Iran Today: Twenty-Five Years after The Islamic Revolution

The Iranian Revelution of 1979 shook the world and changed the strategic balance in the region. In the build up to the Revolution there was a unity of purpose that was summed up by Ayatollah Khomenini: ?The monarchy must go. The Shah is corrupt. His hands are dripping with blood. He is a foreign agent. He is the Yazid of age." In the perception of most Iranians, a tyrant has usurped the state; its retrieval was therefore essential. Beyond that, however, there was a little by way of an agreed agenda for social reconstruction. This became evident in the years that followed. Revolutionary passion first gave way to revolutionary reason and then reawakened desire for reforms. A quarter of a century later, demography, education and urbanization have become the agents of change. One generation has power while the other has demands. The purpose of the Observer Research Foundation’s New Delhi conference was to explore the evolving perceptions and to ascertain the direction and pace of the change.