How the Poor Become Revolutionaries: Suburbanites and Squatters of Tehran in Islamic Revolution of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Shahid Sadr Research Center

2 Department of Political Science, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Islamic revolution of Iran (1979) was accomplished by notably various contributors, including law income groups. Suburbanites and squatters are their main representatives in Tehran. They were mostly immigrants to the capital in 1960s and 1970s that chose margins due to Improving communication routes and implementation of settlement limitation in main part of Tehran, however some of them merged to the poorest neighborhoods. Like every other group in those years, the urban poor in Tehran were incited by their own situation and conditions and were considering their own demands and motives on which this research focuses. We make a model according to retroductive methodological strategy in a reciprocal relation with data that is gathered through exploring newspapers, unsolicited documents and three supplementary interviews with a reputable merchant of Bazar, an active clergyman and a main member of Islamic charities. Researchers conclude that Tehran suburbanites and squatters were incited by economic dissatisfactions, ties with Islamic and revolutionary charities, religiosity and spread of Islamic Ideology. They eventually were brought into political tensions by leftists’ violent way of fight and great greeting ceremony for Ayatollah Khomeini. Finally we provide some suggestions to other researchers.

Keywords


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  • Receive Date: 05 October 2019
  • Revise Date: 20 June 2020
  • Accept Date: 29 June 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 July 2020
  • Publish Date: 01 July 2020