Iran Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction w/ Séamus Malekafzali [BONUS]

Upstream

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2025

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As seems to be the case with most of the countries that the United States goes to war with—much of the population here doesn’t know very much about those countries. And what they do know is usually Western propaganda, misinformation, or outright lies. This couldn’t be more true with Iran, where if it were up to our political leaders and corporate media, the story that Iran was a perfectly happy democracy that was abruptly and rudely destroyed by a rabid and power hungry group of Ayatollahs would never go unquestioned. They certainly wouldn’t want you to know about the Western backed coup of a left-leaning government in 1953, or that Iran suffered greatly during the Shah’s reign. But that’s why we’re here today—to help combat some of that propaganda, dispel some of those myths, and hopefully to provide a dose of reality to a nation whose war drums never cease to beat. And we’ve brought on a terrific guest to help us do it.

Séamus Malekafzali is a freelance journalist whose work focuses on the Middle East and Global South.

In this episode, Part 1 of our new series on Iran, we give a potted history of Iran from the colonial period up to the present, introducing the Pahlavi dynasty, touching on important events like the rise of Mohammad Mosaddeq and the attempt to nationalize Iran’s oil industry which was sabotaged by Western powers. We explore the rise of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the repressive regime he led as a Western puppet. We talk about the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the role Iran now plays as a leading state in the Axis of Resistance against US hegemony. And, of course, we talk about the ongoing war being waged against Iran by the United States and its proxy, Israel and explore the regional and global implications.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	With Muhammad Reza Phaffi, his purchase with the PLevi, his purchase with the public is almost exclusively cultural.
0:27.6	The perception that he had that he was a westernized, high-flying, fashionable monarch who, in contrast to the current government, the
0:40.3	Zonag Republic, supported women's rights, supported, I don't think they ever say this explicitly,
0:46.3	but the idea was that I think left up in the ether was that it was somehow more democratic.
0:51.3	It wasn't. That people represented better. They weren't.
0:55.0	The reality is, for the vast majority of people in Iran,
1:00.0	that sort of westernized existence was non-existent.
1:06.0	It was not present in their lives.
1:08.0	Iran enjoyed some of the worst wealth inequality in the world up until
1:13.8	the Islamic Revolution. It had some of the worst human rights records in the world. The secret police
1:20.3	the Savak was deeply feared. You're listening to Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. Upstream. A show about political
1:31.1	economy and society that invites you to unlearn everything you've thought you knew about the world around you.
1:37.8	I'm Robert Raymond. And I'm Della Duncan. As seems to be the case with most of the countries that the United States goes to war with,
1:47.0	much of the population here doesn't know very much about those countries.
1:52.0	And what they do know is usually Western propaganda, misinformation, or outright lies.
1:59.0	And this couldn't be more true with Iran, where if it were up to our political leaders
2:05.5	and corporate media, the story that Iran was a perfectly happy democracy that was abruptly
2:12.4	and rudely destroyed by a power-hungry group of Ayatollos would never go in question.
2:19.6	They certainly wouldn't want you to know about the western-backed coup of a left-leaning
2:24.1	government in 1953, or that Iran suffered greatly during the Shah's reign.
2:30.6	But that's why we're here today, to help combat some of that propaganda, dispel some of
2:36.6	those myths, and hopefully to provide a dose of reality to a nation whose war drums never
	...

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