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Urban Migrants and the Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Farhad Kazemi
Farhad Kazemi*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

The Iranian revolution of 1978-1979, which toppled the Pahlavi dynasty, came to fruition as a result of massive participation by diverse elements and groups in the social order. Similar to previous riots and uprisings in Iran, the locus of revolutionary activities centered in the country's towns and cities. The urban areas once again emerged as the focal points for demonstrations, riots, strikes, and other antiregime activities. Included among the participants in the revolution were large groups of urban dwellers who had migrated from Iran's villages and towns to its principal cities. The term urban migrants, then, encompasses a wide array of people with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and political orientations. For the purposes of this paper, however, the term is used to refer to the urban poor who had migrated from the rural areas to Iran's dominant and largest urban center, the capital city of Tehran.

Type
Research Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1-4: Iranian Revolution in Perspective , 1980 , pp. 257 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1980

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Footnotes

This article is based on the author's recently published book, Poverty and Revolution in Iran: The Migrant Poor, Urban Marginality and Politics (New York: New York University Press, 1980).

References

Notes

1. Lambton, Ann K. S., Landlord and Peasant in Persia: A Study of Land Tenure and Land Revenue Administration (London: Oxford University Press, 1953), p. 295.Google Scholar

2. Safinezhad, Javad, Boneh (Tehran: Tus, 1353/1974).Google Scholar

3. Khosravi, Khosrow, Pazhuheshi dar Jame'eh-ye Rusta'i-ye Iran (Tehran: Payam, 2535/1976), pp. 67–83.Google Scholar

4. Hooglund, Eric, “The Khwushnishin Population of Iran,” Iranian Studies VI (Autumn 1973), pp. 229–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 256.

6. Bill, James, The Politics of Iran: Groups, Classes and Modernization (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1972), p. 146.Google Scholar

7. Keddie, Nikki, “The Iranian Village Before and After Land Reform,” Journal of Contemporary History 3 (July 1968), p. 86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Bartsch, William, Problems of Employment Creation in Iran (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1970), p. 14, n. 3.Google Scholar

9. Bartsch, p. 67.

10. United Nations, International Labour Office, Employment and Income Policies for Iran (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1973), p. 25.Google Scholar The land reform program also envisaged the creation of rural cooperative societies, joint-stock corporations and production cooperatives, and large agribusiness farms. These programs encountered a variety of problems in their implementation stage. See Doroudian, R., “Modernization of Rural Economy in Iran,” Iran: Past, Present, and Future, ed. by Jacqz, Jane (New York: Aspen institute for Humanistic Studies, 1976).Google Scholar Weinbaum, Marvin, “Agricultural Policy and Development Politics in Iran,” Middle East Journal 31 (Autumn 1977), pp. 435–450.Google Scholar Katouzian, M. A., “Oil versus Agriculture: A Case of Dual Resource Depletion in Iran,” Journal of Peasant Studies 5 (August 1978), pp. 347–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Ashraf, Ahmad and Safai, Marsha, The Role of the Rural Organizations in Rural Development: The Case of Iran (Tehran, 1977).Google Scholar

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12. Employment and Income Policies for Iran, p. 32. Bartsch, pp. 9-17.

13. Employment and Income Policies for Iran, p. 32. The Plan Organization's study of migration to Tehran reports 20.7 percent unemployment rate immediately before migration to Tehran. See Iran, Plan and Budget Organization, Pazhuheshi Amari Baray-e Era'e-ye Sima-ye Mohajeran dar Tehran va Tabriz (Tehran: Plan and Budget Organization, 1977), p. 3.Google Scholar

14. Iran, Plan and Budget Organization, Shakhesha-ye Ejtema'i-ye Iran (Tehran, 1978), p. 322.Google Scholar

15. Ismail Ajami, “Agricultural and Rural Development in Iran: Agrarian Reform, Modernization of Peasants and Agricultural Development in Iran,” in Jacqz, p. 153.

16. See Iran, National Statistical Center, Natayej-e Amargiri-ye Niru-ye Ensani, 1972. This percentage is based on the total number of city-dwelling migrants, excluding those who migrated for reasons of marriage and other secondary migrants who were dependents of principal migrants.

17. Salamat, Mehdi et al., Elal-e Mohajerat va Barresi-ye Awza'-e Farhangi, Eqtesadi, va Ejtema'i-ye Mohajerin-e Mantaqeh-ye Yakhchiabad (Tehran: College of Social Work, 1350-1351/1971-1972).Google Scholar

18. Employment and Income Policies for Iran, pp. 25 and 12.

19. Iran, Plan and Budget Organization, Iranian Statistical Center, Salnameh-ye Amari-ye Keshvar, 1976, p. 252/11.

20. Iran, Plan and Budget Organization, Iranian Statistical Center, “Barresi-ye Ejmali-ye Mohajerat beh Manateq-e Shahri.” (Mimeographed.)

21. Turner, John C., “Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: Problems and Policies,” The City in Newly Developing Countries: Readings on Urbanism and Urbanization, ed. by Breese, Gerald (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969), p. 526.Google Scholar

22. Ettela'at, November 13, 1958, p. 1.

23. This is a free translation of an eyewitness account in Ettela'at, November 13, 1958, pp. 1 and 17. Addition-al stories on the eradication effort are reported in later issues of November 15 and 16 of Ettela'at.

24. The only concrete result of the eradication effort was the eventual construction of Kuye Nohom-e Aban residential unit in this area.

25. Iran Times, August 11, 1978, p. 16.

26. Cherikha-ye Fada'i-ye Khalq-e Iran, Gozareshati az Mobarezat-e Daliraneh-ye Mardom-e Kharej az Mahdudeh (Tehran: 1357/1958), pp. 54–55.Google Scholar

27. Tilly, Charles, From Mobilization to Revolution (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978), p. 69.Google Scholar

28. Nettl, J. P., political Mobilization: A Sociological Analysis of Methods and Concepts (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), p. 136.Google Scholar

29. See Owen Lynch's discussion of these conditions in his “Political Mobilisation and Ethnicity among Adi-Dravidas in a Bombay Slum,” Economic and Political Weekly IX (September 28, 1974), pp. 1658 and 1665.Google Scholar See also Tilly, pp. 54-55.

30. M. H. Pesaran, “Income Distribution in Iran,” in Jacqz, p. 278.

31. Shakhesha-ye Ejtema'i, p. 390.

32. It is interesting to note that proshah indoctrination through the educational medium also extended to adult literacy classes. For example, in a book published for beginners in adult literacy classes by the Ministry of Education, the reader is struck by sentences such as, “Our King is kind”; “Our King is the supporter of Peasants and workers”; “We love our King”; “The People of Iran love their King and country.” See Iran, Ministry of Education, Bekhanim va Benevisim: Baray-e Amuzesh-e Bozorgsalan (Tehran, 1344/1964), p. 29.Google Scholar

33. The Washington Post, January 14, 1979, p. A30.

34. The New York Times, December 4, 1978, p. A3.

35. See observations by Portes in Portes, Alejandro and Walton, John, Urban Latin America: The Political Condition from Above and Below (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976), p. 109.Google Scholar

36. A revealing report on the squatters in the newspaper Kar, the official publication of the People's Sacrifice Guerrillas, highlights the squatters’ discontents about the housing and employment situation after the revolution. In response to the investigator's question, “What is your most important problem?” one squatter answered bitterly: “Our total life is a problem. From the moment we recognized ourselves we had nothing but problems. Look at the present situation. Now they say that the old regime is gone and the hands of exploiters and oppressors are cut off. But my problem, and that of a thousand other squatter families, is lack of jobs and living quarters. I have had no income for the past year. I have eaten whatever I had. There is no food for tomorrow. Believe me, I don't know how I am going to live tomorrow.” See Kar, 3 Khordad 1358/1979, p. 5.

37. See ibid., p. 5., about the elections held among the squatters of the South City Pits for the “Committee to Settle Tehran Squatters.” It appears that many squatters participated in the election and hoped that the committee would work to promote their well-being. Others, however, were disappointed at the results of the revolution for not having changed their lives, and many expressed dismay about their future prospects.