What Role Does Religious Grievances Play In The Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution 1979, often referred as the Islamic Revolution gives an impression of a religious movement against a non-religious regime, especially for having a religion mentioned in its name, “Islam” in the “Islamic Revolution”. How correctly does this statement describe the Iranian Revolution? How do we define religious movement and non-religious regime? I would define “religious movement” as the movement or revolution by a religious group to defend their beliefs which were challenged by the “non-religious regime”, which is defined as the regime that deviates from such beliefs. In this revolution, the monarch of Pahlavi dynasty was ended and substituted by an Islamic Republic under the lead of the religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
Westernisation policies by the Shahs completely abandoned the Shi’ism teachings, resulting in the opposition by Ayatollah Khomeini. The emergence of Khomeini as the revolutionary spoke person managed to unite the different groups to form a coalition against the commonly hated Shah. However, does economic reform by Shah play a role as important as religious grievances in igniting the revolution? Would Iranian Revolution still take place if no inflation happened and no bazaaris were pressured? The economic issues resulted in the growing dissent towards Shah by different groups including the peasants and the old middle class, and the emergence of Khomeini as a result of religious grievances fuelled these dissatisfactions towards Shah, eventually costing him his regime. In other words, religious movement acted as a unification platform for different groups under the Shi’ism revolutionary ideas against the Westernisation by the Pahlavi dynasty. Therefore, I agree that religious grievances are the major role in inspiring the Iranian Revolution, but not simply undermining other