The_Face_of_Boo wrote:
Chronos wrote:
AnonymousAnonymous wrote:
Good for them. The Iranian people are actually more culturally western than other Islamic countries and veiling was forced on them during the religious revolution. There has always been an undercurrent of western mentalities though when the religious police had their backs turned. The second they those women get out of Iran the veils come off.
Nope, not really. If the religious regime didn't have a very strong support from a large portion of people then it wouldn't have lasted for that long.
You are describing the majority of the Iranian's urban people, not the Iranian people as a whole, the regime had a lot of support from the rural areas.
As a general rule in the Middle-East (and most apparent in Iran, Turkey and Egypt): when urban people rule the country becomes secular, but when rural people rule then expect backwardness and religiosity.
Yes, I am talking about the urban people. They are the ones who had the veil forced on them. Also, I should clarify, the veil as a religious garment rather than merely a veil for protection from the elements or to keep one's unwashed hair covered as was common elsewhere in the world at one time.
But the ruling party does not need the support of the majority. It needs the support of the powerful minority and complacency or inability to organize of the majority. In Iran the pushback was to U.S. and western "meddling". It just happened to be a group of people with religious ideologies who offered an alternative to the secular government which was seen as weak and a puppet of the west.