About

Iran Before The Islamic Revolution is a catchphrase used in memes that parody depictions of Iran as Western and liberal before the culmination of the Islamic Revolution in 1979. The memes typically parody various portrayals of pre-revolution Iran that place notable focus on the way women dressed before the national imposition of the hijab or veil. Memes parodying these portrayals of Iranian women without the hijab were popularized on Reddit after 2017.

Origin

The Iranian Revolution culminated with the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The Pahlavi dynasty had previously introduced various progressive reforms that promoted aggressive modernization in Iran after 1963, which resulted in a redistribution of wealth to Iran's working class, rapid urbanization and deconstruction of Iran's feudalist customs.^[1]

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 26th, 2013, post by Redditor^[2] /u/Kamais_Ookin to the /r/HistoryPorn subreddit is an early example of such a post, gathering over 2,000 upvotes in nine years (seen below).

Various other internet users have posted images of women without the hijab in pre-revolution Iran on the internet since.^[3][4] The earliest known meme acknowledging this trend was posted by a now-deleted Redditor to /r/Izlam on June 25th, 2018,^[5] gathering over 3,800 upvotes in five years (seen below).

Spread

In the early 2020s, the cliche continued to spread in various memes. For example, on November 28th, 2021, Twitter^[8] user @lawyerman_ktk posted a tweet that read, "*opens western history book* / Iran before the Islamic revolution." The post gathered over 4,900 likes in two years (seen below, left). On June 28th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @ElectionLegal posted a still from the 2023 Barbie movie with the caption, "Iran before the Islamic Revolution," gathering over 90,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

On September 14th, 2022, Redditor^[6] /u/mo_omar69 posted a meme about the trend to /r/historymemes, gathering over 14,000 upvotes in eight months (seen below, left). On October 2nd, Imgur^[7] user GloryArse posted a meme parodying posts that focus on Iranian people at the beach, gathering over 120,000 views in seven months (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References