Iran+Social+Class+by+Fortay+Johnson

The upper class consists of mostly men, who are large landowners, industrialists, financiers and large merchants. The reason why these men are apart of the upper class is because they learned a virtue by staying in Iran through-out the wars and other things that have happen in Iran. This is how they have earned a good amount of their wealth and are now apart of Iran's upper social class.

After the Revoution of 1979, the middle class really didn't change at all and was the same as it was under the monarchy. There are many more people in this class compared to the Upper class, who are the "Old Elite". The people who are in Middle Class consist of entrepreneurs,merchants, professionals, managers of private and nationalized concerns, the higher grades of the civil service, teachers, medium-scale landowners, military officers, and the junior ranks of the Shia clergy. Some of the middle class groups had actually more access to political power than the had before the Revolution. Some say it was because the new political elite had been recruited from the middle class more than any other social class in Iran. Politics are so important in Iran, so for them to have more access to it is very nice for the middle class. Before the Revolution of 1979, the middle class was divided between two different groups. The groups were those who possessed of a Western education, who had a secular outlook, and the other group was the people who were suspicious of Western education, who valued a role for religion for both in public and in private. Since the Revolution, the two sides have been in a heated argument.The Religion side has taken over politics and society, but the secular middle class has resented laws and regulations that were seen as messing with someone's own personal liberties. The middle class was divided by other things at this time as well. Before the Revolution, an extremely high value had been placed upon obtaining a foreign education. The new political elite, however, they thought that a foreign education was suspicious, and many members of the middle class who were educated by this foreign education have been required to undergo special Islamic courses to keep their jobs.  The working class has been in the process of formation since the early twentieth century. The industrial programs of the Pahlavi shahs provided the energy and spark for the expansion of this class. By the 1970s, a distinct working-class had been established, although those who applied this term to themselves did not actually constitute a unified group. The working class was divided into various groups. These groups included people who do things to do with oil industry, manufacturing, construction, and transportation; and mechanics and artisans in bazaar workshops. The most important component, factory workers, numbered about 2.5 million on the before the Revolution even happen, then the number doubled in 1965, and they were 25 percent of Iran's total employed in the labor force. Skilled construction workers, such as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers, earned significantly higher wages than the more numerous unskilled workers and tended to look down upon them. Similar status differences were common among workers in the oil industry, textile manufacturing, and metal goods production. The heaviest concentration of unskilled workers was in construction, which on the day before the Revolution, employed 9 percent of the entire labor force. In addition to relatively low wages, unskilled construction workers had no job security. The last and least class is the lower class.The Lower class is split into two different parts, those who have those with regular employment and those without. People who work regularly include servants, bath attendants, porters, street cleaners, peddlers, street vendors, gardeners, office cleaners, laundry workers, and bakery workers. Many thousands of people do not work year round and only work occasionally or seasonally. Many people earn a ton of their money just from begging. Some people who are so poor, they go to the extremes of prostitution, gambling, smuggling, and drug selling. At the time of the Revolution, it was estimated that as much as one- third of the population of Tehran and one-quarter of the population of other large cities consisted of persons living on the margins of urban society.Life was joined by squalid slums, poverty, malnutrition, lack of health and educational facilities, and crime. One way that Social Classes relates to persepolis is when Marji's maid fell in love with the man in the window across the street. They would wave at each other every night and talk to each other, and then on day the boy slipped her a note and she was so happy. They were soon going to go out but Marji's father found out about their plans and went to talk to the boy. Her father told the boy that the maid was not his daughter, rather she was the maid. The man was in shock because he had fallen in love with someone who was out of his social class. I think that it is unfair to the maid because just because she's a maid and she can't control what class she is in. I think the boy should've liked her for who she is not because of the social class. The whole class thing really doesn't make sense. Thank you for your time, hope you learned a ton! http://www.mongabay.com/history/iran/iran-social_class_in_contemporary_iran.html

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