 After 1953 the Iranian government, while becoming less and less democratic, also increasingly took steps to restore Reza Shah's authoritarian policies and eliminate the influence of the Shi'a clergy and organised religion from the government and public life.In the late 1960s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had forced the Shi'a clerical novitiates to attend public state-run universities in order to gain religious certification and license to preach, similar to Catholic and Christian schools of theology.Mohammad Reza Shah also began taking steps in the 1970s to exclude Shi'a clergy from participating in the Parliament and to impose restrictions on public displays of religion and religious observance.