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The Pink Revolution
The
Iranian revolution of 1979 overthrew Reza Shah Pahlavi’s regime and ended
2500 years of Persian monarchy. However, its replacement with a theocratic and
extremist regime misled the majority of the rest of the world into
believing that the new regime represented the desire of the majority of
Iranians.
Since
the empowerment of the Islamic forces, and especially since the end of the
eight-year war against Iraq, a strong democratic movement has been growing,
which calls for a change of regime and replacing the current one with a
genuine and secular democracy. As Iranians become more dissatisfied with
the current rulers, they find more reasons to join the democracy movement.
This research explores the facts that have been contributing to the
popularity of the democracy movement in Iran.
 
This
study has been done following a series of clandestine interviews with
numerous middle-class Iranians from different ages and sexes, which were
conducted during a five-week trip to Tehran, the capital of Iran, in the
run-up and after the 2005 presidential elections. The study consists of
four major sections, which are as follows:
I.
Reasons for the revolution of 1979:
A brief review of major political events between
1953 and 1988 (the beginning of the reformist movement in Iran), and the
main reasons behind popular dissatisfaction with Reza Shah Pahlavi’s reign
II. A Review of current Iranian political issues:
A thorough investigation of the most important
current political and economic issues that have contributed to the growth
of the democracy movement
III. Commentary on Ahmadinejad – the new
Iranian president-elect
– the 2005
presidential elections, and conclusion:
Observations regarding the election of president
Ahmadinejad and the most plausible explanations for his victory
IV. The future of the republic:
An assessment of
the most likely development of Iranian politics and the
reformist
movement in the near future
The
main purpose of this research is to reveal the important components of the
pro-democracy reformist movement based on a combination of available
Iranian and foreign literature on the topic and, most importantly, a recent
series of interviews with a number of middle-class Iranians from different
ages and genders about the motives of the movement. This study makes
available a rich source of information on the strong – but under-investigated
– democratic movement within Iran, and its significance in the future of
the Islamic Republic of Iran.
 
Abridged text of The Pink Revolution: The Growth of The
Democracy Movement in Iran.
[link]
(Note: This research is a
living document in the sense that I have not gathered the data from this
research in an isolated period of time. I am rather constantly monitoring
the news and developing stories that come from inside and outside of Iran,
read reports on human rights and other factors on the ground and regularly
speak with my extended social network from various sectors of the Iranian
society. I then periodically update the ways in which events must be
interpreted to represent my views based on all the new facts available.
Although the basis of this research was founded on a five-week trip to Tehran, the contents
of it are constantly updated and all the facts in it are timely regardless
of when you are reading it).
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