Iranian Land Reform

It was a significant part of the reform program of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and occurred when the existing feudal system was abolished and the arable land redistributed from large landowners to smaller agricultural workers.

On 11 November 11, 1961 the Shah commissioned Prime Minister Ali Amini to develop proposals for the implementation of the planned land reform program.

In January 1963 the Minister of Agriculture, Arsanjani, drafted an amendment to the Land Reform Law which was intended to put an end to the Iranian feudal system which still existed during the Qajar period.

[4] It became clear that the White Revolution program, and especially land reform, against the resistance of the large landowners and the clergy could only be implemented if it were supported by the vast majority of the Iranian population.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi also spoken out against the reform program but his death in March 1961 invalidated the anti-White Revolution fatwa.

Mohammad Reza Shah said before the referendum: “If I have decided to refer these reforms to a referendum, it is because I want to prevent our peasants from becoming serfs again, that our country's natural resources benefit a few people and that these revolutionary changes no longer matter can be impaired or destroyed at the instigation of a minority.