Karbala and Shi'a symbolism played a significant role in the Iranian Revolution of 1979.[139] In contrast to the traditional view of Shi'ism as a religion of suffering, mourning and political quietism, Shi'a Islam and Karbala were given a new interpretation in the period preceding the revolution by rationalist intellectuals and religious revisionists like Jalal Al-e-Ahmad, Ali Shariati and Nematollah Salehi Najafabadi.[140][141] According to these, Shi'ism was an ideology of revolution and political struggle against tyranny and exploitation,[142] and the Battle of Karbala and the death of Husayn was to be seen as a model for revolutionary struggle;[143] weeping and mourning was to be replaced by political activism to realize the ideals of Husayn.[144]