|
Iran
The Middle Classes
After the Revolution of 1979, the composition of the middle class
was no different from what it had been under the monarchy. There
were several identifiable social groups, including entrepreneurs,
bazaar merchants, professionals, managers of private and nationalized
concerns, the higher grades of the civil service, teachers, medium-scale
landowners, military officers, and the junior ranks of the Shia
clergy. Some middle- class groups apparently had more access to
political power than they had had before the Revolution because
the new political elite had been recruited primarily from the
middle class.
Prior to the Revolution, the middle class was divided between
those possessed of a Western education, who had a secular outlook,
and those suspicious of Western education, who valued a role for
religion in both public and private life. In general, the more
secularly oriented tended to be found among those employed in
the bureaucracy, the professions, and the universities, while
the more religiously oriented were concentrated among bazaar merchants
and the clergy. Among entrepreneurs and especially primary and
secondary school teachers, the secular and religious points of
view may have had roughly equal numbers of proponents. Since the
Revolution, these two outlooks have been in contention. The religious
outlook has dominated politics and society, but it appears that
the secular middle class has resented laws and regulations that
were perceived as interfering with personal liberties.
The middle class was divided by other issues as well. Before
the Revolution, an extremely high value had been placed upon obtaining
a foreign education. The new political elite, however, regarded
a foreign education with suspicion; accordingly, many members
of the middle class who were educated abroad have been required
to undergo special Islamic indoctrination courses to retain their
jobs. In some cases, refusal to conform to religiously prescribed
dress and behavior codes has resulted in the loss of government
jobs. As a result of these tensions, thousands of Western-educated
Iranians have emigrated since 1979.
Data as of December 1987
|
