I Knew the Shah - 17 Jan 09 - Part 1

As the thirtieth anniversary of the Iranian revolution approaches Al Jazeera is running a special series of programmes from the Islamic Republic.

Firstly an inside profile of the last Shah of Iran from those who knew him best.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• islamic
• revolution
• iran
• shah
• reza
• pahlavi
• tehran
• rageh
• omaar
• al
• jazeera
• anniversary
• ayatollah
• khomeini

[Imperialpsalm]

wow, Islamic regime survived like a parasite till now. This video was made many years ago. More and more Iranians are regretting the Islamic revolution. We are deeply sorry for ourselves

[CyrusTab]

@dinavienna Torture under the Shah, while inexcusable, did not really begin until 1971, was GREATLY exaggerated, and was overwhelmingly used against the Mujahedin, Fadayan and some mullahs not against ordinary "people." Decadence is subjective, but, by most accounts, the Shah's immediate family did not live decadently, but some of his extended family did. For anyone to compare the Shah's regime to Saddam Hussein's suggestions a serious lack of historical awareness and cannot be taken seriously.

[yoyaya007]

@Imperialpsalm hahahaha little knowledge is dangerous man, i can t believe that you got so many thumbs up hahahaha lol the shah was the puppet of the british and the US they overthrew mossadeq cause he wanted the oil of iran to benefit for the people of iran and they put shah the bastard as his successor now get your fact straight you fool the problem is that the shah him self was overthrown and that was realy bad for the USA until now 2012...

[CaptainRidley]

GJ America for installing the Shah?

[marcangeli69]

Very interesting - shame about the narrator's extremely annoying voice and his inability to pronounce Persian names properly despite seemingly making a great effort. Anyone who really wants to get an inside track on who the Shah was between 1968 - 1977 should read 'The Shah and I - The Confidential Diaries of Iran's Royal Court', written by his court minister and confidant Assadollah Alam. Unputdownable.

[LimeZYX]

Why is the background music/drumming louder than the volume on the people being interviewed?

[hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii]

@Mehranrokh I could tell you the same thing. ;)

[Mehranrokh]

@hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii u aint worth a reply anymore. u could nt possibly be a more ignorant f***

[hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii]

@Mehranrokh He had the right to kill. I think he should have killed all Iranians who protested in 1979. He wasn't given the chance. He didn't like to kill, but he had to (muslimfundamentalists, marxists, ...), he even said that when he died, his son should bring democracy to Iran.

[Mehranrokh]

@hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii You are right about the oil prices but the revolution was not plotted by the West, West was just the winner of the revolution. There is no doubt that Shah cared about Iran and he raised the oil prises in 70s. However this alone could not undo the past.

He came to power through foreign intervension and for illegitimate Western interests, he demolished the constitution that tens of thousands of Iranians had bled for decades agor. Dont justify a dictator and a murderer.

[hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii]

@Mehranrokh "... so that they could continue stealing the oil... " the shah didn't let them steal it, he was the one who raised the prise. The revolution happened because of the West, they couldn't cope with the prices that the shah asked. If you wanna give your opinion, at least have a minimum knowledge of the topic.

[Mehranrokh]

@hoiiooiiooiiooiiooii Actually in 50s, it was the West who could not tolerate freedom and deomcracy in Iran, that is why they toppled the deomcratic government of PM Mosadeq and installed Shah so that they could continue stealing the Oil. If you wanna give your opinion, at least have a minimum knowledge of the topic.