In 1967, for the first time in Iranian history, the Empress is also crowned Shah Banu. This is kind of, you know, he makes this big, visible external push to show just how enlightened his rule is. He says that if he is to die before the crown prince turns 20, that his wife will become queen - which would have been unprecedented. But it's always hedged, right? There's always some hedges in these in these proclamations. So I think that kind of gives a shape to where the Shah is at in terms of the question of gender more directly.
Featuring Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi and Golnar Nikpour on the history of modern Iran. This is the third episode in our four-part series. We pick up in the wake of the US-British 1953 coup against Mossadegh, assess the Shah's repression and attempts to manufacture consent through passive revolution, and then close by laying out the 1979 Islamic Revolution in all of its wild complexity.
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