An interesting piece on Iran by the Guardian's #JasonBurke, drawing parallels between the end of the Shah regime in 1979 and today's situation.

It makes me think about societal tectonic shifts and how we experience them in our lifetime, if we hang around for long enough.

I was a teenager in 1979, well read, politically very active. When Ayatolla Khomeini returned to Iran, I wrote a lengthy piece for our student newspaper, explaining how the European Left must celebrate the coalition of forces that manifested itself in the Iranian revolution. The actual result of course was a regime of internal repression and external threat. Five decades later, history is breaking up again.

Shortly after, I spent three months in Israel, in a Kibbutz. There had been no Intifada yet. So many opportunities were open then that have since closed.

History moves slowly, but fast enough to overtake us in a single lifetime.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/15/regime-change-iran-1979-pointers-shah-exile

#Iran #revolutions #LivingThroughTectonicShifts #politics