The Iranian revolution is often perceived as a reaction to the secular nationalism and modernism under Shah Reza Pahlavi and his elite, alienated of the people and their religious feelings. However, recent studies show that the Pahlavi state took a much more ambivalent stance towards Islam. The Pahlavi regime attempted to suppress religious views that conflicted with modernization, but at the same time it promoted Shia Islam and the Shah was eager to present himself as a practicing muslim. In their research project, Prof. Dr Bianca Devos (University of Marburg) and Dr Elyas Pirasteh investigated the development and characteristics of religious politics in the late Pahlavi period, i.e. the years between 1963 and 1979, and the aims and motives behind it.
Bianca Devos' research project "State Islam in pre-Revolutionary Iran (1941–1979): Religious Politics between Nationalism and Modernism" was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of the special programme Islam.