When I think of the word liberation I think of freedom. Liberty is a basic right every American should have.
The Pahlavi and the Ayatollah Khomeini regimes were diametrically opposed. The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979. The Pahlavi's were closely associated with the West and ruled in an autocratic matter. This was especially true during the Cold War. Thoroughly western in orientation, women enjoyed significant freedoms in terms of their mobility in public life. The Shah's repression of dissidents led to dissatisfaction among students and the religious right. The last Shah of Iran was forced to resign and leave the country. The Khomeni government represented the ascendancy of the religious rights. Iran became a theocracy and women were increasingly relegated to the margins. They were forced to adhere to religious doctrine, and wear the hijab (Islamic head covering)
<u>This portion of the text emphasizes the natural rights of people:</u>
- <em>Man being born ... with a title to perfect freedom and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of Nature ... hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property— that is, his life, liberty, and estate, against the injuries and attempts of other men</em>
Explanation:
Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke believed that using reason will guide us to the best ways to operate in order to create the most beneficial conditions for society. For Locke, this included a conviction that all human beings have certain natural rights which are to be protected and preserved. Locke's ideal was one that promoted individual freedom and equal rights and opportunity for all. Each individual's well-being (life, health, liberty, possessions) should be served by the way government and society are arranged.
Here's another excerpt section from Locke's <em> Second Treatise on Civil Government</em> (1690), in which he expresses the ideas of natural rights:
- <em>The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… (and) when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.</em>
