In 1951, Iran rebelled against British dominance by electing a well-liked populist, Muhammad Mosaddeq, as prime minister. Mosaddeq moved quickly to end British exploitation of Iran, in which a British company, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) earned then times as much profit as it paid in royalties to Iran. Mosaddeq succeeded in nationalizing the country's oil facilities while reducing the Shah Reza Pahlavi junior to a figurehead. Only after the American and British secret services, the CIA and the MI6, interfered in 1953 with the famous covert action "Operation Ajax" and as a result replaced Mosaddeq with the Shah did the Iranian nation put its national aspirations on hold.
A great variety of ideological forces came into existence after 1953 to combat the dictatorship of the Shah and his subservience to the foreign powers, especially the Unites States. Religious influence came to a climax in 1963 with the sudden emergence into prominence of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who in early 1963 virtually launched the revolution. Within a few days at least 15,000 people were killed in the shooting ordered by the Shah. Khomeini, not for the first time, was arrested and sent into exile in Turkey, whence he moved later to Iraq and then finally to the suburbs of Paris from where he continued his mission.
Public anger about the repressing politics of the Shah came to a climax towards the end of 1978 and everybody was on the streets again, partially led by the communist Tudeh party, partially by the mullahs who through their mosque and madrassa system all over the country had the ability to reach even small and widely separated villages.
During the first days of December 1978 a large number of people started to appear in the streets of every main Iranian city to demonstrate against their ruthless tyrant king. The Shah had no other choice but to leave the country in the beginning of 1979.
Just as in 1953 the Western powers succeeded overthrowing the national movement led by Mosaddeq, the Iranian people succeeded in 1979 to overthrow one of the most powerful rulers of the 20th century hoping for better times.
But times got only worse since then. Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein saw the window of opportunity and attacked destabilized Iran in 1980. The two countries fought a bitter war until 1988, including millions of death, especially on the Iranian side. Beside that the Iranian domestic security and intelligence service, the Savak, did not disappear, but instead fell into the hands of the Ayatollahs; women were forced to wear the chador and became second class citizens and generally no freedom of speech whatsoever was guaranteed.
Today the Iranian nation is at a crossroad again. Iranians are fed up with internal repression and global isolation and are ready once again to go into the streets, risk their lives, only for one reason, for one simple reason, to finally have the right to choose their own path.
Iranians do not want the West to teach them what is right and what is wrong. Iranians do not want a bunch of 80 year old corrupt clergymen to decide for them how to live and how to dress. Iranians do not want to be scared any more of a domestic STASI-like system of ruthless hoodlums who arrest, beat, torture and publicly hang and stone young people who do not behave as demanded by the Shiite law.
I was born in Germany in 1977, just a few months before the Shiite-Islamic revolution took place and changed Iran from the bottom up. When I grew up in Berlin I remember my parents, both born in the city of Babol (a medium sized city located in the northern Mazandaran region of Iran, right at the Caspian Sea) speaking about the country they were born and raised in a positive light despite the constant humiliation they experienced as Jews throughout their childhood. My mother used to say that the water in Iran tastes like milk and honey and that Iran is the most beautiful country on earth. Well, she could only compare Iran to Germany back in the beginning of the 80's but her sayings had a tremendous impact on me. I was sure that one day I will visit Iran, my parent's homeland and taste the water my mother dreamt about almost daily.
Meanwhile about 30 years have passed and I haven't yet had the chance to visit Iran. And to tell you the truth, I am not sure if I will ever get a chance.
The entire world is watching curiously what is happening in Iran today. I am watching, too, deep inside myself wishing that Iran will change. I am not the only one dreaming about a new Iran, ready to dump its nuclear project, ready to engage in dialogue with the rest of the world again, ready to separate religious from state affairs, ready to become the proud and free nation again it used to be not all too long ago, ready to make my childhood dream come true, visit Iran and taste the "milk and honey" leaking out of the water-tap…
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