by the 1960s critics of the baháʼí faith increasingly used charges of spying, and of connections to foreign powers rather than simply labelling baháʼís as heretics. these new charges helped define a new 'other' and reaffirmed a threatened shiʻi self. this new attitude towards the baháʼís was now not confined to the clerics, but was also rampant among the secular iranian middle-class. in the 1970s accusations of baháʼís being numerous in the shah's regime surfaced, as well as there being a perception that baháʼís were generally better off than the rest of the population.