Iranian referendum, 1963

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White Revolution referendum

"White Revolution of the Shah and the People": [1]

  1. Abolition of the landowner–tenant system by land reform
  2. Nationalization of forests and pastures
  3. Sale of government factories for the purpose of financing land reform
  4. Making workers shareholders of factories they worked in
  5. Reform of electoral laws
  6. Creation of the Literacy Corps


The ballots for 'Yes' were white, while were negative ones were green [2]

Contents

Location Iran
Date 26 January 1963 (1963-01-26)
Results
Votes %
Yes check.svgYes5,589,71199.93%
X mark.svgNo 4,1150.07%
Valid votes 5,593,826100.00%
Invalid or blank votes 00%
Total votes5,593,826100.00%
Registered voters/turnout 6,098,27791.73%
271,179 announced additional votes cast by women were counted separately but not considered in the official results [2]
Women voting in the referendum Womenelection1963.jpg
Women voting in the referendum

A referendum was held in Iran on 26 January 1963 by the decree of Mohammad Reza Shah, with an aim to show popular support for him, asking voters to approve or veto the reforms of the White Revolution. [3]

Iran Country in Western Asia

Iran, also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a country in Western Asia. With over 81 million inhabitants, Iran is the world's 18th most populous country. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi), it is the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world. Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan, to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq. The country's central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance. Tehran is the country's capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center.

White Revolution

The White Revolution or the Shah and People Revolution was a far-reaching series of reforms in Iran launched in 1963 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and lasted until 1979. Mohammad Reza Shah’s reform program was built especially to weaken those classes that supported the traditional system. It consisted of several elements, including land reform, sale of some state-owned factories to finance this land reform, construction of an expanded road, rail, and air network, a number of dam and irrigation projects, the eradication of diseases such as malaria, the encouragement and support of industrial growth, enfranchisement of women, nationalization of forests and pastures, formation of literacy and health corps for rural isolated areas, and institution of profit sharing schemes for workers in industry. In the 1960s and 1970s the shah sought to develop a more independent foreign policy and established working relationships with the Soviet Union and eastern European nations. In subsequent decades, per capita income for Iranians skyrocketed, and oil revenue fueled an enormous increase in state funding for industrial development projects.

Women were not officially allowed to vote, but were set up to vote at their own balloting counters and dedicated boxes, at the suggestion of Ministry of Agriculture Hasan Arsanjani. The results gave Iranian women the right to vote. [4]

Hasan Arsanjani Iranian politician

Sayyid Hassan Arsanjani (1922–1969) was a radical reformer, and as the minister of agriculture in the cabinet of Dr. Ali Amini introduced the program of land reform in Iran. Later on the shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi forced him to resign and credited himself for introducing the land reform through his White Revolution. He was a law graduate who held several positions including publisher of the Darya newspaper, Member of Parliament during the Majlis's fifteenth assembly, political deputy of Qavam al-Saltana and Agricultural Minister in the cabinets of both `Ali Amini and ` Assadolah Alam. His death in suspicious circumstances was attributed to the fact that he had become immensely popular especially among peasants after the land reform, something that was not appreciated by SAVAK, the secret police of the Shah.

Womens suffrage the legal right of women to vote

Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the late 1800s, women worked for broad-based economic and political equality and for social reforms, and sought to change voting laws in order to allow them to vote. National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights, especially the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and also worked for equal civil rights for women.

Criticism

Despite the apparent benign nature of the proposals in the referendum, there was significant opposition. [5] Opponents included major landowners, ulema and communists. [3]

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for boycotting the referendum as "un-Islamic". [6]

Ruhollah Khomeini 20th-century Iranian religious leader and politician

Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini, known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian politician and marja. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that saw the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989.

National Front boycotted the referendum, criticizing that the measures did not come from the parliament. [5]

National Front (Iran) political opposition party in Iran

The National Front of Iran is an opposition political organization in Iran, founded by Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1949. It is the oldest and arguably the largest pro-democracy group operating inside Iran despite having never been able to recover the prominence it had in the early 1950s.

Voters were asked six questions, but had only the option to vote yes or no to the total package. [7]

Similar to the previous referendum, polling places lacked secrecy and there were two separate voting booths: one for the supporters and one for the opponents. "No sane man would enter the opposition booth", according to Mohammad Gholi Majd. [1]

Party policies

Position Organization Ref
Yes
 Nationalists’ Party
People's Party
Pan-Iranist Party
Boycott
 National Front [5]
Freedom Movement [8]

Results

ChoiceVotes%
For5,589,71199.9
Against4,1150.1
Abstain00
Total votes5,593,826100
Registered voters6,098,277—
Source: Nohlen et al. [7] and Zonis [9]

Aftermath

Following the referendum dissension and riots outbroke in almost all major urban areas, most significantly in Tehran and the city of Qom. The Shah gave orders to immediate suppression of the opposition and National Front, Freedom Movement, Tudeh Party and religious activists were imprisoned. [9] The unrest made Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini the regime's principal opponent in the minds of most Iranians. [6]

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Ruhollah Khomeinis return to Iran

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Ruhollah Khomeinis life in exile

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References

  1. 1 2 Majd, Mohammad Gholi (2000), Resistance to the Shah: Landowners and Ulama in Iran, University Press of Florida, pp. 260–261, ISBN   978-0813017310
  2. 1 2 E. A. Bayne (1965), Four Ways of Politics: State and Nation in Italy, Somalia, Israel, Iran: The Dynamics of Political Participation as Exhibited in Four Countries Caught Up in the Process of Modernization, American Universities Field Staff, p. 260
  3. 1 2 Lloyd Ridgeon (2005). Religion and Politics in Modern Iran: A Reader. I.B.Tauris. p. 173. ISBN   978-1-84511-073-4.
  4. ↑ Lois Beck and Guity Nashat, eds. (2004). Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Republic. University of Illinois Press. p. 139. ISBN   978-0-252-07189-8.
  5. 1 2 3 Elton L. Daniel (2012). The History of Iran. ABC-CLIO. p. 157. ISBN   0313375097.
  6. 1 2 Edward Willett (2003). Ayatollah Khomeini. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 42. ISBN   9780823944651.
  7. 1 2 Nohlen, Dieter; Grotz, Florian; Hartmann, Christof (2001). "Iran". Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook. I. Oxford University Press. p. 72. ISBN   0-19-924958-X.
  8. ↑ Hiro, Dilip (2013). Iran Under the Ayatollahs (Routledge Revivals). Routledge. p. 104. ISBN   1135043817.
  9. 1 2 Marvin Zonis (2015). Political Elite of Iran. Princeton University Press. p. 75–77. ISBN   9781400868803.
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