Those who remember the 1979 Iranian Revolution may see an irony at the moment in the fact that the son of the man — and regime — that was deposed at that time has now become a rallying point for a possible counter-revolution.

Particularly since so many of the grievances of the population are so strikingly similar.

The CIA-backed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled after lengthy protests and strikes in a revolutionary movement in which an exiled cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, became the rallying point and leader.

The CIA-backed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was toppled after lengthy protests and strikes in a revolutionary movement in which an exiled cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, became the rallying point and leader. (AP Photo: File)

A complicated political reality

The theocratic nature of the regime which Khomeini would eventually establish after the Shah's downfall — and the anti-American sentiment of Iranians at the time — may have been the distinguishing features of this particular revolution.

These features created a new lens on, and crisis point in, world events: after decades in which the United States' foreign policy was framed overwhelmingly by a battle against communism, the Iranian revolution marked the beginning of new forces at work in the Middle East.

But the 1979 Revolution was not solely driven by religion, even if attacks on religious figures and places by the regime were crucial in how events unfolded.

Opposition forces were also motivated by massive corruption, economic difficulties like inflation and recession, and inequality, which was unfolding despite the country's rich oil reserves at the time of the OPEC oil boom.

Understanding how events unfold from here requires an understanding of how Iranian society — and the economy — have reconfigured in the 47 years since the revolution.

While Iran is sometimes still seen as simply a theocracy run by "Mad Mullahs", reality is always more complicated.

Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, a decade after the revolution, and his successor as Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, has ruled with an increasingly ruthless and centralised hand, which analysts of Iran note is now built on exceptionally close ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Bazaaris shut their doors

While the Iranian leadership continues to blame the US and Israel for fomenting the current protests, it is notable that demonstrations in the past couple of months actually started on economic grounds in one of the institutions that most people might most associate with Iran: The bazaars.

The merchants who run Iran's bazaars, known as bazaaris, played a crucial role in the 1979 revolution. For some time, they profited from it by being part of the new regime's economic structures.