Two Primary Goals of Ayatollah Khomeini

Gamban 2

Amanda Gamban

English 1A

Professor Knapps

24 February 2013

Censorship of the Arts Narrative: Two Primary Goals of Ayatollah Khomeini 

            Ayatollah Khomeini was born in 1900 and through out his life he has had a major influence on the Iranian people. He was an Islamic religious scholar and later on became the Islamic religious leader for life. How he got there was a years of turmoil and repression the government had for him at the time. The Shah, which was the leader of Iran was trying to reform his country into a more western society. Ayatollah Khomeini didn’t believe in the new pro-western movement, his beliefs against the Shah had him exiled from Iran. Even with Khomeini out of Iran his followers were growing and becoming stronger, by throwing riots and protests. The Iranian revolution had turned the Shah’s pro-western movement into the Islamic Republic of Iran with the leader being Khomeini.

            Breaking ties with the West only made the Islamic Republic stronger as a Muslim country but, weakened the Iranian people’s freedom of beliefs and rights. After the revolution the country was divided by liberal and conservative beliefs. Khomeini had sided with the conservatives because of his vision to reform the country back to a true Islamic country. His two goals were derived from a conservative point of view. “The first was the destruction of the alien and dependent (mostly western) value system that the Pahlavi regime and its “Western masters” had forced on the Iranian people"( Ruholla Khomeini). His second goal was to restore the country in to an authentic Islamic culture, “ …that would recapture the dignity of Iran as a Muslim country” (Siavoshi). Through his eyes his goals were for the best the country of Iran from a conservative standpoint, but his new plan would only make things harder for the new generation of Iranian people.

I am..

Gamban 1

Amanda Gamban

English 1A

Professor Knapp

17 February 2013

First Blog Post: I am ..

I am a first year student at Cabrillo College and I have grown up in Santa Cruz my whole life.  This town has partly helped shape me into the person I have become today, with an open mind, wonderful sense of adventure, and a love of nature. Being in such a rich environment of different cultures within this community has also become second nature of always trying new things. I would have to admit I love ethnic foods and anything that has to do with traveling. I hope one day I can travel to as many places I could possible go to.

            Besides having big dreams to travel the world, at the moment I am a student who really wants to focus on school. I am the type of student who thinks creatively and loves new interesting topics to learn about. I also want to focus on what major I should choose. I not quite sure what I want to major in, but I know that I’m on the right path to find it. My ideas so far are somewhere in the creative path or the complete opposite, a medical path. 

            Other than school and trying to figure out my major, I am a type of person who loves to be active. I play soccer on the weekends with the Santa Cruz Woman’s league and possibly next season I might want to play for Cabrillo. I would say I defiantly take advantage of where we live to go on hikes with my friends and run on the beach with my dog.

            These are just a few things that describe me at the moment. To describe who I am fully would take a little bit longer to write about. I look forward to writing more in this class because of the interesting topics that we will discuss and learn about. Also writing in this class might show me something new about my self that I didn’t see before.