As for women's rights, this was a measure designed more for foreign consumption than for domestic purposes, since the Shah's foreign advisers were well aware of the traditional western prejudices concerning Islamic attitudes towards women and thought that this was an infallible way of making the Shah appear an enlightened and benevolent person, acting on behalf of the poor oppressed women of Muslim Iran. In point of fact there has taken place a great transformation in the political-social role of women in Iran over the past fifteen years, but the direction it has taken is against the regime. Iranian women found their emancipation not through any measures decreed by the regime but on the contrary in struggling against the regime, in suffering abuse, torture, imprisonment, and martyrdom at the hands of the regime.
In the declarations of Imam Khomeini made from January 1963 onwards against the Shah's regime and his attempt to deceive Iranian opinion with the so-called White Revolution, we do not find consistent mention of land reform and women's rights. It is a remarkable thing that right down until last year it was said particularly in the American press -- and probably the British press was not much better — that these conservative, reactionary, fanatical Muslims in Iran were struggling against the Shah because of their opposition to land reform and their desire to get back what was quaintly termed “the church lands” and because they wanted all women to be excluded from public life. This total absurdity has no basis, neither for the Revolution of the past year nor for the preceding fifteen years.
In the earliest declarations of Imam Khomeini, made in 1963, declarations that have been preserved verbatim and are available to anyone who can read Persian, he concentrates by contrast on a number of other themes. The first is the continued violation by the Shah of the Iranian constitution and his violation of the oath that he took upon acceding to the throne to preserve and to protect Islam. Secondly, he attacks the Shah's subordination to foreign powers, mentioning primarily the United States and, following very closely upon that, Israel.
The question of Israel with respect to the Islamic Revolution is of great importance. It has not been realized, because of the embargo on news in the so-called free press of the West, that Israel has been second only to the United States as one of the major props of the Pahlavi dictatorship. It was widely known in Iran that there were two items that were totally excluded from any form of public comment or criticism. It was a well-known rule of SAVAK, the security police established by the United States for the Shah, that there were two items that had to be totally excluded from public comment and criticism. One was the royal family and the other was Israel. It is interesting that even the United States, in a certain form and under certain pretexts, might be subjected to criticism, but even the name of Israel had not to be mentioned.
Imam Khomeini, with his characteristic refusal to compromise, broke this rule in 1963 and pointed out the very close relationship on the military, political, intelligence, and economic planes between the Pahlavi regime and Israel. Of course, in Western press reports at the time you would find not a word on this aspect of the matter.
As for land reform and women's emancipation, which were supposedly targets of so much righteous anger, the only references in the declarations of Imam Khomeini in 1963 and subsequently are passing references denouncing them as totally fallacious and not even worth commenting upon in detail.
Intellectual Career of Imam Khomeini and His Islamic Revolution
