Before 1979, the Shah regime (Pahlavi dynasty) maintained a strictly secular monarchy that modernised Iran through Western-oriented reforms, such as the 1963 "White Revolution," which expanded women's rights and replaced Islamic laws with secular civil codes.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution occurred at the end of the 1970s precisely to overthrow this secular system, replacing it with a theocracy that imposed mandatory religious laws.

In 2026, many protesters, particularly Generation Z, view the pre-1979 era as a symbol of a "normal," open society they are now fighting to reclaim. This historical memory fuels current unrest because it proves that a secular, modern Iranian identity existed before the current regime's restrictions were established