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Iranian public building has all been under direct orders of the Shah. He approved plans, altered details. Little did it seem to matter to the King of Kings that an architect omitted plumbing detail when building a hotel, that Teheran's water supply still came through the streets in half-open, easily contaminated cement drains, that Teheran's old electric power plant had a limited capacity. When His Imperial Majesty drove at night through a street not sufficiently lighted for his tastes, he ordered more powerful bulbs installed. Upshot of this was that the rest of Teheran was plunged into semidarkness.
Most Lofty. Almost illiterate when he came to the throne, speaking only Persian with a smattering of Russian, Reza Shah Pahlavi had a strong historical sense, pictured himself as a 20th-century Darius even when he was still only a cavalry colonel. When he became Minister of War in a Shah-less government (the former do-nothing Shah had moved to Paris), he acted more like the great Persian monarch. He imposed his will on hitherto independent fierce tribes, hanging dozens of warring sheiks, making other suspected local chieftains his permanent "guests." On a group of disobedient mullahs (Moslem priests) he applied the whip in person. Strongwilled, previously healthy followers of the absent Sultan Ahmad Shah, whom Reza Khan later had deposed, developed mysterious maladies from which they never recovered. One chief of polio committed suicide, and a foreign minister underwent a fatal operation for a vague ailment. Summed up the Most Lofty of Living Men several years ago: "I am a soldier—a simple soldier—and love my job."
Westernization. The King of Kings combines his knowledge of time-honored Iranian political methods with a passion for reform and an incorrigible interest in blue prints. Despiser of meddling, dictating European governments, he nevertheless admires Western habits and dress, Western technical achievements. Just as Kamal Atatürk had ordained in Turkey a few years before, Reza Shah Pahlavi ordered jail sentences for turban-wearers, forbade veils for Iranian women. Robed, turbaned mullahs were obliged to carry licenses. The Iranian habit of contracting temporary marriages, sanctioned by the Shiah sect of Mohammedanism, was so curtailed by the Shah that polygamy became difficult. The number of wives decreased, the number of prostitutes increased among Iran's heavy female population.
Instead of religious schools government-controlled secular education was expanded. Boy Scout movements were encouraged, the army was taught to read and write. Mohammedan law was largely nullified. The vexing problem of land titles was solved, one major result being that suddenly vast, rich areas became known as "crown property"—i.e., were simply taken by the Shah.