IB History Internal Assessment (IA)

"In the late 1970's, the various opponents of the shah [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] united under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Muslim religious leader. In January 1979, the shah left Iran after mass demonstrations, strikes, and riots against his rule. The next month, the revolutionaries took control of the government.

Khomeini declared Iran an Islamic republic. He and his followers began setting up a new government based on the teachings of Islam. For the first year after the revolution, a Revolutionary Council appointed by Khomeini carried out the new government's policies. Hundreds of officials of the shah's government were tried in revolutionary courts and put to death by firing squads. The Islamic government shut down newspapers and magazines. It banned political parties. It closed universities. It placed restrictions over the people's personal freedoms. A new constitution made Khomeini the  faqih (supreme leader) of Iran. In 1980, the Iranian people elected the first president and the first Majlis of the republic.

The new government was bitterly anti-American because the United States had supported the shah. In October 1979, President Jimmy Carter allowed the shah to enter the United States for medical treatment. On November 4, Iranian revolutionaries seized the United States Embassy in Tehran. They held a group of Americans—chiefly embassy workers—as hostages. The United States and many other countries denounced this action as a violation of international law. They demanded that the hostages be freed. The revolutionaries said they would release the hostages if the U.S. government returned the shah to Iran for trial. The United States refused to do so. The shah moved to Panama in December 1979 and to Egypt in March 1980. He died in Egypt in July 1980. The revolutionaries freed the hostages on Jan. 20, 1981. "

"Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini." World Book Advanced, World Book, 2021. Online image, www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/media?id=pc200458. 

Ansari, Ali M. "Iran." World Book Advanced, World Book, 2021, www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar280940.