Pictures Show What Middle East Was Like Before Radical Islam

[GF Edward]

 

 

Decades prior to the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran was ruled by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Despite being a dictatorship, the shah regime adamantly pushed for Iran to adopt Western values, modernization, and cultural freedom.

The shah’s government worked towards advancing Iran’s economy globally and encouraged educational opportunities abroad for its citizens. In fact, Britain and the U.S. viewed Iran as a valuable ally in the Middle East at the time due to the country’s large supply of oil, proximity to India for trade, and its shared border with the Soviet Union during a time of heightened aggression.

Under the Pahlavi dynasty, which was forced from power in 1979, Iran nearly resembled cities in the U.S.

 

Photographs from the shah’s time show both women and men freely walking the streets in cities that were intact and peaceful. Like the U.S., people didn’t live in fear of suicide bombers or a terrorist attack during this time.

In other photographs, women can be seen openly interacting with men. While many scoff at the notion of Islam suppressing women’s rights, that is exactly what Islamic cultures have done since 1979. In Iran, prior to the revolution, we can see that women look happy, peaceful, and are able to enjoy the same freedoms as their male counterparts.

 

The men are dressed similarly to what we see in Western cultures rather than sporting massive beards and weapons.

 

Women were also allowed to have whatever hairstyles they preferred, wore different kinds of outfits, and jewelry. You’ll notice that prior to the revolution, women rarely wore a burqa or chador, the head scarf that leaves the face visible. Unlike in today’s Iran, they were allowed to show parts of their body in public and in front of males without any fear of reprisal.

 

Despite critics of the shah’s regime, he still allowed his people to live a seemingly open life in terms of exercising basic freedoms.

Both women and men associated in public freely, and educational opportunities were extended for all. Western clothing and norms were ingrained into the Iranian population and culture for decades.

 

The ouster of the shah and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the Islamic Republic’s leader changed the Middle East forever.

 

The Khomeini regime funded and bolstered terrorist organizations looking to advance radical Islamic terrorism, and Iran did the same by funding Hezbollah in the early 1980s.

Islam today suppresses all women’s rights; calls for homosexuals to be hurled off rooftops to their death; has waged a never-ending war against Christians and non-believers of the Quran; and has given rise to a plethora of Islamic terrorist organizations — such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group — that have destroyed cities in the Middle East and killed thousands of innocent civilians in the name of Allah.

 

The next time a leftist tries to argue that Islam is peaceful, show them these photographs of Iran before the revolution and then compare them to photographs of the Middle East today.

 

 

Source: Click

[Elena]