Constructed-Response Practice Set

Document A: "The Shah's White Revolution brought land reform, women's suffrage, literacy campaigns, and rapid economic development. Yet for many Iranians, especially religious clerics and rural traditionalists, these reforms felt like an alien Western imposition that threatened Iranian identity and Islamic values." — Description of Iran under the Shah

Document B: "In February 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to a delirious welcome by millions of Iranians. Within weeks the monarchy was replaced by the Islamic Republic. Women were required to wear the hijab. Religious courts replaced secular ones. The doctrine of velayat-e faqih placed senior clerics at the apex of political authority." — Description of the Iranian Revolution

Question 1: Based on Document A, identify two reforms of the Shah's White Revolution.

Strong sample answer: "The Shah's White Revolution included land reform that broke up large traditional estates and women's suffrage that gave women the right to vote. The program also expanded literacy and accelerated economic development through major infrastructure projects."

Question 2: Based on Document B, identify two ways the Islamic Republic reversed the Shah's policies.

Strong sample answer: "The Islamic Republic required women to wear the hijab in public, reversing the Shah's policies that had encouraged Western dress. The new regime also replaced secular courts with religious courts applying Sharia, reversing the Shah's modernization of the legal system."

Question 3: Using both documents and your knowledge of social studies, explain how the tensions between traditional culture and modernization led to the Iranian Revolution.

Strong sample answer: "The Shah's top-down modernization, described in Document A, produced reforms that genuinely changed Iranian society but did so against the wishes of important parts of the population. Religious clerics lost land and influence under reform programs that secularized education and law. Traditional rural and urban populations felt that Western dress, music, and consumer culture threatened Iranian identity. Combined with the Shah's political repression through SAVAK and the perception that he was a Western puppet (especially after the CIA restored him to power in 1953), these grievances produced the broad coalition that supported Khomeini. The Islamic Republic, described in Document B, then deliberately reversed many of the Shah's modernizing reforms, imposing the hijab and Sharia, in order to reassert traditional Islamic identity. The Iranian case shows how top-down modernization, especially when associated with foreign influence and political repression, can produce powerful backlash that takes a religious form."