The Role of Religion in Iranian Social Change

이란의 사회변동에서 종교의 역할

Social Movements are especially important because they can be the source of social change. Whatever a successful movement has been experienced, a change followed. Iran has witnessed three major social movements in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. These cases which are explored in this study are: the Anti-Tobacco Movement(1891) - an anti-colonialism movement, the Constitutional Revolution(1906) - a justice movementm and the Islamic Revolution(1979) - an anti-imperialism movement. The Shiite ideology, in the Anti-Tobacco Movement, took the form of a single ban. Shirazi’s statement forbidding the use of tobacco was followed by an already agitated Shiite population and, acted as a solidarity factor uniting them all against the contract. In the Constitutional Revolution the idea of justice wasd the main target of the revolutionaries. They were seeking ‘consultation’ against ‘dictatorship’ and ‘justice’ against ‘despotism. The ideology of Khomeini was a Shiite idea positing the ulama as being responsible for the whole sphere of life of Muslim society. Shiism, as a national belief, could act, as a factor of social closure, and unite the people against the despotic rule of the Shah. In the Anti-Tabacco Movement the leader was a clergyman, and the distributors were clergmen, collaborating with bazaaris. They used the religious structure, and directed the agitated Shiite followers towards the specific targets of the ideology of the movement. In the Constitutional Revolution the ulama filled the leadership positions as well as those of the distributors of the movement with the help of bazaaris. Khomeini was the leader in the Islamic Revolution. Khomeini divided the society into two groups; the minority of oppressors and the majority of those who are oppressed. He emphasized that the ulama are duty bound to help the oppressed, and to be an enemy to the oppressor.