Odd Lots · Thursday, July 30, 2026
The Iranian Revolution had mixed economic drivers, with initial support from middle classes and intellectuals seeking democracy or secular governance. Ruhala Khomeini co-opted leftist economic arguments, promising benefits for the poor like free electricity and housing. However, over time, these promises have not been met, leading to growing dissatisfaction among all socioeconomic classes.
“All of those people kind of joined in. But what we see, especially kind of towards the end of the revolution, as we're getting to nineteen seventy nine, is that the leader of the revolution, Ruhala Homani, who then became the leader of the new government, he wanted to kind of co op some of the most effective sort of leftist arguments because he wanted kind of their young people, they're their supporters, to sort of also support him, and so, you know, these arguments of kind of the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat. You know, Homiani kind of adopted some of those terms with an Islamic tinge, and therefore sort of he promised and then in the first few months, especially of the revolution, he also promised that, you know, we are going to provide for the poor. We're going to provide free electricity, free buses for the poor, We're going to build housing.”
“And I think the government's wanted to present itself as being on behalf of some of those the kind of the lower classes of society, and presented them kind of as its base. As time goes on, what we see, especially kind of in the last ten to fifteen years, it sort of turned its back on a lot of those promises to where it's not even really even pretending anymore that that is kind of what it's aimed at.”
“And we can kind of talk about some of the turning points there, but it really was kind of a gradual shift over time, and then especially since twenty seventeen, you really see this growing dissatisfaction amongst not just middle class Iranians but also people who are poor and struggling against what this revolution has brought to them.”