The Herat Uprising: The Shia Revolution In Iran

Inability to reach the deep seated nationalistic and rooted ethnicities in Iran was a figurative death sentence for the Shah’s long-winded rule. Expectedly, this was a large focus and claim to power of the Ayatollah’s during the and in the aftermath of the changes that came with revolutionary Iran. The Shia population was especially empowered, and this was a shift in sociopolitical ideology that did not go unnoticed around the region. Shia Muslims constitute for a mere ten percent of the worlds Islamic population, yet in Iran, and its most immediate neighbors, Shia Muslims were the vast majority, though often an oppressed population by pro-Western and Sunni leaders. As the Ayatollah Khomeini instituted clergy members exclusively from Shia

After rebels seized the city for a week, friendly Soviet reinforces entered Afghanistan to assist the put down of the anti-Eastern rebels. This is a recurrent theme of the years following the Iranian Revolution, as the end of 1979 and the early years of the following decade of the 1980’s brought heavy resistance to any influence other than local and that of Islamic law, and further opposition to any Western leaning. The uprising and its subsequent termination claimed the lives of 25,000 Afghan people, but arguably more importantly, the revolt succeeded in sending a clear message outlining the changing climate of the Middle East. Two major lessons were learned in the short week of

A distinct shift in the mindset of Muslims in the Middle East was found at the doorstep of every ruling regime of the late 1970’s. Although the 20th century from the view of the Middle East could have been characterized by colonialization and foreign presence from the world superpowers, the Iranian Revolution sparked a dramatic flip to the opposite. The immense diversity of the populations of nations such as Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq gave the strong ideals of an Islamic future of the regions a prime environment for accomplishment. While the Iranian Revolution was largely a Shiite success story, it inspired a slew of other ethnic and religious groups to support its ambitions. Sunni Muslims of these nations were particularly encouraged. While Sunni’s make up the vast majority of Muslims worldwide, they are often represented on a much smaller scale in several Middle Eastern countries. Extreme strife is the strongest narrative between Sunnis and Shias, yet the message of the largely Shia Revolution was made accessible to the desires of Sunni individuals. Ayatollah Khomeini, though an outspoken Shia himself, often advocated for the unity of Sunnis and Shias as the most efficient means to achieving the highest goal of an exclusively Islamic state in the Middle East. Sunnis, for the large part, bought into Khomeini’s philosophy. This was evident in Herat. Also ready to