Born Then
1978–1982

Life during the Iranian Revolution

Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.

What it meant for ordinary people

Mass protests overthrew the Shah in 1979 and brought an Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini. The new regime executed opponents, imposed religious rules on daily life, and many educated and wealthy Iranians emigrated.

Deaths: a few thousand during the revolution, and several thousand executed in the purges of 1979–82 and 1988.

How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from scholarly estimates.

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