'The Dichotomy Of Reza Shah's Occidentosis'

Aleh Ahmad’s work Occidentosis takes a bold stance at a turning point in Iranian history. At a time when Iranians were facing the dilemma of seeing where they fit within the ideologies of the West and the Soviet Union, Ahmad challenged Iranians to look inward and embrace the force most resistant to change from outside forces: Islam. In particular, I found the dichotomy between Reza Shah’s westernization reforms and Aleh Ahmad’s Islamic Republic as an ideological battle for the hearts and minds of everyday Iranians.
The Iranian government under Mohammad Reza Shah encouraged Westernization of the Iranian people; oftentimes this was not suggested, so much as it was imposed. The Shah took various initiatives to promote the westernization of his people, including banning traditional religious garments, imposing a dress code that mimics European fashion, and forcing women to be unveiled in public. To Ahmad, mimicking of the west is surface level and merely on an appearance level. Although Iranians were forced to wear western gear and women were forbidden from wearing traditional head coverings, these changes only gave the appearance of change, rather than actually change the underlying circumstances creating an inequality between men and women.
Another change in society caused by the Shah’s reforms was the …show more content…
Similar to his criticism of the disease plaguing Iranians of mimicking the West, Ahmad stresses the importance of Islam as the preventive medicine to fetishizing machines like the Europeans. To the doctor diagnosing his country with Occidentosis, the medicine was clear. Iranian’s must remind remember their religion and by focusing less on pleasing the west and more on pleasing God, Iran will once again become a power to be