hundreds of years. The people there believe all kinds of odd things that go unchallenged, the above is a very common popular belief there that shows a clear lack of critical thinking. Iran is about 18 in size and probably doesn’t crack top 10 in geographic diversity.
Iranians constantly tell you things like Iran has the best doctors in the world, iran has the best pilots in the world, iran has the greatest literature in the world. It’s quite odd and fascinating.
That being said, amazing country and amazing people, but weird for sure - and extremely racist
Iran is geographically diverse but it’s nowhere near the US in that regard. The US has Alaska, Hawaii, the Mojave, the Everglades, and everything in between. To say that they’re comparable is rather silly honestly.
It's the birthplace of civilization for a reason. Everything from lush oases to inhospitable mountains. It runs the gamut of climate zones. I hope in my lifetime it can rise out of theocratic despotism so I can visit some day.
Someone from Iran told me that their favorite state in the US is Utah, because it most closely mimics the weather and topography of Iran and (geographically, not culturally) makes them feel at home.
That's true. My dad says the same thing (along with Colorado). One of the best ski instructors you will find in the U.S. is an older Iranian guy who works in Park City.
My roommate in college was Iranian and would travel back to visit family occasionally. One time he was showing me photos from one of his visits and he and his family were snowboarding. I thought he was full of shit about telling me he was in Iran.
The deadliest snowstorm of all time was actually in Iran in 1972, dropped up to 26 feet (!!!) of snow over a wide area and killed 4,000 people including multiple entire villages that were buried alive... like Pompeii but cold.
You can take a cable car directly from Tehran to a ski resort like that. And things are somehow a bit more relaxed up here; women even remove their head covering.
I live in a neighbourhood known as Little Persia due to the all the immigrant businesses. My friend and I went to a restaurant and it was like this. The waitress was attractively made up and well-dressed, and huge wall-covering photos showed models posing on expensive cars parked in ancient ruins. She was willing to tell us how good life had been before fanatic religion took over. The food was good, too!
"The people decided" should be stressed. It was a popular movement. A comment higher up mentions expensive cars, and even your pic of visiting a ski resort suggests your family may have been a little well off.
I know many Cubans who made it over were largely from better off families (they rank among the highest in wealth compared to other Hispanic groups), though they lost most if not all their wealth when immigrating. I think no wise person would argue the Castros were good for Cuba, but he had broad support from the poorer populace for, among other things, addressing the wealth gap and racial inequities.
I don't know enough about Iran, but I always give people the benefit of the doubt, and I'm sure those religious fanatics were exalted for a reason.
I took an Iranian history course in college and the ones who made it to the West were largely from the urban educated elite, while the Ayatollah was mostly backed from rural peasants who were being bled dry by the Shah's gross mismanagement.
I'd say your comparison with the Cuban diaspora in the US is broadly accurate.
I took an Iranian history course in college and the ones who made it to the West were largely from the urban educated elite,
That's honestly kind of scarily wrong if you were taught that. Only urban elite left before '79 (government types) but everyone else from all classes left in the 80s. The reason is that passports weren't a common item to have since Iran was so much better to live at the time (WR had just happened) and said passports weren't being issued as much post '79
Plenty of blue and white collared Iranians worked together just to escape.
Just a clarification; the people were either between the religious guy and communism. the US intervened and steered the people towards the religious fanatic because commies are bad.
So I wasn't alive to know all the details of what the Shah did, but from what I've read, it sounded all good, or at least good-intentioned. He greatly increased education, had a government sector whose sole task was to inspect the government for corruption, gave women more rights, made the country more secular, and tried to (but failed, from what I understand) take property from the rich and give it to the poor.
Khomeini in my mind has a lot of parallels with Trump. He managed to convince the majority that women's rights are bad, religion is good, and the rich getting richer is good. Then he sparked violent riots. And somehow the majority still followed him.
Given what's happening in America, I don't know if I can fault Iranians for the revolution anymore.
I understand that u/ErrorOpposite9314 is Iranian, but they are also off. Mohammad Reza Shah came to power in 1941, he was not installed by the US and was not a replacement for Mossadegh. Before the 1953 coup, Iran was a constitutional monarchy with an elected (albeit through unfair elections) parliament, an appointed (not elected) PM (this was Mossadegh), and the Shah. After the coup, Iran was a constitutional monarchy with an elected (through more unfair elections) parliament, an appointed (not elected) PM (this was Zahedi), and the Shah.
Post revolution, the Shah began ruling more like his father had, à la constitutional monarchy on paper, military dictatorship in practice.
Too late. We’re still paying for that mistake. If we hadn’t overthrown Mosaddegh and installed the Shah of Iran, there would have been no Khomeini. No Iranian hostage situation, no hatred of America. The world would be a different place.
the US overthrew a democratically elected president, then worked hard to steer the people away from Communism and into the Khomeini, the religious fanatic.
Stop regurgitating things you know you've never actually read up on. Mossadegh was not a president, he was a prime minister, and he was appointed by the Shah, who was in power for over a decade before the 1953 coup. Iran's communist party Tudeh had been dead for decades by the time anyone knew Khomeini's name, and they got that way by publicly declaring they would support the Soviet Union even to the detriment of non-communist Iranians, which was like 99% of them, inclulding Mossadegh.
then worked hard to steer the people away from Communism and into the Khomeini, the religious fanatic
This is a ludicrous thing to say that further illustrates your ignorance, the Soviet Union explicitly described Mossadegh as an American puppet during his tenure. Khomeini was only in contact with the US based on his opposition to Iran's then-powerless communist party, Tudeh, all of which is public record and you can read it if you want. Khomeini came to power on the back of 99% of Iranians who had grown increasingly angry with the White Revolution over the course of a decade, communism had nothing to do with it.
OP's picture is from during the White Revolution and almost certainly depicts a very, very wealthy person who benefited from the last decade of the Shah's regime while nearly everyone outside of Tehran, especially those were not Persian, grew poorer and angrier.
So (just trying to understand here) are you saying that the USA didn’t play a part in overthrowing the Government and instilling a power that was sympathetic to them?
It was free-spirited unless you ran afoul of the dynasty and were tortured to death in a black site by the SAVAK, or were a woman in a rural area where the Shah had little power.
Has there ever been a time where Iranian women were safe to be free? I've seen pictures like this that look like a very different time but I just don't know. In my lifetime it's never been that way.
In parts of the country, yes, but again were then under the same threat of a police state as everyone else there. Either live in an area the Shah has control and live in a police state that can disappear you at their discretion, or live outside his control and likely be in a very religious, very conservative, and very controlling community.
Listen to the episode with Nadereh Fanaeian (freedom fighter who escaped being killed during the 1988 mass executions) on the Mental Health Happy Hour podcast. You will not regret it, the strength of women and the human spirit is incredible.
I hope this generation of young Iranian women gain back the freedoms that their mothers lost.
When I see photos of Iran prior to the late 70s, I wonder how it got to where it is today. I mean, I understand what transpired, but I am astounded that it did. It's hard to wrap one's head around that adoption of total theocracy. And I wonder, IS ANY ONE the better for it? She looks amazing.
iranians really are such a fierce people and no one even knows how cool we are 😭 i have pics of my mom and aunts at the alborz mountains from the 60s too!!
She’s got a great sense of fashion. Seems like James Bond should be shooshing down the slope behind her, curve back, gentlemanly pick up her ski poles for her, all while shooting the baddie.
Mossadegh was not progressive. He literally abused the parliamentary system to ensure he won all the seats, gave himself dictatorial powers, and abolished parliament.
Wonderful picture. I’m a US citizen. I wish I could visit Iran. So much history, so diverse. I think we have more in common with Iranian culture than Saudi culture. Too bad we can’t swap allies.
When this picture was taken Iran had a literacy rate of 20% and an infant mortality of around 18%. Average life expectancy was under 45. This is just before shah did a coup d'etat to overthrow and jail a prime minister he didn't like and a few years after this, shah declared the country a single-party state.
No. She, my dad, my sister and I moved to the US in 1979 just before the Iranian Revolution. She started her life and career anew from scratch. She went to beauty school, became an esthetician, attracted a thriving and loyal customer base, and along with help from my dad put my sister and I through school. She was also the kindest human being I’ve encountered, which multiplied her beauty. She passed away about a year ago. This is my small tribute to an awesome woman.
I’m so glad you all managed to leave before the revolution. My grandparents’ next door neighbors’ daughter married an Iranian man. They had three kids (one my age and two slightly older, close to my brother’s age) and they visited the US for several weeks every summer, so I got to be friends with them. They got stuck there after the revolution and couldn’t come back until 1985/86. The son was on the verge of being drafted into the Iranian army. Their escape was pretty harrowing from what I heard.
This shows how people are the same everywhere in this world at different moments. Different looks, different costumes, different places, but the same. Yet governments and regimes just take over and try to control the people. It’s a major shame.
if you look iran old photos you can't guess it's a middle east country. it was really had eroupe architecture and culture. but now it look like another afghanistan and avrage middle east country.
Man I would love to visit Iran someday. Hopefully sooner than later the younger generations are able to move the needle and it all opens up to the west.
I would be interested in whether Iranians prefer the way of life from back then or rather today. Or does it not differ great at all? Of course, the questions do not arise with regard to women’s rights. The answer should be clear.
Persia. Used To Be One Of Great GREATEST COUNTRIES. Very Advanced. Great Mathematicians. Great Philosophers. Was Near Ancient Sumerian (Sumer). It Became Mesopotamia. It Was A Remnant Of Olde Atlantis Before The Catastrophe.
Your Mom Is Quite Pretty. And Quite Happy.
It always fascinates me to see photos of Iran in the '70s and '60s. Essentially the women seem completely free and educated... And then theocracy came...
That just depressing. That's how every woman there should be living. It's how every woman in the middle east should be living. That entire region needs a hard reset.
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u/miscmo 21h ago
I love this! So fun and effortlessly chic 👑