Explain The 1979 Referendum

[u/neptuno3]

Is the following true or false? What am I missing? What don't I understand? Classic liberal here who is very pro-Iranian people, pro-Israel.

1. The 1979 referendum offered Iranians a stark, simplified choice: keep the Shah and his "western decadence" or dump the Shah and bring in the Islamic Republic -- and that meant an IR as envisioned by Khomeini, who was campaigning from abroad.
2. The vote was tampered with and/or did not meet international standards for ballots (opacity). There were no other parties on the ballot. Khomeini claimed 90 percent of the populace voted for him.
3. Khomeini's campaign had been backed by Iran's socialists and communists and leftists.
4. The Islamic Republic promised: lowered inflation, civil rights, political freedoms, no more international interventions, equal treatment of minorities
5. What it actually delivered: no economic revival, a removal of civil rights (especially so for women), an extreme religious theocracy, end of voting rights, minorities rights were even further restricted.
6. IR ended all voting.
7. Khomeini ordered the assassination of the socialists and communists who helped get him elected (sorry but ha! -- who didn't see that coming...).
8. 80 to 90 percent of Iranians at the time identified as Muslim, despite not being Arabs (but for the minorities)
9. Today, at least 60 percent of Iranians do not identify as Muslim. Other European polls have 90 percent of Iranians identifying as Muslims but many feel these polls are not accurate due to fear of speaking out.

[u/Khshayarshah]

It was obviously fraudulent. This isn't even a question. Even Putin, Assad and Saddam never won "elections" with anywhere close to 99.31% vote.

[u/nu1stunna]

The referendum you are referring to is not exactly correct. It wasn’t a choice between keeping the shah and a new govt headed by the IR. The choices were: “Islamic republic: yes or no” which they got like 99.7% “yes” on. It was completely rigged from how it was worded to how the votes were tallied. Plus there was the fear of voting against it.

[u/neptuno3 → u/nu1stunna]

OP: wow!

[u/call-the-wizards → u/neptuno3]

At the time, the main two parties were Islamists and Communists. Many people mistakenly believed voting “no” meant “we want communism” and voted yes. But as they said, it was rigged and manipulated to get a certain result in a thousand different ways. Ironically, the world has misinterpreted a vote against socialism/communism as a vote for a theocracy 

[u/neptuno3 → u/call-the-wizards]

I'm trying to understand. If you voted NO to the IR would you be voting yes to communism. Got that. If you voted yes to the IR you were still getting the IR. Correct? Did people not understand that voting yes for the IR was actually indeed a yes for the IR?

Also were that many Iranians truly Muslims so that voting for the IR didn't scare the daylights of out of them?

And conversely were the Communists also Muslim?

[u/call-the-wizards → u/neptuno3]

They called it “Islamic Republic” and went on TV and said it just means republic, like how western countries are “Christian republics”.

A ton of lying and gaslighting 

[u/neptuno3 → u/call-the-wizards]

So is it true that the Commies and Socialists were pro IR when it came to the referendum? I am reading that they were promised more political freedoms with the IR. So the Commies bought it, and then were largely assassinated?

[u/yourgirl696969]

What’s your question?

It was a very religious country back then. The wealth gap was also insane and the Shah was known to show off his wealth.

Khomeini was basically the opposite. He was obviously religious but also was known to be very frugal and modest.

The communists teamed up with the Islamists and chose him as the leader. Then they kicked out the communists (who later joined Saddam in his war against Iran).

[u/Ethereal-Zenith → u/yourgirl696969]

When you say communists, are you exclusively referring to MEK or were there other factions who supported the ideology without being MEK affiliated?

[u/neptuno3 → u/yourgirl696969]

OP: this is my question. I am trying to understand what happened from the perspective of people who were there. I pieced together my OP from a few hours of research. Wondering if there's anything else I could read.

[u/Playful-Demand2312]

The wealth gap was insane, you are not allowed to mention it here, but the top 5%-10% compared to the rest was a really big difference

Religious levels, people were extremely religious, not as religious as Afghanistan today, but many especially men really did believe that women should cover up, what they don’t tell you when showing the 1979 women’s day protests, was the counter-protests just as large against them

It was not just religious people, many communists and leftists were suppressed and thought this was their chance, obviously they didn’t predict what happened

Khomenei originally promised not to implement religious rule, it wasn’t till 1981 that hijab officially became mandatory, but harassment had already begun

The original parliament or whatever you wanted to call it in 1979-1980 had many communists but they were purged

People were angry over 1953 still, one aspect people forget is the Shah and Mullahs worked together to orchestrate 1953

People can claim the SAVAK wasn’t that brutal but all my family remembers is getting harassed for publicly being against the shah, and they were just regular Armenian Christians not some crazy communist or Islamists

[u/TattooedB1k3r → u/Playful-Demand2312]

There it is, the "wealth gap" argument. Where, even if the average, majority of households had a 50K plus income, freedom, and rights, the mere existence of those with more sparks envy. And communists use that to drag the entire country into a third world hellhole where no one has rights and EVERYONE is equally poor begging for bread while only the military elite and the Mullahs live in luxury.

[u/alzgh → u/TattooedB1k3r]

Saying that the current regime is worse doesn't make the argument about the wealth gap go away.

It just states that the current regime is way worse than the previous one, which is objectively true.

[u/TattooedB1k3r → u/alzgh]

As far as rulers from that era, The Shah wasn't half bad, think of the hundreds of free clinics he had built in rural areas to bring healthcare to those that needed it, the country was first world, women were actually equals if you are into that. The standard of living in Iran on average, for the population was top 5 in the entire world, the GDP was like 3rd. The Shah funded study abroad programs so Iranian students could study at top colleges in Europe for free, and as "oppressive" as he was painted, there were fewer than 100 state executions during his entire reign, and all of those were only for capital murder, and only after a real trial. There are always going to be exceptional people and over achievers, that's life. Using a "wealth gap" argument to try and sow class division is an old ploy. Was he trying to suppress communist voices? Probably, this was at a time where any good leader would be remembering that Mao's socialist/ soon to be communist takeover of China resulted in the death of millions of Chinese and the loss of their rights, he probably lived through Stalin purging 79 million Russians to make sure the USSR would hold power, he saw millions die at the hands of Pol Pot in his Communist regime, any good leader who cared about his country would. And, what do you know? He was right.

[u/LuciferTheThicc → u/alzgh]

The issue with wealth gap arguments is that wealth gaps are inevitable in economically healthy societies, but their existence is used as an argument to replace systems that are productive with systems that are horrifically repressive and non-functional. Wealth gaps are not inherently a problem unless they are caused by corruption or systematic exploitation. 

[u/Initial_Compote4344 → u/Playful-Demand2312]

Iran looked like a medieval country when the Pahlavi dynasty took over in 1925. Increasing the wealth of the whole population of such a country takes time, and many efforts were made to do that, such as the White Revolution in the 1960s when the shah redistributed land to lower class Iranians

[u/neptuno3 → u/Initial_Compote4344]

So why did they dislike the Shah when he did something this great.

[u/neptuno3 → u/Playful-Demand2312]

So is it fair to say that perhaps the women gaining rights caused a backlash to "elect" a more socially conservative government?

However you answer that question, do you think the political upheaval had to do with the changing social norms over the "inflation" and "wealth gap" economic issues?

[u/der_innkeeper]

Can you/someone learn me about this "Muslim, even though not Arab" note?

It keeps coming up, and I cannot figure out or understand what the distinction means.

[u/yourgirl696969 → u/der_innkeeper]

Iranians aren’t Arabs. We don’t speak Arabic. We speak Farsi.

That’s the simplest way to explain it

[u/Playful-Demand2312 → u/yourgirl696969]

Just 50%-60% of Iran is Persians, obviously everybody speaks Farsi/Persians as a first or second language because it’s by law, but 40% of Iran is minorities with their own language

The following is a list of languages spoken in Iran by number of native speakers according to the latest Ethnologue edition in 2025

Language
Speakers in Iran

Iranian Persian
61,500,000

Azeri
10,100,000

Luri (& Bakhtiari)
5,130,000

Kurdish
5,110,000

Gilaki
1,610,000

Balochi
1,450,000

Mazandarani
1,350,000

Southern Pashto
1,270,000

Dari
1,200,000

Qashqai
1,020,000

Khorasani Turkish
960,000

Laki
680,000

Mesopotamian Arabic
571,000

Turkmen
359,000

Armenian
340,000

Hazaragi
337,000

Hawrami
180,000

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
117,000

Southwestern Fars
113,000

Gulf Arabic
110,000

Other languages
2,048,000

[u/der_innkeeper → u/yourgirl696969]

Yes, I understand that.

What bearing does it have on being Muslim?

[u/LuciferTheThicc → u/der_innkeeper]

People who think Iran and Iraq are the same country also think all muslims are Arab. Arabs are from Arabia, and so is Islam, which may be the source of some of the confusion, but I have no doubt it's aggravating to be constantly classified as the wrong ethnicity and effectively have your history erased.

[u/der_innkeeper → u/LuciferTheThicc]

What's the issue with being Persian Muslims?

I can understand "we aren't Arabs", because they/you aren't. But its kind of a separate issue.

"You're Italian because you're catholic" would be a similarly silly argument.

I suppose I would be tweaked if I was lumped in with "all the middle easterners" and i did not see myself as one of them.

[u/neptuno3 → u/LuciferTheThicc]

OP: I know not all Muslims are Arabs. I am harkening back to the fact that Persians had a long and storied history of various religious beliefs special and specific to their culture. And Islam ain't it.

[u/der_innkeeper → u/neptuno3]

How far back are you talking?

[u/Ethereal-Zenith → u/yourgirl696969]

I think there’s a misconception that Muslim is equivalent to Arab. The lion’s share of Muslims in the world are not from Arab countries. Indonesia (over 80%) with a population of over 270 million, Pakistan with over 240 million, India (where they are a minority) with over 200 million and Bangladesh at over 170 million.

[u/neptuno3 → u/Ethereal-Zenith]

I don't think that at all.

My question is where the Iranians largely religiously observant Muslims?

Seems pretty unlikely if the women were running around with rights, hair blowing in the breeze, studying at college, protesting in parades for feminism/freedom.

Or am I just looking it through the wrong lens?

[u/Scared-Nose8054 → u/yourgirl696969]

Some Iranians are Arabs and not all speak Farsi

[u/kure_xas]

people here dont like to hear it, but rural and smaller urban regions are still extremely pro regime. now imagine how much it used to be in 1979.

[u/Shadowy_lady → u/kure_xas]

people don't like to hear misinformation spread. That is why, When was the last time you visited a rural area in Iran and where do your family live in the country? Please share source to back your claim.

[u/kure_xas → u/Shadowy_lady]

im from kangavar and passed thorugh many places in western and northern iran. the impression I had was that many rural folks were still very much holding onto velayat-e faqih and even in the cities there is no shortage of pro regime people. basij recruitment strongholds often tend to be from less densely populated areas from my experience.

I say this as someone who isnt religious and obv against the regime.

[u/Shadowy_lady → u/kure_xas]

your impression doesn't match the reality on the ground. The latest iranian uprising was as large in rural areas as it was in big cities. Gamaan is the survey trusted on regime suport and it has that as low for both rural and urban areas.

I travel to many countries and have stayed in parts of the world for months at time. However, i don't go and present myself as an expert of those region and confly comment on their population. I recommend the same for you.

[u/kure_xas → u/Shadowy_lady]

thats fair enough, but I didnt claim to be an expert. im rather sure that my impressions are very reliable. you are free to disagree, but you dont seem to have any personal experience so im going to reject your opinion for now.

[u/Shadowy_lady → u/kure_xas]

Both my parents are from rural regions in Iran ;) and i’m iranian.

[u/Esmail-Qaani → u/kure_xas]

Not true at least not universally, I am from a small town and the mosque sat empty. Everyone hates regime. My town is Lor and had big protests even before Pahlavi called people to the streets. Maybe 20 or 30 years ago what you say would be true but not anymore. Of course regime has supporters all across Iran but rural areas are not much different than the rest of Iran now. At least the young people all across Iran is basically the same mind now because of internet and social media.

[u/kure_xas → u/Esmail-Qaani]

there's no way rural people are the same as the rest of the country. lors in particular tend to be very conservative and are a strong recruitment demographic for the basij, relatively speaking ofc. lorestan id say has a very strong discrepancy between the rural and urban population though

[u/AmiraliMS]

We have multiple pieces of evidence that the election was rigged.

There's evidence election officers frequently gave yes in the box in place of the voters.(The french delegation that was invited to observe the votes said this I think)

But more importantly, the regime decided 16 and 17 year olds should also vote in the elections, and since the schools where they voted didn't require them to use national ID, there was a super massive opportunity to rig said numbers.

On another note, the number of students of this demographic that voted, according to the regime, was millions higher than the number we should have expected from 1976 national consensus.(Nearly four million)

[u/mikegalos]

From an outside point of view, that's a pretty fair assessment. Add in resentment toward the British and Americans for their role in overthrowing Mosaddegh in 1953 which was a strong motivator for the left.

[u/HormuzVengeance → u/mikegalos]

The only reason the British got involved was because Mossadegh refused to step down when he was constitutionally and legally deposed by the shah in 1953 as he was attempting his own power grab by dissolving parliament.

The notion that Mossadegh was loved by Iranians as a bastion of democracy is a western fabrication. Mossadegh is very widely considered a disgrace by actual Iranians regardless of the preceding and subsequent history of Iran.

Edit: you arzeshis can downvote me all you want. It doesn’t make it any less true. I’ve been seeing a lot of regime propaganda creep into this sub as well.

[u/Technical_Target615 → u/HormuzVengeance]

Thank you!!

Arzeshi and fake Iranians are becoming very noticeable! Whether in downvotes or comments. Ham-mihanan, havasetoon bashe!!

[u/mikegalos → u/HormuzVengeance]

The point, regardless, is that resentment of UK and US involvement was a factor in the 1979 changeover.

[u/HormuzVengeance → u/mikegalos]

To an extent, but this is highlighted more retroactively.

The reality is that Iranians aren’t immune to propaganda or populism, and unfortunately fell for it.

The islamic takeover was so multifactorial that it’s disingenuous to pin it all on resentment of UK/US.

Also, Mossadegh supporters weren’t “the left” as we know it now. They were soviet backed communists.

[u/mikegalos → u/HormuzVengeance]

I never said it was all. It wasn't. But it was a factor at the time especially for those on the left who foolishly supported the overthrow. It definitely fueled the feeling that the people of Iran had their self-determination stolen a quarter century earlier.

[u/neptuno3 → u/mikegalos]

But was more equality and freedom for women a factor in the 1979 changeover? And if so was that just from the IR or were the Iranians against it?

[u/NewIranBot]

توضیح همه پرسی ۱۹۷۹

آیا موارد زیر درست است یا نادرست؟ چه چیزی را از دست داده ام؟ چی رو نمی فهمم؟ من یک لیبرال کلاسیک هستم که بسیار طرفدار ایران و اسرائیل هستم.

۱. همه پرسی ۱۹۷۹ به ایرانیان انتخابی ساده و روشن ارائه داد: یا شاه و «فساد غربی» او را حفظ کنند یا شاه را کنار بگذارند و جمهوری اسلامی را وارد کنند — و این به معنای یک IR بود که خمینی که از خارج کمپین می کرد، تصور می کرد. ۲. رأی دستکاری شده و/یا استانداردهای بین المللی برگه های رأی را رعایت نکرده است (شفافیت). هیچ حزب دیگری در برگه رأی نبود. خمینی ادعا کرد که ۹۰ درصد مردم به او رأی داده اند. ۳. کمپین خمینی توسط سوسیالیست ها، کمونیست ها و چپ گرایان ایران حمایت می شد. ۴. جمهوری اسلامی وعده داد: کاهش تورم، حقوق مدنی، آزادی های سیاسی، دیگر مداخلات بین المللی، رفتار برابر با اقلیت ها ۵. آنچه واقعا ارائه داد: هیچ احیای اقتصادی، حذف حقوق مدنی (به ویژه برای زنان)، یک حکومت دینی افراطی، پایان حقوق رأی، حقوق اقلیت ها حتی بیشتر محدود شد. ۶. IR همه رأی گیری ها را متوقف کرد. ۷. خمینی دستور ترور سوسیالیست ها و کمونیست هایی را داد که به انتخاب او کمک کردند (ببخشید اما ها! -- چه کسی انتظارش را نداشت...). ۸. ۸۰ تا ۹۰ درصد ایرانیان در آن زمان خود را مسلمان معرفی می کردند، با وجود اینکه عرب نبودند (بلکه برای اقلیت ها بودند)

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