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In 1979, the North American and European media were suddenly flooded by reports of the Iranian Revolution, an event that came as a shock to the world. When the Shah fell, the United States contemplated granting him a visa to lend support to its long-standing protégé. The new revolutionary government asked the United States to extradite the Shah to Iran instead of protecting him, but the United States refused. This refusal raised anti-American sentiments, steadily turning the Iranian revolution against the United States. It was too early for many Iranians to forget the CIA-engineered coup of 1953,
which returned the Shah back to power. The revolutionary Iranians insisted on U.S. cooperation and the U.S. refusal led to the attack on the American Embassy, which had been the center of CIA operations during the 1953 coup. Thus the American Embassy hostage crisis started. American flags were burned as demonstrators chanted “Down to America.” To the American public, unaware of the history of U.S. involvement in the 1953 coup, the flag burning and anti-American chanting was nothing but a sign of Iranian villainy. From then on, every aspect of the Iranian Revolution, most notably the Islamic religion itself, became associated with evil. In the United States, the condemnation of the
Iranian Revolution spanned the political spectrum; liberals and conservatives,as well as leftist and mainstream feminists, were united in their condemnation of the revolution. Ironically, while many feminists in the United States denounced the revolution, Iranian women were strong supporters of the revolution.
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