The Pour Over Today - TPO Explains | The History of the Iranian Regime

Episode Date: March 7, 2026

Readers of The Pour Over pick a topic to have explained, and Jason or Kathleen have to get Joe to understand it in less than 30 minutes… This week, Jason is explaining the Iranian Regime. Looking to support us? You can choose to pay ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our sponsors! We actually use and enjoy every single one. Cru Wild Alaskan HelloFresh Safe House Project QAVA CCCU Upside Mosh LMNT Bible Gateway Plus Life Application Study Bible Unto Compelled Podcast I Choose Love TPO Corrections Page

We'll probably have some corrections on this one. I feel massively out of my depth. But it was helpful to understand the general overview. Iran, as we know it, is a much younger country than we know. And its entire life, it has not liked the United States. Like, it's deeply rooted. It's ingrained. It is part of what drove the revolution to create the country as it is.

And so this conflict makes sense in, in that light. I wanted to let you know that I tried something for the first time. Element? No. Sparkling element? No. I've been drinking element for the days.

Cold plunge. Oh, wow. Okay. One of them now. So I used to do a what they call a Scottish shower where you end the shower on cold. Okay. I was going to say, I actually feel like you are one of the people in my life that was doing the cold plunge things earliest. Yes.

So it wasn't technically a cold plunge, but it was like a cold shower. Because this was the, who's the guy, is it Wim Hof, the weird guy who like sits on ice and doesn't get sick? Yes. Years ago I was hopping on that train, but I didn't have access to a cold plunge. So I did what I could and just turned the shower cold at the end of the shower. And enjoyed that, loved it. But I mean, not actually. It's kind of, it's like, yeah.

You're like having had done it. Correct. So now I am doing a free trial at a gym and they have a cold plunge and a sauna. So it's like a legit coal plunge. Yeah, I've never, I've done a polar plunge a decade ago. I don't know. I get the rush like afterwards and I've heard the health benefits and I'm like all for it. But yeah, it sounds good for you.

We'll see how long this goes. That's right. All right, Joe. We got a doozy. Yes. We are going to talk about the Iranian government. Iranian regime? Is that how?

Yes. We are going to talk about the history of Iran from the recent history of Iran. So 1979 to, I'll say, end of 2025. So we're not delving into, there's a clear reason why we are talking about the subject. We think the history will be helpful to people. but we are not going into what is currently changing hour by hour. And why is that? Because I'm sure some listeners would have wanted a TPO explains on the current events of what's going on in Iran.

But there's clearly a reason you steered clear. Yeah. I mean, read the pour over, read the news. But it's changing all the time. And the goal of these explains episodes is, hey, what is something that is going to, somewhat like be more evergreen, stand the test of time and say like, hey, this is, this is how the Secret Service works. Every time you hear about the Secret Service, you now have better context. Same thing here. This is how the Iranian, Iranian, but it's Iran. Okay, we're going to mess that up

over and over. Yeah. How the regime works came to be whatever to color the news that you're going to hear about for at least weeks. Got it. That's fair. I'll get started. I'll lobby a softball here. Okay. What is the Islamic Republic of Iran?

That's your softball? Yeah, I'll actually, well, go for it. It is the government, like the, I don't know, their governmental governing body. Yeah. Of the country of Iran. So it is, the Islamic Republic of Iran is actually the official name of the country. Okay. But it is the official name of the country since 1979 and is, you know, synonymous or used largely as like, hey, there's this new regime that took over.

So brief history, well, there's a fair bit of history in this, but brief to answer this question. So in 1935 or prior to 1935, this land was called Persia. And like from Old Testament times on this largely called Persia. Internally, they would use the name Iran, but externally it was Persia. In 1953, it becomes a monarchy. Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. So he is a monarch. he took control and the CIA and British intelligence backed his coup of the, you know, the ruling party at the time.

And so he had lots of Western support. And he led what was called the White Revolution. He expanded women's rights. He invested in infrastructure and education. He reduced the power of religious authorities. A lot of this sounds good. He was also a corrupt authoritarian. that was generally very unpopular.

Religious leaders in Iran really didn't like him because they were, he was stealing the power from them. Right. He was, a lot of the general public didn't like him because he was just seen as like a proxy for the U.S. and like allowing this foreign influence, which no country likes foreign influence. And, yeah. So then in 1978, there start to be striven.

and protests. And in 1979 is the Islamic Islamic Revolution in Iran. And the Shah, who's this kind of U.S.-backed leader, he flees the country and we have the start of kind of the new government. Got it. Okay. So the Islamic takeover? Yes. So now we have this new government. And this, I actually, I have a, we'll put up the picture on YouTube and we'll talk through it. But this is super helpful, okay? So this is how the Islamic Republic, the government is set up. Okay. There are three positions that are elected, and that is the Assembly of Experts,

Parliament, and the President. Now, you might be thinking feels like a democracy. No, no, because all the way up here at the top, you have the Supreme Leader. Okay? So the Islamic Republic of Iran is a theocracy with kind of like an asterisk. So it is ruled by the Supreme Leader, and he is the ultimate authority over everything. He is a Shiite Muslim cleric, which is a religious scholar. he answers to no earthly authority sort of.

There's this, there is like a system to oust him, but we'll talk about why it's not really real. And then he, he's appointed for life and he oversees all these, like he oversees the entire government that is kind of like set up to look like a democracy and things, but it is, it's all under his purview. Wow. And he's this individual. has that appointment for life.

Yes. Okay. So he is appointed by the Assembly of Experts, okay, which is one of these elected things. But we're going to talk through, again, the kind of circular. You'll start to notice some loops in here. So you have the Supreme Leader who is appointed by the Assembly of Experts. But you will notice the Assembly of Experts is, and the Assembly of Experts is voted on by the public. But they can only vote for candidates.

who have been approved by the Guardian Council. And the Guardian Council is made up of half people appointed directly by the Supreme Leader and half people suggested by the Supreme Court Justice, and the Supreme Court Justice is appointed directly by the Supreme Leader. And now the six that are appointed by the Supreme Court Justice have to be approved by Parliament. Okay? And Parliament's elected, except Parliament... They're elected by the Iranian public, except they can only vote for candidates that have been approved by the general counsel, which is, so you're stuck in this loop.

At the end of the day, the Supreme Leader is appointing or selecting the candidates. So even if there is a quote unquote vote by the public, their selection of options is already set up one way or another by the Supreme Leader. Yes, yes. And similarly, so you have the president and parliament, which do honestly what you would kind of expect them to do day to day. They, you know, operate the executive branch and make laws and things. But again, it's both of them are less influential than you would think because so parliament passes a law. But before the law can actually be ratified, it has to go to, you guessed it, the guardian council who just determines whether or not it is like, viable or opposes Islamic law or the Constitution.

So they can make laws as long as the Supreme Leader is okay with the laws that they make. Same thing the president, you would think, at least as an American, one of the core aspects of the presidency is that they're the commander-in-chief of the military. Not so. The Commander-in-Chief of the military is the Supreme Leader. And even more, you can see here the military split. And there's, so there's the regular military, which is what you would think of, you know, national defense, whatever. Then there's the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC.

You may have seen IRGC in headlines and stuff. So broadly speaking, the regular Iranian military is meant to protect the country. And the IRGC is expressly meant to protect the regime. And the IRGC has grown to, it has enormous economic influence. They, the IRGC wins most government contracts for like building infrastructure. And then it's also the known to be kind of like the, the ways that Iran tries to skirt sanctions is the IRGC will create these companies, shadow companies and stuff. and they'll do the business that isn't allowed to be done or they'll get business from, you know, foreign allies

who are trying to skirt the sanctions. It's like, oh, well, you know, it's this fake company, but all the money that flows through it and we're allowed to buy oil from them. And then the, but it's just the IRGC and they spend all the money in the same way that the government would have spent it and are skirting the sanctions.

So essentially it's a way, for the government to participate in economic benefit, beneficial endeavors where the money can just flow back to the government. Yes. And because it's an arm of the government. And so therefore they can go get these contracts that otherwise like a, I don't know, a private business, for example, would go out and get. But the IRGC can set up these companies so that the Iranian government could benefit from

the economic. Well, and specifically when they're trying to do, because there's all these sanctions to say, hey, Germany, you can't buy these things from, don't buy these things from Iran. You know, we don't want to give them money. Well, to get around that, they create all these shell companies and whatever, so it doesn't look like an Iranian company, but it is. And so it's just this massive effort, both they're doing legitimate work. You know, they'll, they'll, they'll, The IRGC is building roads and they are selling oil and they are doing those things. But from a reputational standpoint, if a country thinks it will look bad if we are working with Iran, they can work with the IRC's company that they've set up. And that's a more.

And it's just a mess of legal stuff to try to hide that this is actually Iran. Hey, it's Zan from the pourover. I've been making a purposeful effort to eat more seafood because I know it's packed with nutrients. and I feel better when I do. But finding quality seafood where I live is a feat. That's why I started ordering from Wild Alaskin. They deliver 100% wild-caught, never-framed seafood like coho salmon and Pacific halibut, straight to my door.

It comes perfectly portioned and frozen right off the boat, locking in taste, texture, and nutrients like Omega-3s, so it's both delicious and super easy to prep a quick, nutritious dinner for my family. My first box from Wild Alaskan company definitely made me realize not all fish is the same. Get seafood you can trust. Go to wildalaskan.com slash TPO for $35 off your first box of premium wildcaught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com slash TPO for $35 off your first order. And to tie back to the Supreme Leader, and I know we're going to keep it focused more on the history, not present day,

but the Supreme Leader was Hamine, correct? Correct. Okay. Yeah. So let's go over the Supreme Leader. So there have been two. There was Ayatollah Khomeyne, who he led the Revolution. So he became Supreme Leader in 1979.

He led the revolution. He designed the system of government, this like kind of pseudo-theocracy. And he led Iran through the Iran, Iran. Iraq War, which was a very defining period of time for the country. And then he died 10 years later in 1989. And he handpicked his successor. And it seemed like there was some drama. The person he was going to pick then was kind of critical of some of his human rights abuses. And at the end, he was like, actually, we're going to pick this other guy and changed the Constitution. to say originally the supreme leader had to be a certain level of cleric.

And he's like, yeah, never mind. And he picked this at the time, relatively low level cleric who he saw as faithful to his ideology. And that was, so that was, the first one was Ayatollah Khomeyne, and then the second was Ayatollah Hamene, Different people. Wait, they have the same first name, but a... No, so Ayatollah is a title. So that's the religious title. Oh.

Is my understanding could be... My knowledge of Islam is relatively minimal. My understanding is that is the religious title, and then their last names were like one letter different. Got it. Homene and Hamini. Yes. So Hamine takes over in 1989. and he is known for really building out the IRGC,

and then he starts to build Iran's regional influence and kind of, there was, like anything, hey, you had the first guy, and hey, it looks like this is actually going to last. There's another guy who's the countries, you know, remain stable. We had this revolution. It's been 10 years, and there was a successful transition. of power. And so he's kind of seen as like, hey, we're ushering in a little bit more stability. This thing is actually going to last. He started to build the influence. He started ramping up Iran's

nuclear program, which becomes internationally contentious, and is also known for he takes a very, very strong anti-protest stance, cracks down on protests with an iron fist, and protests. come up multiple times throughout his, his supreme leadership? All centered around if there's any resistance to his reign or just protests in general, hey, I don't like anything like that and I will just squash it. The ones that I am aware of were against him, you know, against the regime and those were squashed. So you alluded to Hominay kind of building up the nuclear program.

why does why do the U.S. in Iran not get along and like each other? Is it because of the nuclear program? Are there other things at play that it's it's a theocracy, not a democracy? Yeah. So briefly, like just really high level history because it doesn't, you don't have to go that far back. So one, the U.S. was backing the Shah, the monarch before. and then the revolution comes and oust him. Then there's the, at that moment, during the Iranian revolution, there's the hostage crisis where I believe it was Iranian students took 52 American hostages and held them for 444 days.

And this really cemented the animosity. You know, America really didn't like that. And it gave this, you know, kind of hatred a thing to center around. So eventually the hostages come home and they're still bad blood and just running through. So then in the 1980s, there's the Iran-Iraq war. Iraq invades Iran and there's lots of casualties and economic devastation. And the U.S. is supporting Iraq. And so, again, this furthers the field.

from Iran that like they hate us and they don't yeah then in the 2000s the nuclear program starts becoming an international issue and the US really leads the charge on saying we need to quash this and we're going to do that through economic sanctions and just really you know yes sanction Iran then in 2009 there's the green movement so this is mass protests in Iran around a contested presidential election. So the incumbent president won in a landslide immediately is how it was reported. And lots of the citizens were like, absolutely not. This thing was rigged.

And green was the, you know, like Republicans are red, Democrats are blue. Green was the color of the candidate, the party that he represented. Yes, who didn't win the reformist candidate. And so there was a bunch of protests. And again, the regime comes down with a heavy hand on the protests. The U.S. is speaking out against this. We then have the nuclear deal in 2015. So that's under Obama.

And then Trump backs out of it in 2018. And so that whole dance and how it happened and then didn't happen. And both sides were, you know, Iran didn't like the parts of the deal of how much oversight they had. And then we were saying they couldn't be trusted anyway and backed out of it. So again, there's just this long history of distrust and ideological differences. Iran is accused of lots of human rights abuses. Let's see.

They're labeled as a state sponsor of terrorism. They are known to support a lot of militia, violent militia proxy groups in the region like Hamas and Hezbollah. And so the U.S. doesn't like any of that, sanctions them to, you know, has thrown every sanction at them. And then Iran is saying, these guys just hate us. They're constantly oppressing us and trying to meddle in what we're doing. You know, I noticed that other countries in the Middle East also are not just easily siding with Iran. Are there other just pockets of different conflict that Iran has with Middle Eastern countries? I think some of that very recently is that when last week, when the U.S. and Israel did all the strikes on Iran,

they immediately retaliated by bombing anything, any U.S. asset in the region, which included, it was in all these other countries. And their missiles weren't, like, aren't the best. And so they're like not hitting the target. And so all these countries are like, are you kidding? You're just like firing at us. Like, what are you doing? So that's one of like, hey, there's, what are you doing? You're just attacking us.

The other bit of, and this is, I think, depending on the time and where, Iran is Shia Muslim. It's predominantly like 90, 95% is she follows Shia Islam. And then Sunni Islam is like 90% of all Muslims around the world. And so Iran is the very clear minority. The fact that it is majority Shia is. is unusual. Yeah. And there's, again, I think like less, less brotherly connection and feeling of like, hey, these are our people.

Yeah. Because of that. That's helpful. Anything else you want to bring up on the history? No. And I don't have any fun facts. This is, we'll probably have some corrections on this one. I feel massively out of my depth.

But it was helpful to understand the general overview. I will say just learning about it, Iran and Iran, as we know it, is a much younger country than we know. And its entire life, it has not liked the United States. And so just understanding that that is, like, it's deeply rooted, it's ingrained. It is part of what drove the revolution to create the country as it is. And so this conflict makes sense in that light. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, I really came in with very minimal background info,

but you help just frame the historical context. And, you know, from 1979, a little bit before that, to pretty close to present day, just understanding the government structure, the supreme leader and the influence in the hand that he has over everything. That was really helpful context. Yeah.

It's fascinating. Yeah. Should we move on to Christian perspectives? Yes. So what stood out here, I think saying we're at war is probably taking a stance that I'm not trying to take. I'm just referencing the conflict. But there is lots of armed conflict happening. And I think it is very easy to be angry and indignant and frustrated over the conflict.

and pick aside. And also reading about, I mean, I didn't go into this, but this, I mean, the human rights abuses, the Iranian regime is very quick with the death penalty and very oppressive to women. And there are, there's lots to be angry about. And there's lots to, lots of change that is, I think, rightfully desired and pursued. And so I was just wrestling with like, man, our job as Christians is to pursue that change and do it in a way that we're retaining love for the people that we're working against the entire time. And that is such a difficult balance and such a beautiful goal, you know, to say, no, I am not going to tolerate the way things are. And I want things to get better.

And I'm going to work for things to get better. and I'm also not going to just completely villainize the enemy. I want to win them over and help them come to know Jesus and treat people with the love that he has for all his creation. And what a difficult but noble goal. Man. Yeah. Well, thanks, Jason, for diving into this, a topic that you were not familiar with before, but it was very helpful. So appreciate it. All right.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us on another episode of TPO Explains. As a reminder, you can watch this episode on YouTube and Spotify. Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time. Bye. Our writers were asked to go on a radio show.

Yeah. And this radio show reached out, we'd love to have one of the writers on. And then at the end, they're like to talk about the Iranian conflict. And all the writers were like, man, I was so excited about this until the end. No, we're not going to do this. Reading the Bible is life-changing and sometimes confusing. Instead of turning to Google for answers, get clarity you can count on with Bible Gateway Plus. You get ad-free Bible study with trusted commentary and study notes from real scholars,

write alongside the verses you're reading on your phone, tablet, or desktop. Use tools you can trust. try Bible Gateway Plus free for seven days at the link in the show notes. Plus, TPO listeners get 20% off annual plans with code pour over 20.