The brand had an international identity. Its logo, imagery, food, packaging, and style of service were designed to create a recognizable experience across different countries.
A customer could encounter a version of American fast food in Tehran that resembled the experience of visiting a KFC in another part of the world.
This was one of the defining characteristics of globalization before the term became part of everyday vocabulary.
The Unexpected Timing
If the restaurant had opened several years earlier or several years later, its history might have been completely different.
Instead, it opened at one of the most unstable moments in modern Iranian history.
By June 1978, dissatisfaction with the Pahlavi government was growing rapidly. Opposition groups included religious leaders, left-wing activists, nationalists, intellectuals, students, and others with very different political goals.
The causes of the revolution were complex.
They included political repression, economic and social tensions, opposition to the monarchy, dissatisfaction with aspects of rapid modernization, religious opposition, and conflicts over the direction of Iranian society.
