The Iranian women's rights movement was going strong in the 1960s and 70s, and many women joined the workforce and mixed freely with men.

Images of life across Iran in the 60s and 70s portray a vibrant kingdom on the brink of change (scroll down for more images).

So what happened?

In the 1950’s Iran was going to vote democratically, but the person (Mossadegh) wanted to publicize the oil. The US and Britain didn’t want this, so they orchestrated a coup to install the Shah.

1970’s roll around and Iran, along with OPEC, stopped selling oil and started to raise prices. Once again, the US didn’t like this so they worked to remove the Shah.

The didn’t like the new administration so they hit them with sanctions for decades keeping their economy in the cellar. Things started looking better for Iran, but then they talked about going off the Petrodollar, which started a new round of sanctions.

It’s always been about oil, nuclear is a distraction.

Oil, money, power, religion. The four horsemen of the apocalypse.

The photos were all taken in Iran before the Islamic Revolution, which saw the ousting of King Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the installment of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - a shift that would have long-lasting and far-reaching implications.