How Was 'Iran Before the Islamic Revolution'? The Viral Catchphrase And Memes About Pre-Revolution Iran Explained

Memes can often be associated with plain entertainment or brain rot, more recently, but this type of content can also be enriched by historical moments, such as the case for the memes about Iran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The internet's obsession with re-revolution Iran dates back more than a decade ago, as curiosity over how women's freedom and behavior changed drastically in the country makes the pictures found online a powerful history lesson, while also being a perfect memetic opportunity for parodies and photoshopped edits.

Here's what we know about Iran before the Islamic Revolution and how the topic grew as a popular parody meme on social media.

How Was 'Iran Before the Islamic Revolution?'

In the decades before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran was controlled by the Shah, who restricted political freedom and heavily introduced Western-oriented secular modernization, which resulted in a redistribution of wealth to Iran's working class, rapid urbanization and deconstruction of Iran's feudalist customs. However, the Shah's increasingly authoritarian measures set the stage for the January 1979 outrage against government extravagance.

Depictions of pre-Islamic Revolution Iran on the internet often focus on the absence of the veil or hijab in photographs of Iranian women before 1979. A June 2013, post by Redditor /u/Kamais_Ookin to the /r/HistoryPorn subreddit is an early example of such a post (seen below).

Why Did 'Iran Before the Islamic Revolution' Became A Meme?

The striking difference between the way Iranian women dress today and before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 became an easy engagement topic on social media, as an unknown Redditor joked about the subject to /r/Izlam channel on June 25th, 2018. (seen below).

In the early 2020s, the cliche grew popular, as many Reddit, X and Instagram pages started to post memetic content of Iran before the Islamic revolution. For example, on November 2021, X user @lawyerman_ktk posted a tweet that read, "*opens western history book* / Iran before the Islamic revolution." (seen below, left)

On June 2022, X user @ElectionLegal posted a still from the 2023 Barbie movie with the caption, "Iran before the Islamic Revolution." (seen below, right).

What Are Some Notable 'Iran Before the Islamic Revolution' Memes?

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For the full history of Iran before the Islamic Revolution, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.