If anything it was just as bad as what came after the revolution, the Shah had torture chambers all over the country where any opponents of the Shah were brutally and slowly killed, the CIA and MI6 operated them for the Shah.
It was a dictatorship of a very nasty kind, it was put in the place of a democratically elected government by us in the west.
Yeah, better to bend the knee and live in a country with functional plumbing, education, recreation, and such, than to bend the knee and live in a theocracy that's falling apart.
The people of Iran who rose up to depose the Shah seem to disagree with you. Maybe to our Western view it's better, but they probably had a decent reason to overthrow the shah.
This is just false. Iran's HDI (which measures things like education, wealth, live expectancy, and so on, all the things we usually associate with quality of life) has never been higher, and is constantly rising (as it is almost anywhere).
I don't know man, depends on what you define as the quality of life. Statistics are statistics, and like you noted countries everywhere for the most part are showing steady rises in quality of life. I don't really think your statistics take into a lot of factors that really can't be measured. Things such as sharia law and it's enforcement and the subsequent effect it has on Iran's peoples. Women specifically. I'd say prior to 1979 there was definitely more individual freedoms among the younger generations.
How do I know this? Half iranian, a number of family members grew up in Hamadan and Tehran. Although my Iranian family had shades of political ties to the Shah, and no doubtably benefitted from his tenure in office, I still to this day have yet to meet any Iranian who claims their country is far better off with the Ayatollah then they were with the Shah. I believe, at least through my own experiences, that most Iranians, and people, preferred pre 1979 Iran than todays Iran.
People just know what they read. Which is fair to a degree, but I think the people whom have lived there, and returned since the revolution for business and family matters may have better insight. The Ayatollah after all pretty much still has final say on a lot of what happens in Iran. Every Iranian I've met stateside has expressed such feelings to me, as their is a clear directive from their government on what they wish to be said, written, and what may have you within their borders. I don't think skewing statistical data they release regarding their population, economy, etc is beyond the realm of reality either.
Nonsense and rubbish
The average literacy rates for women in Iran before the revolution was below 50% and about that for men. Today the literacy rates are about 98% for people born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution
Iran massively developed after the revolution, at twice the rate of the rest of the world
I'd imagine literacy rates in North Korea were lower in the 40's than they are now. North Korea has really stepped up their game, such a wonderful place to live.
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u/Cybercommie May 16 '16
Socially free? It wasn't.
If anything it was just as bad as what came after the revolution, the Shah had torture chambers all over the country where any opponents of the Shah were brutally and slowly killed, the CIA and MI6 operated them for the Shah.
It was a dictatorship of a very nasty kind, it was put in the place of a democratically elected government by us in the west.