How a Dictatorship Shaped Iran's Protests

If you're like me you've been intently following the current protests in Iran, hearing about what's actually happening and how it threatens to topple the regime of the Islamic Republic. But if you're like me you've also been wondering: "How did it come to this?". Well this video intends at dissecting that exact question, looking at how Iran's 20th century history set it up for turmoil, but also how it planted the seeds of progressiveness.
We take a look at the policies of Iranian Shah's and how they created a bipolar society simultaneously engaged with progressive reform and entrenched in Islamic conservatism, and how this created an unstable and reactionary social milieu where progressiveness was introduced, but never really took root.
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Sources and Script can be found here: www.dropbox.com/s/e8qa12hvnl1...
This video was made possible by a number of Iranian's who contributed their time and knowledge to the research process, and aided me in pronounciation to translation to research suggestions. I would like to thank them here.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:42 Progressivism under Autocracy
12:17 The Path to Revolution
17:38 False Promises
21:15 What it All Means
The visuals or audio herein may not be utilised to train a machine learning algorithm of any kind without express permission of the Copyright holder (IMPERIAL)

[@IMPERIALYT]

Hi all - as usual sources can be found both in the description and on this pinned comment! Let me know what you think of the video/script in the comments below! www.dropbox.com/s/e8qa12hvnl1tcuz/Iran%20Video%20Script-Sources.docx?dl=0

[@marysh2246]

Guadeloupe Meeting a little before the revolution was a big impact on it which world leaders decided to left alone their alliance with shah. A major reason behind it was that shah refuse to reduce the oil prices and the west was not happy with it. They started their propaganda against him in media specially BBC

[@logicxrr]

Extremely misleading

[@UltimaSigmarAlonso]

This Video is very informative and shows how sometimes history is really going full circle

[@RobespierreThePoof]

Excellent work. There's still this lingering question of why Islamic nations are so much more aggressively opposed to progressivism and secularization. You credit it to the absolute monarchy in Iran. But ... We see similar tendencies throughout the Arab world too. And in Pakistan.

[@parsa123vahid]

As an Iranian I can say that this is one of the best most well informed video I have ever seen about this topic. Thank you for handing this subject with class

[@ariaebrahimi3629]

واقعا، فقر و افزایش بیکاری و مشکلات اقتصادی باعث انقلاب زمان شاه شد؟

[@KNNY_-sp6kq]

you deserve so much more attention. it hurts to see this quality be so grossly underappreciated.

[@spectacles-dm]

Absolutely astounding video - an intriguing and serious look at a history too often over-simplified and overlooked, complemented by some truly amazing work in presentation. Beautiful and informative. What more can you ask for?

[@Dancingonthesun]

Watching this for free feels like a crime. Fantastic production quality, you deserve 20x the subs

[@mr.videogame3433]

Iranian here, Thanks a lot for covering this topic, you did an amazing job!👍😊

[@ariaebrahimi3629]

چیزایی که گفت داخل کلیپ کامل درست بود؟

[@mr.videogame3433]

@@ariaebrahimi3629 Yes.

[@velozio]

Woah, both Hoog and Imperial uploaded at the same time? This is a good day

[@jtgd]

They should collab

[@KasraKlassics]

well done and surprisingly thorough given it’s only 23 min! As an Iranian, I want to thank you for this exceptionally informed work❤️ Not many mainstream media articles/videos do even close to a fair job covering other cultures - most particularly the middle east and Iran. We rely almost solely on skilled independent media like yours for true coverage and research to spread the actual voice of the people and an awareness that comes close to the full picture - something the western media’s been notorious for hiding! Just one small thing I’d like to add - which this video actually contained, but maybe could be more clear on:) - is that even though the oppositions and movements might seem very contradictory in our recent history, as you put it, the strive for freedom and democracy has always been vastly present in society. It’s just that revolutions have a very destructive common feature, and that’s the necessity of reaching a stage of “practical radicalism” in the shortest possible time. Revolutions are ultimately the outcome of decisions made by few popular groups. They always have to reach a firm consensus and come up with only the most practically radical strategy to quickly get the job done. That means they often ignore even the meaning and connotations of the strategy itself and it’s solely used as a means to an end. What ends up happening is that strategy and tool becomes the very foundation of future governments and brings yet another authoritarian regime. Revolutions have a talent for “forgetting” - for the lack of a better word - what was “means” and what was “ends”. The reason, as I mentioned, is lack of long enough time for these movements to both begin *and* end. They have to both overthrow AND build a new state as fast as humanly possible. As a result, any power void is filled with whatever’s available at the time - usually the tools already used by revolutionaries that were def not meant to survive beyond the overthrow. I hope I said that well enough tho haha

[@D-angelin.Moarar]

Great video, especially the visuals are outstanding. BUT a major flaw is that there is no mention of the role of the struggle against oppression of ethnic minorities by the Kurds, Baloch and other of the country. It's no wonder that protests started in Kurdistan, that over 20 Kurdish cities protested already when it was only 3 in the rest of Iran, that Kurdistan and Balochistan remain the hotbeds of protests and that Balochistan has seen by far the most killed protesters.

[@VB-us3cx]

As an Iranian-American, I just want to say, this is the best summation of history and current day context I have ever seen from a short 24 min video. *Bravo!*

[@bumblebee2888]

Why is this channel with so much production value & great knowledge of the sociopolitical underpinning of various countries and it’s citizens so underrated.

[@juniorjames7076]

Well Turkey is today experiencing the backlash of Ataturks reforms in the current form of the religious AK Party and it's leader Tayip Erdogan. I have Turkish friends who are middle class and moderately religious whose parents have awful memories of 70s and 80s when you were made to feel ashamed if you were an observant muslim. A friend told me that when his father served in the army in the 90s, he had to ask permission to read his Koran. Well, stuff like that generates resentment.

[@IMPERIALYT]

It certainly does - top down reform always finds a way to alienate a portion of the population.

[@KimliksizDevlet.]

Bro no one was ever ridiculed for being a muslim in Turkey. Only Islamists were. Islamism rised up in 90s and people were looking at them like aliens. Source: I myself is Turkish

[@juniorjames7076]

@@KimliksizDevlet. If you wore hijab but can't wear it to university campus or any government job, that's not humiliating? If the call to prayer is supposed to be in Arabic, but your government makes it done in Turkish (1932 to 1950), that's not humiliating? Hey, these are only some of the complaints heard from older parents of my Turkish friends. If you are from the secular upper middle class I guess none of that would bother you. Thats fine. But don't complain if the AK Party is re-elected again because a portion of your population does not want to go back to how it was in the 1970s.

[@KimliksizDevlet.]

@@juniorjames7076 jesus christ man how in the fck is turkish call to prayer is humiliating? Doesnt this country belong to turks?

[@lilin_]

@@juniorjames7076 bro thinks AKP losing will be 80s again, the parties in charge in 80s-90s weren't even the majority party that's prominent right now, and I myself actually do wish hijab was banned fully as it's nothing but suppression of women based on Arabic tradition, not Quran (wouldn't change much if it was based on Quran)

[@iamneophyte]

hell yes, thank you for tackling this topic with your thorough research and superb writing, narration, and illustration.

[@sanazghobadi9391]

this is one of the most comprehensive and thorough explanations about the reasons of current uprising with an impressive background I have ever seen about my country

[@TDRN1]

amazing production quality, very calmly presented yet precise video essay and analysis!

[@eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoeeeeeeeeeee]

Incredible video as always. The effort in these videos is unmatched

[@bhurrz5433]

i love these documentary style videos, you and LEMMiNO are the best at em

[@BabyHomeslicer]

This is an excellent channel! Keep up this top tier quality and you are bound to blow up in popularity!

[@amirabousadi5366]

Most accurate video I’ve seen regarding Irans historical culture! I’ve talked to a lot of people from the revolution generation and your analysis is the closest to reality. Great job!

[@davislinkaits6935]

Thank you for putting a spotlight on this topic!

[@aidinabedi]

It's also important to highligt the uphill battle an oil-rich country like Iran faces to become democratic. Like the 1953 coup by USA and England, which resulted in exiling of the democratically-elected prime minister. Foreign entities always have an incentive to keep the country undemocratic since it's simply easier to take advantage of.

[@sidewaysbush9387]

Dude you gotta make like a master class series on how you make your videos. Each one is a work of art!

[@Greksallad]

What an amazing video. Well researched, informative and absolutely stunning animations. Definitely subscribing to this channel, well done!

[@TomBaak-um9jo]

You are getting better with every video. Keep up the good work.

[@PhilEdwardsInc]

thanks for all the context!

[@frzd]

Such a well made video. As an Iranian, I learned so many new things from your analysis. Thank you 🙏

[@Charlesmagne800]

Amazing like usual. You deserve a lot more attention, keep up the awesome work

[@tomson842]

Great work man! Something to be proud of.

[@morqesahar]

Fair and balanced video, loved the presentation and narration. Thank you

[@radekskuhra9536]

Great video production and amazing content, keep it up 👍

[@Ansible2]

Amazing work as always!

[@roshanpaul1184]

Astounding that this channel isn't already at over a million subs. Absolutely stunning.

[@khosrofakhreddini7824]

A very good and informative clip excellently explained. Thank you.

[@Dave-gs3jg]

Three things I have dedicated vast amounts of time in my life to are history, politics and visual design. Seeing you so seemlessly integrate a high level of mastery of all three in your videos is really a remarkable thing. The craft - from research to argumentation to articulation to visual expression - is astounding. Thank you so much for putting this out into the world.

[@mobinmohammadi5728]

Thanks a bunch for making this amazing video. Be our voice

[@seb_5969]

Great Video. Your content is always a treasure

[@tirteatacosty4921]

Great job! I would like to see more content like yours on the platform:)

[@marcussassan]

Wonderful job. Well detailed. This topic needs more attention. Im not sure how yet, there will be a revolution. There is no turning back from here for the Iranian society. The unrest is now been longer than the 1979 revolution. This time luckily the population is better informed and will be rewarded with a peoples democracy with equal representation of the rich tapestry of religions and cultures who had been their for thousands of years, instead of just one.

[@Germ_f]

Great video as always

[@peste1463]

The editing is so nice

[@sinakeyhani929]

An amazing video. And very accurate well done

[@joelfer1172]

Amazing video, loved the animations

[@pooriam576]

such a good video... this is so well made🤝🕊️

[@gef56]

Keep up the high quality videos; you're going to be big!

[@Alim-od2uz]

A hell of a lot better than most videos about iran on youtube ❤ (The template of starting at Cyrus the Achamenid, then jumping to a fake story about Mosaddeq, and then to Khomeini gives us iranians headache at this point.) Although as a nitpick, i would have preferred a segment about the "land reform" program and it's subsequent rapid demographic shift of rural to urban migration (which gave conservatism immense power), and maybe another segment on the role of USSR proxies like the Tudeh party in weaving of the "anti-imperialist" narrative.

[@IMPERIALYT]

Yea completely get the criticism - a lot of the time I have to cut down on stuff that isn't directly related or just adds a lot to the runtime, like in this video for example the 1953 Oil Nationalisation crisis where the U.S./UK meddled in Iran, because that would've been a massive tangent.

[@MaryamofShomal]

@@IMPERIALYT ​ With that being said, one would be hard-pressed to make a video about Iran’s revolutions of the 20th-21st centuries (1906, 1979, 1953, and 2022) without referring to Western interference and invasions of Iran. Moreover, the notion of the Shah and Reza Shah as “dictators” is nonsense regime propaganda that the West has been regurgitating since 1979. The first true dictator that we have ever had in our entire history was the only man who was NOT our king - aka that fascist genocidal demon Khomeini, and now Khamenei after him. Historians are trying to correct the record about the Shah, but in doing so, they keep running into many roadblocks, namely that the British government and MI6 refuse to reveal their roles in Operation Boot (US called it Operation Ajax), and that none of the Western countries have admitted their significant roles in putting Khomeini in power. The Carter administration, aided by the UK and the French, are most responsible for destroying Iran in 1979 - _not the Shah._ The West were pissed that they could no longer control the Shah and therefore Iran’s oil, especially with the growth of OPEC, so they decided to put all their chips in the mullahs, thinking they would be easier to control. Why do you think the US and UK governments haven’t said a damn thing about the current #IranRevolution, other than “we condemn” and “we are concerned” ?? Because they put that fascist terrorist Islamist genocidal regime in power. And so it has fallen on us, the Iranian people, once again to free our country from foreign invaders. Btw: Mossadegh wasn’t “democratically elected” the way most Westerners think of democracy. He was appointed by the Shah. He was a good man, though, and the British and American governments betrayed him, betrayed Iran, and betrayed the Iranian people.

[@umu-i-d2785]

Amazing production

[@realnyamasege]

A 4K video. Amazing. Also video is phenomenal.

[@dkaloger5720]

the visuals are stunning

[@FF-zq1bb]

With all respect, that "brief overview" of yours on what happened and what led to the events of 1979,especially wildly lacking of acknowledgement of foreign involvement over oil benefits and struggle with Shah,his mysterious illness etc,just doesn't cut it.I wish you success .

[@MohamedTarek-mu2nj]

Very good video, I’ve enjoyed it.

[@tonestop]

Very interesting video. Hope to see Progressive Republicans take hold in Iran one day. Also like the song you used throughout the video. Kaisseriech has a lot of good tracks and the Fathers Theme fits so well for this video, although in the story of the song its representive of an American General turned Emporer of the nation and the growing tensions between Authorization, Syndicalism, and Republicanism.

[@danial9429]

As an Iranian i must say this is a very well produced video, well done sir. Iranians have been fighting for democratic values and freedom for more than 150 years and despite several huge set backs in the way which you described very well, i believe majority of Iranian people today are way more progressive and liberal compared to our neighbors in the region

[@user-vo9wd6tx6c]

Nice work dude, you just got another subscriber.

[@lukeparcell4896]

Wonderful video!

[@hansherbert8345]

Stunning visuals !

[@user-cd4bx6uq1y]

Always interesting

[@TheTrackRecord]

Your animations really are becoming incredible. Can I ask, do you use Blender or Cinema 4D?

[@thegoldenhydra2003]

Great video. As an International Relations student, this hit all the marks.

[@hoogyoutube]

Great video buddy, changing the standards of the platform. Fantastic

[@bzipoli]

i've said this to a couple other creators in yt. i grew up watching british documentaries and similar, also a lot of pbs and nat geo (when they talked about nature before they had a channel), even tho i didn't live in the US or europe. but i was quite privileged to have access to it, specially because the "nudge" came from my dad and his nudge came from his parents on this kind of content and sources. imperial's (and a few other) channel is the proof youtube is such an amazing platform. you can have this level of production, which back then for me to watch something like this it needed millions and a network backing it up, and everyone can have access to it now for free. althought you shouldn't and should give him money. but you guys know what i mean. anyway, i sincerely think all the great documentarists from this generation will be youtubers, since other streaming (like nf) seem very restrictive on how many risks they're willing to take.

[@bobmotives5573]

This is the greatest, most visually appealing, factually correct and in-depth video on KZbin.

[@artaalipour]

Thank you. from Tehran, The middle of revolution

[@likeanuke8605]

Keep it up and you will break through!

[@shafi2548]

very well said thanks

[@gregbone8149]

Amazing graphics!

[@mou6854]

kind of pissed at myself for forgetting to subscribe months ago😅 amazing production

[@I.amthatrealJuan]

Come here from Kraut's Community Post. You're an underrated channel with lots of room for growth.

[@hossein4044]

‏What is happening in Iran today is the continuation of the 43-year-old crime of the Islamic regime founded by Khomeini. The question is, how did Khomeini come to power? The best answer is given by former American President Carter: "In 1979, when we decided to remove the Shah of Iran, with the guidance of England, we negotiated the option of the fall of the Shah of Iran through religion, because with the Shah's military power in the region and his diplomatic influence between the countries There was no way in the world we could wage a military and political war against him, and because he was a vindictive politician, we chose religion, and we chose the person in question, who was Khomeini. And by washing the minds of the people of Iran through the radios, we left the task of overthrowing the Shah in the hands of his people, and you saw that we succeeded. And this was the beginning of the end of human civilization, a big monster named Khomeini whose goal was to take the people of the world to the depths of darkness 1400 years ago with the dream of Islamic caliphate. After coming to power, Khomeini took 52 American diplomats hostage in Iran for 444 days by saying that "I will punch America in the mouth" and with this move questioned the great power of America in the international community. And it caused great panic in the world by Islamic fanatics. The existence of terrorists, Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Shadal al-Shabi, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, ISIS, all happened when Khomeini came to power. The terrible event of September 11 was one of the most prominent human crimes committed by this criminal sect. The crime that is being committed against the women of Iran and Afghanistan today is all caused by the ugly, dirty and ignorant actions of those who brought a stupid and superstitious mullah into the 21st century from the time tunnel of 14 centuries ago. And unfortunately, Carter's cronies have supported and continue to support this movement in strengthening these criminals

[@davidpires5726]

These videos and the way they are narrated and illustrated remind me of the filmbooks Paul Atreides watched in Dune.

[@arashfarahani4442]

Really good summary of my country… we will make it right this time… we have the knowledge now

[@Mortrexable]

As a westerner it’s fascinating to hear about your country history wich is never talk about in our classes

[@Rasulkhanzade]

Great video❤️thanks (Add Persian subtitles for the people of Iran )❤️🤍💚 #IRANREVOLUTION2022

[@Volition1001]

Great video, do you edit these yourself?

[@p.a.g3357]

Informative video, wish I could edit like this..

[@StateoftheWorld]

Imperial dude you killed it again please don’t ever stop

[@fridowicke]

great Video!

[@idkreally3594]

Do you think you will ever make anything about the balkans soon ? Just asking your videos are great man whatever you do I will watch it

[@mateodjawa]

Saying this video incredible would be an understatement! very well thought out content with next level animation. Keep up the good work! I came across this video in the midst of the passing of controversial bills in Indonesia, a diverse muslim majority country that has Bali in it. The government just recently passed laws that reduce the right to criticize the government as well as making pre-marital sex and cohabitation illegal (and other problematic ones, one of them for ex. is reducing, again reducing duration of sentence for corruption to only 2 years and max. is 20 years. this is besides the point, but just to show how f*cked the politicans are in here). These laws are causing controversy right now as many consider it as an attack to individual rights and privacy, and apparently the country's amazing lawmakers with boomer mindset are obsessed to destroy such things just as the current theocracy of Iran has been doing. Many of the sentiments used to disregard 'progressive laws' is quite also similar to Iran, where such laws is not being released as it is stigmatized to be a 'western doctrine', border line deeming it as blasphemy. Quite a scary fact, as this begs the question whether we're going to slip into the like Iran in the future.

[@134343]

Insane video. Got goosebumps because I feel so close to the topic

[@zzjam3749]

I'm from Iran, your video was very informative, great job! you should have more subs

[@zakjuri]

Too good of a video and too good of a channel

[@creepr524]

This is why the enemie of your enemie is not your friend.

[@jtgd]

Nice video

[@Erfanh1995]

Hands down the best recap of Iranian progressive movements in the 20th century that you can find on KZbin in English.

[@hasanaliakhmedov6826]

I love this hitman-esque animations

[@Gavingoodrich45]

1st Song is Lune by Tony Anderson btw. Great artist, deserves credit

[@zei4948]

flabbergasted by the quality

[@LeafseasonMagbag]

3:45 Important to note, that these three things encourage progressivism. That also works in reverse. If you want to choke progressivism, choke those things which produce it.

[@benyaminderakhshanzadeh1949]

As an Iranian first of all I have to say that I am against of any type of violence but we have no choice to get arm and fight with goverment because majority are against regime but only reason that goverment win every time is they have arms but we don't have . If we had arms in our hand this regime fall in less than a week 😎😎😎😎 🇮🇷☀️🦁🗡

[@user-yc4nm4xd1k]

As an Iranian Canadian, I am so thankful you covered this. Great job🙏

[@willieflink]

yo sick video, are you gonna put up a script with sources again? like you did for your video on spain, would love to read them

[@IMPERIALYT]

Yep, just uploading them to dropbox now - I'll put them both in the description and the pinned comment.

[@kingace6186]

It's crazy how on one hand, 25 years ago, in Turkey, wearing the veil was seen as a symbol of empowerment and rejection of forced atheism. And now, in Iran, after Jina Amini's murder, taking off the veil is seen as a symbol of liberation and rejection of forced ultra-conservatism. Yet, the commonality lies in the fact that both groups of women fought against what was being forced upon them-- whether Sharia or atheism. That is what religious freedom is really about.

[@rustomkanishka]

Kinda late to the party here Forgive me for that Your videos are amazing. Keep up the good work. My dad lived through the revolution, and later escaped the country to survive. I'm an Indian citizen but with heritage from a small town in Fars, near Shiraz. My mum was Indian, and Hindu, and neither converted for their marriage. Simply put he said, "If you want to love a woman, learn to respect her first. Her religion, her problem." In my own country the right wing is trying to forcibly remove the hijab from women's heads, claiming that they, a mostly Hindu party, and knows what's best for Muslim women. This is affecting mostly students in schools and colleges. I wonder if I am going to have to scream about the same lesson my dad tried to scream about in his own country- let women choose for themselves. Women are people, let them choose what they want to do for themselves. Treat them with the dignity of being people. There's simply no virtue in forcing your beliefs upon women. There is no virtue in forcibly removing a hijab as there is in forcing a woman into it. It's a bad idea and doesn't work. The protests might have failed, but the world hadn't forgotten. Zan, Jiyan, Azadi. Women, Life, Freedom. Also, since the making of this video middle eastern politics has shifted a bit again. Israel is doing a genocide on Palestinian men, women, and Children. It won't be forgotten. 🍉

[@maxhorowitz9638]

There's perhaps no country in the world with greater gap between the regime & society than 🇮🇷. We've a regime which in many ways resembles 🇰🇵 & a society which likes to be 🇰🇷. It’s a regime led by a geriatric reactionary old man. A society of young modern ppl.

[@Joseph-qd9ew]

A lot of people don’t realize this but I think it’s very true, great analogy

[@sinphus]

What happened to your video on the Red Army Faction?

[@oo--7714]

Reminds me of 1791l. Did you watch his videos?

[@Amir-gp6fy]

For one thousands time. 1. Mossadegh was not elected by the Iranian people 2. He was initially selected by parliament but then unilaterally suspended parliament to prevent it from throwing him out 3. So the idea that the West helped overthrow a “democratic” leader is questionable at best.

[@Matthew.379]

You know that the revolution was a conspiracy because of oil. The people of Iran regret the 1979 revolution. Now, when they see the interviews of the king, they understand how intelligent and kind the king was.

[@MeisterRedalStan]

What the Hell is this Production Quality

[@slagmaxxing]

I remember talking to you about this project & I was really pleased to see you cover it. The Iranian feminist movement is something I’ve been paying attention to since around 2018 after the WhiteWednesday movement started a year before. Iranian women are a real inspiration to all those against injustice & gender inequality. I’m glad more western/Europeans are starting to become aware of the situation in iran. Gold as always. Remember me when you make the 1M sub mark my friend!