People in Tehran and other cities celebrated 43rd anniversary of Iranian revolution last week. Considering the outbreak of covid-19, the million-people rally was cancelled for another year, giving place to motorcycle, and car rallies.
Iranian revolution has passed over major challenges since victory, ranging from war, internal conflicts, depression, sanctions, regional tension. The country, by the way, managed to survive these crises using the popular support as its main resource during the years.
Despite international negligence, Iranian rulers took step after step to consolidate their role in international and regional developments. In the first part of this article, we discussed Iran’s 43-year history in shaping regional dynamics of the Middle East.
The second part focuses on the Iranians’ accomplishment in expanding and developing cultural, societal, and scientific spheres. Iranian representatives have had active role in cultural and sports events during the past decades. Iran has faced multiple challenges due to sanctions, but this has failed to diminish Iranian names from global stages.
Iranian Revolution; A View from Inside
For the most onlookers, Iranian revolution is a hardline cleric reign of power that places no room for people’s freedoms. The picture is readily available in the mainstream media and easy to understand while thousands of miles away.
Iranian new rulers following 1979 revolution did not seem to have a happy face with sulky foreheads and messy beard. The picture faces a serious challenge when understanding that they held the first general election 49 days after the revolution.
The first years of Iranian revolution, like any other, saw the air of extremism, scattered violence, and close cultural atmosphere. However, when the early revolutionary excitement faded and most people craved a more regular living, the restrictions grew increasingly flexible. While the governmental structure remained mostly unchanged from initial years, society evolved slowly and almost silently. Those improvements have been immense, and Iran, which commemorated the revolution’s 43rd anniversary last Friday, ‘is’ the very regular country that some outside observers still expect it to be.
Apart from open social atmosphere, Iranian people has achieved various international and global places in various fields. From Science top sports and artistic productions, Iran’s accomplishments might not be separate from the political structures in which they have incubated.
Art
Iranians have a long history in artistic productions. Despite lapses after early years of Iranian revolution, cinematographers, musicians, and other artists took a difficult, but fertile, road to success.
Abbas Kiarostami is one of the main Iranian movie directors who was applauded worldwide. More recently, Asghar Farhadi won the Oscar for best foreign picture for two times, unprecedented in Iranian history.
Despite the general notion that music has no place in Iranian post revolution society, people love music and musicians. Famous Iranian musicians have also turned to fashion models, indicating their significant position in social functioning.
The last sentence might have startled you, reckoning if fashion exists in Iran at all. Iranian people localized the fashion style according to the tradition and culture and have prominent global presence.
Sports and Science
To begin with, the number of Iranian students in major European and American universities might be astonishing. It makes more sense when we understand that a major part of these students return home after graduation.
For a developing country like Iran, scientific accomplishments have a major part in long-term national planning. Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, 2014 Fields Medal winner, is the product of this scientific system.
Serious fields like scientific planning, nevertheless, didn’t lead to negligence towards more interesting spheres for people. While facing serious infrastructure challenges, Iranian people have secure various global positions after Iranian revolution.
For the first time, Iranian national team finalized its presence in Qatar world cup three matches ahead. Iranian women secured their first Olympics medal after the Iranian revolution, indicating the expanding and developing circumstances for women in recent decades.
