Irainian revolution

At the same time, they believed that they had been cheated by the elite out of their share of the industrialization wealth (Orwin 43).
             About this time, the middle class, which included students, technocrats, and modernist professionals, became unhappy with the economy. The key event should have further stabilized the royal dictatorship, but the increase in oil prices and oil income beginning in 1974 caused extreme inflation. This was due to the investment strategy followed by the Shah (Cottam 14). And because of the Shah's support structure which enabled the new rich to benefit from inflation, the government effort to deal with inflation was useless. Poor Iranians and Iranians with a fixed income suffered major losses in real income. Better standards of living were no longer visible. The majority of the Iranian people developed a revolutionary predisposition.
             As the middle class became discontent in Iran throughout the .
             1970's, the desertion of intellectuals could be found in great excess. .
             Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini represented much of the discontent of the religious sector of Iran. For speaking out against the Shah's autocratic rule, Khomeini was exiled to Turkey in 1963. In 1965, Khomeini moved to Iraq where he became the central spokesperson for refugee opposition to the Shah. On October 6, 1978, Khomeini was expelled from Iraq and moved to Paris, where he was accessible to a larger body of opposition forces. He was also accessible to the Western Press. Khomeini preached that he would displace the Shah and expel the foreigners. He also said he would enforce religious and traditional values, and redirect Iran's wealth away from large industrialization schemes and toward reforms needed by the common people.
             Throughout the 1970's, Khomeini gained tremendous popularity with the masses, and he became the symbol of the opposition towards the Shah. As Khomeini gained popularity, many religious groups grew in numbers and in status.