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A 22-year-old Iranian woman has died after being arrested by Iran's morality police earlier this week, Iran's semi-official Etemad Online website reported, quoting her uncle.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, Iranian state news agency ISNA reported on Friday.

On Tuesday evening, Mahsa Amini and her family, who had traveled from Iran's Kurdistan region to visit relatives in the capital, Tehran, were stopped by a patrol of morality police - a dedicated unit that enforces strict dress codes for women, such as wearing the compulsory headscarf.

According to IranWire, human rights activists who have spoken to the family say the police grabbed Amini and forced her inside a police vehicle.

Her brother, Kiarash, attempted to intervene and was told his sister was being taken to the police station for one hour of "re-education," IranWire reported.

Kiarash said he never saw his sister awake again.

While he was waiting outside the police station for her to be released, an ambulance pulled up and discreetly took his sister to the hospital.

In an interview with IranWire, Kiarash said he was told she had suffered a heart attack or a stroke while in the police station and that she was in a coma.

On Thursday, Tehran police said that Amini had suffered a "heart attack" following her arrest on Tuesday.

"The woman was sent to a Greater Tehran police precinct for guidance and education when suddenly, in the presence of other people, she had a heart attack," the police said.

Amini's family have questioned the version of events given by police, saying she was a normal, healthy 22-year-old with no pre-existing heart conditions.

"There were only two hours between her arrest and being taken to hospital," Kiarash told IranWire.

A video released by Iranian state TV purported to show Amini walking into a "education" center where she would have been receiving "guidance" on proper Islamic attire, state media said.

The edited video shows CCTV footage of a woman taking a seat, then standing up to speak to an "expert" who touches her clothing, before she collapses onto the ground.

The following clip shows five men carrying her on a stretcher, apparently unconscious. An ambulance is then shown in another frame.

There's an edit in the video at 19 seconds, after which the woman is seen standing up and speaking. Before the cut, it appears to be daylight outside. After the cut, it appears dark.

"Ms. Amini looks unwell and falls to the floor," the state media reporter says.

It remains unknown what happened to Amini after her arrest and before she appeared at the re-education center. CNN is not able to verify that the woman in the video is Amini.

Iranian officials said Saturday they had conducted an autopsy on Amini's body. Speaking on state TV the director of Iran's Forensic Medical Organization, Mehdi Forozesh, said the results would be publicized after further examination by medical experts.

Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser to US President Joe Biden, said in a tweet Friday the White House is deeply concerned about Amini's death.

Amini, "was reportedly beaten in custody by Iran's morality police. Her death is unforgivable. We will continue to hold Iranian officials accountable for such human right abuses," Sullivan tweeted.

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Woman, 22, dies after falling into coma while in custody of Iran's morality police | CNN

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A 22-year-old Iranian woman has died after being arrested by Iran's morality police earlier this week, Iran's semi-official Etemad Online website reported, quoting her uncle. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, Iranian state news agency ISNA reported on Friday.

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There are a lot of materials now avaliable online about the crisis; start by checking a major reference source such as Brittanica, Answers.com or even wikipedia. A good For biographical information, see Assignment Why was Ayatollah Khomeini able to lead a successful Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979? Background In 1921 Reza Khan, commander of an Iranian cossack force, overthrew the decadent Kajar dynasty, and, as Reza Shah Pahlevi, established the Pahlevi dynasty in 1925. During his reign, transportation and communication systems were improved, and a program of Westernization was begun. In 1941 Britain and the Soviet Union occupied areas of the country to protect the oil fields from German seizure. Because of this Allied presence, Reza Shah Pahlevi, who had been friendly to the Axis powers, abdicated. His son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, succeeded to the throne and adopted a pro-Allied policy. In 1945 the Iranian government requested the withdrawal of occupying troops, concerned that Soviet forces were encouraging separatist movements in the northern provinces. All troops were withdrawn by 1946. In the 1950s, a major political crisis developed over control of the oil industry. In 1951 Muhammad Mossadegh, a militant nationalist, became prime minister. When parliament approved a law nationalizing the property of foreign oil companies with widespread popular support, Mossadegh pressed the shah for extraordinary powers. The dissension between pro- and anti-Mossadegh forces reached a climax during 1953 when the shah dismissed the prime minister. Mossadegh refused to yield, and the shah fled to Rome. After three days of riots, the royalists won back control of Teheran, the shah returned, and Mossadegh was sentenced to prison. The shah then opened negotiations with an eight-company oil consortium that guaranteed Iran a margin of profit greater than anywhere else in the Middle East. Throughout the 1960s, the shah began to exercise increasing control over the government after dissolving parliament in 1961. Programs of agricultural and economic modernization were pursued, but the shah's Plan Organization took charge of economic development, leaving very few benefits to reach the ordinary citizen. Despite growing prosperity, opposition to the shah was widespread, fanned mainly by conservative Shiite Muslims, who wanted the nation governed by Islamic law. They were directed, from France, by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Ruhollah ibn Mustafa Musawi Khomeini Hindi), a Muslim clergyman who had been exiled in 1963. As the Shah's regime, supported by the U.S., became increasingly repressive, riots in 1978 developed into a state of virtual civil war. In early 1979 popular opposition forced the shah to leave the country. Hundreds of the shah's supporters were tried and executed, others fled the country, and the westernization of Iran was reversed. Khomeini, who had returned to Iran in triumph in February 1979, presided over the establishment of an Islamic republic. On 4 November 1979, after the shah had been allowed entry into the United States for medical care, militant Iranians stormed the US embassy in Teheran, taking 66 Americans hostage. The militants demanded that the shah be turned over to face trial and that billions of dollars he had allegedly took abroad be returned. Thirteen of the hostages were soon released, but another 53 were held until an agreement was negotiated that freed the hostages on 20 January 1981. Unable to persuade Iran to release them, President Carter ordered a military rescue mission, which failed, resulting in the deaths of eight American servicemen when their aircraft collided in the Iranian desert. In September 1980 Iraq took advantage of Iran's internal political disputes to seize territory in the Shatt al Arab and oil-rich Khuzestan province. The full-scale war that resulted severely reduced Iran's oil production and disrupted its economy. The government was also beset by unrest among ethnic minorities. The war ended with a cease-fire in 1988 and cost the two nations an estimated 1 million dead and 1.7 million wounded. In 1989, Khomeini died and Hojatolislam Said Ali Khamenei became Iran's supreme leader. Iran's relations with the West improved, due in part to President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's role in obtaining the release of Western hostages held in Lebanon. In 1993 Rafsanjani was reelected president.

6 June 1963, martial law ordered as riots follow the arrest of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

16 January 1979, shah left the country after turmoil.

1 February 1979, revolutionary forces under Khomeini seize power after his return to the country (He had gone into exile after arrest in 1963.).

31 March 1979, referendum approved the establishment of an Islamic republic with Khomeini in de facto control.

7 April 1979, prominent Iranians executed.

4 November 1979, Iranian militants seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran and held sixty-six occupants hostage, demanding the return of the shah from the U.S. After the shah's death in 1980 in Egypt, an agreement was negotiated that freed the hostages on 20 January 1981.

2 December 1979, Khomeini became absolute ruler for life.

November 1980, the First Gulf War broke out between Iran and Iraq.

In retaliation for the seizure of the hostages, President Carter, imposed an oil embargo on Iran on 12 November 1979. Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher briefed the press on Iran's Release of American hostages on 21 January 1981.

Other sites.

The series of articles by Time Magazine during the Iranian Revolution.

The Crescent of Crisis - 15 January 1979

One Man's Word Is Law - 22 January 1979

The Shah Takes His Leave - 29 January 1979

Waiting for the Ayatullah - 5 February 1979

The Khomeini Era Begins - 12 February 1979

A Government Collapses - 19 February 1979

A Nation on Trial - 26 March 1979

The World of Islam - 16 April 1979

Roy Mottahedeh, On the hostage crisis in particular, see: B. Rubin, A Nation Still in Torment -21 May 1979Recommended Books The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran (1985) is a thoughtful study of the role of Islam in Iran in the twentieth century. Another useful work is Shaul Bakhash,Paved with Good Intentions: The American Experience in Iran (1981).The Reign of the Ayatollahs: Iran and the Islamic Reception, rev. ed. (1990). Others include: Said Arjomand,The Turban for the Crown: The Islamic Revolution in Iran (1988); D. Hiro,Iran under the Ayatollas (1985); N. R. Keddie, The Roots of Revolution: An Interpretive History of Modern Iran (1981); and Amin Saikal,The Rise and Fall of the Shah (1980).Related Events

overview of the Iranian Revolution is on the web, as well as a paper on the religious background of the revolution. Reza Shah, Jimmy Carter and Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-89). There are many biographies of Khomeini, including this one.

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There are a lot of materials now avaliable online about the crisis; start by checking a major reference source such as Brittanica, Answers.com or even wikipedia. A good For biographical information, see Assignment Why was Ayatollah Khomeini able to lead a successful Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979?

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History of Iran

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi
Arya Mehr and Shahanshah (King of the Kings)

Mohammad Reza Shah & Empress Farah

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-80), king of Iran (1941-1979), was born in Tehran on October 26, 1919, the eldest son of Reza Shah. He completed his primary school in Switzerland. He returned to Iran in 1935, and enrolled in a Tehran military school, from which he graduated in 1938. In 1939 he married a sister of Faroq I, king of Egypt. The couple divorced in 1949. Mohammad Reza married two more times, in 1950 with Soraya Esfandiari and 1959 with Farah Diba.

He replaced his father,Reza Shah, on the throne on September 16, 1941, shortly before his 22nd birthday. He continued the reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government soon erupted between the shah and an older professional politician, the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddeq.

During World War II, Britain and the USSR were concerned by Reza Shah's friendly relations with Germany. In 1941 the two countries invaded and occupied large areas of Iran. They forced Reza Shah to abdicate, and in the absence of a viable alternative, permitted Mohammad Reza to assume the throne. The new shah's reign began against a backdrop of social and political disarray, economic problems, and food shortages.

Despite his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer to the power of the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza increasingly involved himself in governmental affairs and opposed or thwarted strong prime ministers. Prone to indecision, however, Mohammad Reza relied more on manipulation than on leadership. He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would remain under royal control as the monarchy's main power base. In 1949 an assassination attempt on the Shah, attributed to the pro-SovietTudeh Party, resulted in the banning of that party and the expansion of the Shah's constitutional powers.

In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. Domestically, he advocated reform policies, culminating in the 1963 program known as theWhite Revolution, which included land reform, the extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy.

In 1967 he crowned himself as King of the Kings (Emperor of Iran) and his wife, Farah Diba, as Shahbanoo (Empress), which caused discontentment amongst diffrent levels of society.

Coronation of Mohammad Reza Shah

These measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority and students and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government, and for subservience to the United States. The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran, and in 1971 he held an extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with the foundation of the Persian empire more than 25 centuries earlier. These actions were viewed as anti-Islamic and resulted in religious opposition.

The shah's regime suppressed and marginalized its opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence organization, the SAVAK. Relying on oil revenues, which sharply increased in late 1973, the Shah pursued his goal of developing Iran as a mighty regional power dedicated to social reform and economic development. Yet he continually sidestepped democratic arrangements and refused to allow meaningful civic and political liberties, remaining unresponsive to public opinion.

By the mid-1970s the Shah reigned amidst widespread discontent caused by the continuing repressiveness of his regime, socioeconomic changes that benefited some classes at the expense of others, and the increasing gap between the ruling elite and the disaffected populace. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled clericAyatollah Khomeini, were able to focus this discontent with a populist ideology tied to Islamic principles and calls for the overthrow of the shah. The Shah's government collapsed following widespread uprisings in 1978 -1979 and consequently an Islamic Republic succeeded his regime.

Beset by advanced cancer, the shah left Iran in January 1979 to begin a life in exile. He lived in Egypt, Morocco, the Bahamas, and Mexico before going to the United States for treatment of lymphatic cancer. His arrival in New York City led to the Iranian takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran by "Students of Imam's Line" and the taking hostage of more than 50 Americans for 444 days.

The Shah died in Cairo, Egypt, on July 27, 1980.

Pictures of Shah, Fowziyeh and Soraya

Pictures of Shah and Farah Pahlavi

Pictures of Shah and Clergies

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Historic Personalities of Iran: Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi

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History of Iran Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi Arya Mehr and Shahanshah (King of the Kings) Mohammad Reza Shah & Empress Farah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1919-80), king of Iran (1941-1979), was born in Tehran on October 26, 1919, the eldest son of Reza Shah. He completed his primary school in Switzerland.

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Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century ce. The Arabic term islām, literally "surrender," illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam-that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of islām) accepts surrender to the will of Allah (in Arabic, Allāh: God). Allah is viewed as the sole God-creator, sustainer, and restorer of the world. The will of Allah, to which human beings must submit, is made known through the sacred scriptures, the Qurʾān (often spelled Koran in English), which Allah revealed to his messenger, Muhammad. In Islam Muhammad is considered the last of a series of prophets (including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus), and his message simultaneously consummates and completes the "revelations" attributed to earlier prophets.

Retaining its emphasis on an uncompromising monotheism and a strict adherence to certain essential religious practices, the religion taught by Muhammad to a small group of followers spread rapidly through the Middle East to Africa, Europe, the Indian subcontinent, the Malay Peninsula, and China. By the early 21st century there were more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide. Although many sectarian movements have arisen within Islam, all Muslims are bound by a common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community.

This article deals with the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam and with the connection of religion and society in the Islamic world. The history of the various peoples who embraced Islam is covered in the article Islamic world.

The foundations of Islam

The legacy of Muhammad

From the very beginning of Islam, Muhammad had inculcated a sense of brotherhood and a bond of faith among his followers, both of which helped to develop among them a feeling of close relationship that was accentuated by their experiences of persecution as a nascent community in Mecca. The strong attachment to the tenets of the Qurʾānic revelation and the conspicuous socioeconomic content of Islamic religious practices cemented this bond of faith. In 622 ce, when the Prophet migrated to Medina, his preaching was soon accepted, and the community-state of Islam emerged. During this early period, Islam acquired its characteristic ethos as a religion uniting in itself both the spiritual and temporal aspects of life and seeking to regulate not only the individual's relationship to God (through conscience) but human relationships in a social setting as well. Thus, there is not only an Islamic religious institution but also an Islamic law, state, and other institutions governing society. Not until the 20th century were the religious (private) and the secular (public) distinguished by some Muslim thinkers and separated formally in certain places such as Turkey.

This dual religious and social character of Islam, expressing itself in one way as a religious community commissioned by God to bring its own value system to the world through the jihād ("exertion," commonly translated as "holy war" or "holy struggle"), explains the astonishing success of the early generations of Muslims. Within a century after the Prophet's death in 632 ce, they had brought a large part of the globe-from Spain across Central Asia to India-under a new Arab Muslim empire.

The period of Islamic conquests and empire building marks the first phase of the expansion of Islam as a religion. Islam's essential egalitarianism within the community of the faithful and its official discrimination against the followers of other religions won rapid converts. Jews and Christians were assigned a special status as communities possessing scriptures and were called the "people of the Book" (ahl al-kitāb) and, therefore, were allowed religious autonomy. They were, however, required to pay a per capita tax called jizyah, as opposed to pagans, who were required to either accept Islam or die. The same status of the "people of the Book" was later extended in particular times and places to Zoroastrians and Hindus, but many "people of the Book" joined Islam in order to escape the disability of the jizyah. A much more massive expansion of Islam after the 12th century was inaugurated by the Sufis (Muslim mystics), who were mainly responsible for the spread of Islam in India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa ( see below).

Beside the jihad and Sufi missionary activity, another factor in the spread of Islam was the far-ranging influence of Muslim traders, who not only introduced Islam quite early to the Indian east coast and South India but also proved to be the main catalytic agents (beside the Sufis) in converting people to Islam in Indonesia, Malaya, and China. Islam was introduced to Indonesia in the 14th century, hardly having time to consolidate itself there politically before the region came under Dutch hegemony.

The vast variety of races and cultures embraced by Islam (an estimated total of more than 1.5 billion persons worldwide in the early 21st century) has produced important internal differences. All segments of Muslim society, however, are bound by a common faith and a sense of belonging to a single community. With the loss of political power during the period of Western colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, the concept of the Islamic community (ummah), instead of weakening, became stronger. The faith of Islam helped various Muslim peoples in their struggle to gain political freedom in the mid-20th century, and the unity of Islam contributed to later political solidarity.

Sources of Islamic doctrinal and social views

Islamic doctrine, law, and thinking in general are based upon four sources, or fundamental principles (uṣūl): (1) the Qurʾān, (2) the Sunnah ("Traditions"), (3) ijmāʿ ("consensus"), and (4) ijtihād ("individual thought").

The Qurʾān (literally, "reading" or "recitation") is regarded as the verbatim word, or speech, of God delivered to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel. Divided into 114 suras (chapters) of unequal length, it is the fundamental source of Islamic teaching. The suras revealed at Mecca during the earliest part of Muhammad's career are concerned mostly with ethical and spiritual teachings and the Day of Judgment. The suras revealed at Medina at a later period in the career of the Prophet are concerned for the most part with social legislation and the politico-moral principles for constituting and ordering the community.

Sunnah ("a well-trodden path") was used by pre-Islamic Arabs to denote their tribal or common law. In Islam it came to mean the example of the Prophet-i.e., his words and deeds as recorded in compilations known as Hadith (in Arabic, Ḥadīth: literally, "report"; a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet). Hadith provide the written documentation of the Prophet's words and deeds. Six of these collections, compiled in the 3rd century ah (9th century ce), came to be regarded as especially authoritative by the largest group in Islam, the Sunnis. Another large group, the Shiʿah, has its own Hadith contained in four canonical collections.

The doctrine of ijmāʿ, or consensus, was introduced in the 2nd century ah (8th century ce) in order to standardize legal theory and practice and to overcome individual and regional differences of opinion. Though conceived as a "consensus of scholars," ijmāʿ was in actual practice a more fundamental operative factor. From the 3rd century ah ijmāʿ has amounted to a principle of stability in thinking; points on which consensus was reached in practice were considered closed and further substantial questioning of them prohibited. Accepted interpretations of the Qurʾān and the actual content of the Sunnah (i.e., Hadith and theology) all rest finally on the ijmāʿ in the sense of the acceptance of the authority of their community.

Ijtihād, meaning "to endeavour" or "to exert effort," was required to find the legal or doctrinal solution to a new problem. In the early period of Islam, because ijtihād took the form of individual opinion (raʾy), there was a wealth of conflicting and chaotic opinions. In the 2nd century ah ijtihād was replaced by qiyās (reasoning by strict analogy), a formal procedure of deduction based on the texts of the Qurʾān and the Hadith. The transformation of ijmāʿ into a conservative mechanism and the acceptance of a definitive body of Hadith virtually closed the "gate of ijtihād" in Sunni Islam while ijtihād continued in Shiʿism. Nevertheless, certain outstanding Muslim thinkers (e.g., al-Ghazālī in the 11th-12th century) continued to claim the right of new ijtihād for themselves, and reformers in the 18th-20th centuries, because of modern influences, caused this principle once more to receive wider acceptance.

The Qurʾān and Hadith are discussed below. The significance of ijmāʿ and ijtihād are discussed below in the contexts of Islamic theology, philosophy, and law.

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Islam | Religion, Beliefs, Practices, & Facts

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Islam, major world religion that emphasizes monotheism, the unity of God ('Allah' in Arabic), and Muhammad as his final messenger in a series of revelations. As the literal word of God, the Qur'an makes known the will of God, to which humans must surrender (lending the name Islam, meaning 'surrender').

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Newsela | An Introduction to Muhammad and the Faith of Islam

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Islam, founded by Muhammad, is the youngest of the three main world religions.

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From 1941 to 1979, Iran was ruled by King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah.

On February 11, 1979, the Islamic Revolution swept the country.

The government was replaced with an Islamic republic, which continues to this day.

Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.

In the decades before the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran was ruled by the Shah, whose dictatorship repressed dissent and restricted political freedoms.

But he also pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernization, allowing some degree of cultural freedom.

Under the Shah's rule, Iran's economy and educational opportunities expanded. Britain and the US counted Iran as their major ally in the Middle East, and the Shah forcefully industrialized large segments of the country.

But the Shah's increasingly authoritarian measures and his eventual dismissal of multiparty rule set the stage for the infamous revolution.

Still, for a period of almost 40 years, the Shah led Iran through a series of sweeping changes.

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25 photos show what Iran looked like before the 1979 revolution turned the nation into an Islamic republic

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From 1941 to 1979, Iran was ruled by King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah. On February 11, 1979, the Islamic Revolution swept the country.

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The Islamic Revolution of 1979 brought seismic changes to Iran, not least for women. One area that has come under scrutiny is the way women dress and wear their hair - the old Shah, in the 1930s, banned the veil and ordered police to forcibly remove headscarves. But in the early 1980s, the new Islamic authorities imposed a mandatory dress code that required all women to wear the hijab.
Here are some images showing what life was like for Iranian women before the institution of clerical rule, and how it has changed since.

Before the revolution

Studying at Tehran University in 1977: While many women were already in higher education at the time of the revolution, the subsequent years saw a marked increase in the number attending university. This was in part because the authorities managed to convince conservative families living in rural areas to allow their daughters to study away from home.

"They tried to stop women from attending university, but there was such a backlash they had to allow them to return," says Baroness Haleh Afshar, a professor of women's studies at the University of York who grew up in Iran in the 1960s.

"Some educated people left Iran, and the authorities realised in order to run the country they needed to educate both men and women."

Window shopping in Tehran in 1976: Before the revolution, the hijab was already widely worn but many women also chose to don Western-style clothes, including tight-fitting jeans, miniskirts and short-sleeved tops. "The shoes haven't changed - and the passion for shoes is in all of us! Women in Iran are no different from women the world over, and going shopping is just a means for women to get away from every day stress," says Prof Afshar.

Friday picnic in Tehran in 1976: Families and friends tend to get together on Fridays, which are weekend days in Iran. "Picnics are an important part of Iranian culture and are very popular amongst the middle classes. This has not changed since the revolution. The difference is, nowadays, men and women sitting together are much more self-aware and show more restraint in their interactions," says Prof Afshar.

Hair salon in Tehran in 1977: "This is a scene you would no longer expect to see in Iran - but even after the Islamic Revolution, hairdressers continued to exist," says Prof Afshar. "Nowadays you wouldn't see a man inside the hairdressers - and women would know to cover up their hair as soon as they walked out the door. Some people may also operate secret salons in their own homes where men and women can mix."

Bodyguards surround the shah in 1971: A young woman approaches Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (far right) at a huge party marking the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian monarchy - the extravagance of the event was widely condemned by his left-wing and clerical opponents. "By this time, the shah was already very much disliked and some believe this image of excess and indulgence may have contributed to events leading up to the revolution eight years later," Prof Afshar explains.

Walking down a snowy street in Tehran in 1976: "You cannot stop women walking in the streets of Iran, but you wouldn't see this today - her earrings and make up so clearly on show," Prof Afshar says. "There is this concept of 'decency' in Iran - so nowadays women walking in the streets are likely to wear a coat down to her knees and a scarf."

After the revolution

Women rally against the hijab in 1979: Soon after taking power, Iran's new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini decreed that all women had to wear the veil - regardless of religion or nationality. On 8 March - International Women's Day - thousands of women from all walks of life turned out to protest against the law.

Protest outside the US embassy in Tehran in 1979: Revolutionary students took dozens of US embassy staff hostage while thousands of anti-US demonstrators surrounded the compound.

"At this time it was normal to see different types of people allied in their absolute hatred of America in Iran," says Prof Afshar. "The Americans and the British have a long history in Iran of attempting to both influence and take over oil in Iran, so this deep-rooted mistrust of the US and UK goes back a long way."

Family heads to Friday prayers in 1980: "Friday prayers are a time for people who are believers or supporters of the Islamic authorities who don't want to be labelled as dissidents to go out and get together - it's a moment of solidarity," says Prof Afshar. "But they are still very much within the male domain. The woman would not be allowed into the same room as the men - they would sit in a separate area for prayer, away from the men."

Wedding dress shopping in Tehran in 1986: "The wedding dresses on display are all western - Iranian women will essentially wear what they want as long as it's behind closed doors," Prof Afshar explains. "Weddings and parties are supposed to be segregated, so it doesn't matter what you wear if there are only female guests present. But there are mixed-sex parties that do still go on - some people hire bouncers to watch the door, others pay the local police to turn a blind eye."

Walking in Tehran in 2005: Not all women in Iran opt to wear the black chador, a cloak that covers the body from head to toe and only leaves the face exposed. Many prefer to wear loosely fitted headscarves and coats. "The real question is how far back do you push your scarf? Women have their own small acts of resistance and often try as far as possible to push their scarves back," says Prof Afshar.

Caspian Sea beach in 2005: Iranian women are forbidden from bathing in public wearing swimsuits. "Men and women aren't supposed to swim together - but they find ways around this by renting boats to take them far out into the sea, where they can swim side-by-side," says Prof Afshar.

Pro-hijab rally in Tehran in 2006: More than 25 years after the revolution, women backing the hardliners in the establishment staged their own rallies to protest against what they saw as the authorities' failure to enforce the compulsory hijab law. Here, the women are all dressed in black chadors with the exception of a little girl.

Though women were never officially banned from watching men's football matches in Iran, they are often refused entry to stadiums and some of those who have tried have been detained. Before the revolution, women were allowed to attend sporting events.

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Iranian women - before and after the Islamic Revolution

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Images show Iranian women pictured before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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The ancient Middle Eastern country of Iran sells a lot of oil to other countries. Its government and most of its people practice the Islam religion.

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Newsela | Iran and the United States in the Cold War

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Iranians shop at Tehran's ancient Grand Bazaar on Jan. 4. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

The public unrest that swept across Iran starting in late December began as a protest against poor economic conditions, but it quickly turned into a call for an end to the country's theocratic regime. In particular, discontent seems to have been fueled by what many protesters perceive as the Iranian government's unfulfilled economic promises following the 2015 agreement with the United States and other world powers to suspend parts of its nuclear development program in exchange for an end to crippling economic sanctions.

Here are five facts about Iran's political, religious and economic situation.

Most Iranians believe religious figures have a role to play in government, but they're divided on just how big that role should be. In a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, just four-in-ten Iranians said religious figures should have a large influence in political matters; 30% said they should have little or no influence. Younger Iranians, who had lived their entire lives under Iran's Islamic Republic established after the 1979 revolution, were less supportive than their elders of a large political role for religious figures.

Iranians are divided over how prevalent tensions are in their society between more-devout and less-devout Muslims, according to the same 2012 survey. More than four-in-ten said such tensions were "very prevalent" (14%) or "moderately prevalent" (30%). But nearly half said such tensions were "not too prevalent" (39%) or "not at all prevalent" (10%).

Iran is not only the world's fifth-biggest petroleum producer (about 4.1 million barrels a day) and 12th-biggest exporter (1.3 million barrels a day), it also has the world's fourth-largest stock of proven crude oil reserves: 158.4 billion barrels, trailing only Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. Despite its oil wealth, Iran's economy has been turbulent for much of the past decade. It's real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product fell in three of the four years from 2012 to 2015, grew by 12.5% in 2016 and is projected to have fallen back dramatically since then.

In addition to being one of the most powerful countries in the Middle East, Iran is the global epicenter of Shia Islam. Between 90% and 95% of Iran's roughly 80 million people are Shia, by far the largest concentration of Shia Muslims in the world. Iran has close relations with other countries in the Middle East and North Africa that have large Shia populations, particularly Iraq and Lebanon, and it is the main rival to the region's large Sunni Muslim states, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Iran has one of the largest and most powerful armed forces in the Middle East, according to data compiled by the military-research website Global Firepower. As of 2017, Iran had an estimated 534,000 active military personnel and 400,000 active reserve military personnel. The country spent an estimated 3.0% of its GDP on its military in 2016, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published June 17, 2013.

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The public unrest that swept across Iran starting in late December began as a protest against poor economic conditions, but it quickly turned into a call for an end to the country's theocratic regime.

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Culture of Iran

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Culture Name

Iranian, Persian

Alternative Names

The term "Persian" is used as an adjective- especially pertaining to the arts-and to designate the principal language spoken in Iran. The term is often used to designate the larger cultural sphere of Iranian civilization. This includes populations living in Iraq, the Persian Gulf region, the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India. The formal name of the Iranian state is Jomhuri-ye Islami-ye Iran , the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Orientation

Identification. The terms "Iran" as the designation for the civilization, and "Iranian" as the name for the inhabitants occupying the large plateau located between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf have been in continual use for more than twenty-five hundred years. They are related to the term "Aryan" and it is supposed that the plateau was occupied in prehistoric times by Indo-European peoples from Central Asia. Through many invasions and changes of empire, this essential designation has remained a strong identifying marker for all populations living in this region and the many neighboring territories that fell under its influence due to conquest and expansion.

Ancient Greek geographers designated the territory as "Persia" after the territory of Fars where the ancient Achamenian Empire had its seat. Today as a result of migration and conquest, people of Indo-European, Turkic, Arab, and Caucasian origin have some claim to Iranian cultural identity. Many of these peoples reside within the territory of modern Iran. Outside of Iran, those identifying with the larger civilization often prefer the appellation "Persian" to indicate their affinity with the culture rather than with the modern political state. This is also true of some members of modern Iranian émigré populations in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere who do not wish to be identified with the current Islamic Republic of Iran, established in 1979.

Location and Geography. Iran is located in southwestern Asia, largely on a high plateau situated between the Caspian Sea to the north and the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to the south. Its area is 636,300 square miles (1,648,000 square kilometers). Its neighbors are, on the north, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkmenistan; on the east, Pakistan and Afghanistan; and on the west Turkey and Iraq. Iran's total boundary is 4,770 miles (7,680 kilometers). Approximately 30 percent of this boundary is seacoast. The capital is Tehran (Teheran).

Iran's central plateau is actually a tectonic plate. It forms a basin surrounded by several tall, heavily eroded mountain ranges, principally the Elburz Mountains in the north and the Zagros range in the west and south. The geology is highly unstable, creating frequent earthquakes. Several important volcanoes, including Mount Damāvand, the nation's highest peak at approximately 19,000 feet, (5,800 meters) also ring the country.

The arid interior plateau contains two remarkable deserts: the Dasht-e-Kavir (Kavīr Desert) and the Dasht-e-Lut (Lūt Desert). These two deserts dominate the eastern part of the country, and form part of an arid landscape extending into Central Asia and Pakistan.

Iran's climate is one of extremes, ranging from subtropical to subpolar, due to the extreme variations in altitude and rainfall throughout the nation. Temperatures range from as high as 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius) in the southwest and along the Persian Gulf coast to -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 degrees Celsius). Rainfall varies from less than two inches (five centimeters) annually in Baluchistan, near the Pakistani border, to

more than eighty inches (two hundred centimeters) in the subtropical Caspian region where temperatures rarely fall below freezing.

Demography. Iran's population has not been accurately measured since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Recent population estimates range from sixty-one to sixty-five million. The population is balanced (51 percent male, 49 percent female), extremely young, and urban. More than three-quarters of Iran's habitants are under thirty years of age, and an equal percentage live in urban areas. This marks a radical shift from the mid-twentieth century when only 25 percent lived in cities.

Iran is a multiethnic, multicultural society as a result of millennia of migration and conquest. It is perhaps easiest to speak of the various ethnic groups in the country in terms of their first language. Approximately half of the population speaks Persian and affiliated dialects as their primary language. The rest of the population speaks languages drawn from Indo-European, Ural-Altaic (Turkic), or Semitic language families.

The principal non-Persian Indo-European speakers include Kurds, Lurs, Baluchis, and Armenians, making up approximately 15 percent of the population. Turkic speakers constitute approximately 20 to 25 percent of the population. The largest group of Turkic speakers lives in the northwest provinces of East and West Azerbaijan. Other Turkic groups include the Qashqa'i tribe in the south and southwest part of the central plateau, and the Turkmen in the northeast. Semitic speakers, constituting approximately 10 percent of the population, include a large Arabic-speaking population in the extreme southwest province of Khuzestan, and along the Persian Gulf Coast, and a small community of Assyrians in the northwest, who speak Syriac. The remains of a miniscule community of Dravidian speakers lives in the extreme eastern province of Sistan along the border with Afghanistan.

It is important to note that, with some minor exceptions, all ethnic groups living in Iran, whatever their background or primary language, identify strongly with the major features of Iranian culture and civilization. This also applies to many non-Iranians living in Afghanistan, Central Asia, northern India, and parts of Iraq and the Persian Gulf region.

Linguistic Affiliation. In English, "Persian" is the name for the primary language spoken in Iran. It is incorrect, but increasingly common in English-speaking countries to use the native term, "Farsi," to identify the language. This is somewhat akin to using "Deutsch" to describe the principal language of Germany.

Modern Persian, a part of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, is a language of great antiquity. It is also a language of extraordinary grace and flexibility. Over many centuries, it absorbed Arabic vocabulary and many Turkish elements, swelling its vocabulary to well over 100,000 commonly used words. At the same time, over the many centuries when Arabic was dominant, Persian lost much of its grammatical complexity. The resulting language is mellifluous, easy to learn, and ideally suited for the unsurpassed poetry and literature Iranians have produced over the ages. The language is remarkably stable; Iranians can read twelfth century literature with relative ease.

The majority of Iranian residents whose first language is not Persian are bilingual in Persian and their primary language. Persons whose first language is Persian are usually monolingual.

Symbolism. Iranian culture is rich in cultural symbolism, much of which derives from prehistoric times. Iran is the only nation in the Middle East that uses the solar calendar. It is also the only nation on earth marking the advent of the New Year at the spring equinox.

The Islamic and the pre-Islamic world have both provided national symbols for Iran, and these have come in conflict in recent years. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah who was deposed in 1979, tried to make the twenty-five-hundred-year-old monarchy itself a central symbol of Iranian life. He designed a series of lavish public celebrations to cement this image in the public imagination. The ancient emblem for the nation was a lion holding a scimitar against a rising sun. This emblem was a symbol not only of Iran, but also of the ancient monarchy, and was prominently displayed on the national tricolor flag of red, white, and green. The Persian lion is now extinct, and since the 1979 Revolution, so is this emblem. It has been replaced by a nonfigurative symbol that can be construed as a calligraphic representation of the basic Islamic creed, "There is no god but God." The tricolor background has been maintained.

Much symbolism in daily life derives not just from Islam, but from the "Twelver" branch of Shi'a Islam that has been the official state religion since the seventeenth century. It is essential to note the central symbolic importance of Imam Hassain, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, who was martyred in Karbala in present-day Iraq during the Islamic month of Muharram in the seventh century. His martyrdom is a "master symbol" in Iranian life, serving as an inexhaustible source of imagery and rhetoric.

History and Ethnic Relations

Emergence of the Nation. The Iranian nation is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world. Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic populations occupied caves in the Zagros and Elburz mountains. The earliest civilizations in the region descended from the Zagros foothills, where they developed agriculture and animal husbandry, and established the first urban cultures in the Tigris-Euphrates basin in present day Iraq. The earliest urban peoples in what is today Iranian territory were the Elamites in the extreme southwest region of Khuzestan. The arrival of the Aryan peoples-Medes and Persians- on the Iranian plateau in the first millennium B.C.E. marked the beginning of the Iranian civilization, rising to the heights of the great Achaemenid Empire consolidated by Cyrus the Great in 550 B.C.E. Under the rulers Darius the Great and Xerxes, the Achaemenid rulers extended their empire from northern India to Egypt.

Down to the present, one pattern has repeated again and again in Iranian civilization: the conquerors of Iranian territory are eventually themselves

conquered by Iranian culture. In a word, they become Persianized.

The first of these conquerors was Alexander the Great, who swept through the region and conquered the Achaemenid Empire in 330 B.C.E. Alexander died shortly thereafter leaving his generals and their descendants to establish their own subempires. The process of subdivision and conquest culminated in the establishment of the entirely Persian Sassanid Empire at the beginning of the third century C.E. The Sassanians consolidated all territories east to China and India, and engaged successfully with the Byzantine Empire.

The second great conquerors were the Arab Muslims, arising from Saudi Arabia in 640 C.E. They gradually melded with the Iranian peoples, and in 750, a revolution emanating from Iranian territory assured the Persianization of the Islamic world through the establishment of the great Abbassid Empire at Baghdad. The next conquerors were successive waves of Turkish peoples starting in the eleventh century. They established courts in the northeastern region of Khorassan, founding several great cities. They became patrons of Persian literature, art, and architecture.

Successive Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century resulted in a period of relative instability culminating in a strong reaction in the early sixteenth century on the part of a resurgent religious movement-the Safavids. The Safavid rulers started as a religious movement of adherents of Twelver Shi'ism. They established this form of Shi'ism as the Iranian state religion. Their empire, which ranged from the Caucasus to northern India, raised Iranian civilization to its greatest height. The Safavid capital, Isfahan, was by all accounts one of the most civilized places on earth, far in advance of most of Europe.

Subsequent conquests by the Afghans and the Qājār Turks had the same result. The conquerors came and became Persianized. During the Qājār period from 1899 to 1925, Iran came into contact with European civilization in a serious way for the first time. The industrial revolution in the West seriously damaged Iran's economy, and the lack of a modern army with the latest in weaponry and military transport resulted in serious losses of territory and influence to Great Britain and Russia. Iranian rulers responded by selling "concessions" for agricultural and economic institutions to their European rivals to raise the funds needed for modernization. Much of the money went directly into the pockets of the Qājaār rulers, cementing a public image of collaboration between the throne and foreign interests that characterized much of twentieth century Iranian political life. A series of public protests against the throne took place at regular intervals from the 1890s to the 1970s. These protests regularly involved religious leaders, and continued throughout the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979). These protests culminated in the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979, hereafter referred to as "the Revolution."

National Identity. The establishment of the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini marked a return to religious domination of Iranian culture. Khomeini's symbols were all appropriately appealing to Iranian sensibilities as he called on the people to become martyrs to Islam like Hasan, and restore the religious rule of Hasan's father, Ali, the last leader of both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims. Now, more than twenty years after the Revolution and following Khomeini's death, Iran is once again undergoing change. Its youthful population is demanding liberalization of the strict religious rule of its leaders, and a return to the historic balance of religion and secularism that has characterized the nation for most of its history.

Ethnic Relations. Iran has been somewhat blessed by an absence of specific ethnic conflict. This is noteworthy, given the large number of ethnic groups living within its borders, both today and in the past. It is safe to conclude that the general Iranian population neither persecutes ethnic minorities, nor openly discriminates against them.

Some groups living within Iranian borders do assert autonomy occasionally, however. Chief among these are the Kurds, living on Iran's western border. Fiercely independent, they have pressed the Iranian central government to grant economic concessions and autonomous decision-making powers. However, outside of the urban areas in their region, the Kurds already have formidable control over their regions. Iranian central government officials tread very lightly in these areas. The Kurds in Iran, along with their brethren in Iraq and Turkey, have long desired an independent state. The immediate prospects for this are dim.

The nomadic tribal groups in the southern and western regions of the Iranian central plateau have likewise caused problems for the Iranian central government. Because they are in movement with their sheep and goats for more than half of the year, they have historically been difficult to control. They are also generally self-sufficient, and a small minority are even quite well-off. Attempts to settle these tribes in the past have met with violent action. At present they entertain an uneasy peace with Iranian central authorities.

The Arab population of the southwestern trans-Zagros Gulf province of Khuzestan has entertained political aspirations of breaking away from Iran. These aspirations have been encouraged by Iraq and other Arab states. In times of conflict between Iran and Iraq, Iraqi leaders have supported this separatist movement as a way of antagonizing Iranian officials.

The severest social persecution in Iran has been directed at religious minorities. Periods of relative tolerance have alternated with periods of discrimination for centuries. Under the current Islamic republic, these minorities have had a difficult time. Although theoretically protected as "People of the Book" according to Islamic law, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians have faced accusations of spying for Western nations or for Israel. Islamic officials also take a dim view of their tolerance of alcohol consumption, and the relative freedom accorded to women. The one group that has been universally persecuted since its nineteenth century founding is the Baha'i community, because its religion is viewed as heretical by Shi'a Muslims.

Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space

Until recently Iran was primarily a rural culture. Even today with rampant urbanization, Iranians value nature and make every attempt to spend time in the open air. Because Iran is largely a desert, however, the ideal open space is a culturally constructed space-a garden. At the same time Iranians will try to bring the outdoors inside whenever possible. The wonderfully intricate carpets that every family strives to own are miniature gardens replete with flower and animal designs. Fresh fruit and flowers are a part of every entertainment, and nature and gardens are central themes in literature and poetry.

This underscores a fascinating central motif in Iranian architecture-the juxtaposition of "inside" and "outside." These two concepts are more than architectural themes. They are deeply central to Iranian life, pervading spiritual life and social conduct. The inside, or andaruni , is the most private, intimate area of any architectural space. It is the place where family members are most relaxed and able to behave in the most unguarded manner. The outside, or biruni , is by contrast a public space where social niceties must be observed. Every family creates both kinds of spaces, even if living in a single room. Until the nineteenth century, Iranians did not use chairs. They normally sat cross-legged on the floor, preferably on a carpet with bolsters or pillows. In the twentieth century, furniture became the hallmark of the biruni , and now every family of any standing has a room stuffed with uncomfortable furniture for receiving important visitors. When the guests leave, family members give a sigh of relief and go to the andaruni where they can relax on the plush carpet.

An Iranian home is one where any room, with the exception of those used for cooking and bodily functions, can be used for any social purpose- eating, sleeping, entertainment, business, or whatever else one can conceive. One spreads a dinner cloth, and it is a dining room. After dinner, the cloth is removed, cotton mattresses are spread, and the room becomes a bedchamber. Contrast this to an American home where each room has specific functions, or is designated the specific territory of a given family member. As a result, Iranian families can live and entertain many guests in much less space than in the West. This is a social necessity, since the members of one's extended family, and even their friends and acquaintances, have an ironclad claim on virtually unlimited hospitality. One must be prepared to entertain many overnight guests at a moment's notice.

In addition to intimacy, the notion of the andaruni pertains to modesty for women. This is a consideration in all public arrangement of space, especially since the advent of the Islamic Republic. Some zealots will not allow men to sit on a spot that is still warm from a woman's presence. By contrast, public space occupied by persons of the same sex can be very close and intimate with no hint of eroticism or immodesty.

The historical Iranian city is constructed around the commercial center-the bazaar. Architect Nader Ardalan has likened the city to the human body. The bazaar is the spine of the city. Emanating from it are all the institutions needed by the urban population. At the top of the bazaar sits the "head" of this body-the great congregational mosque where all citizens gather on Friday for common prayers and perhaps a sermon. The bazaar is divided into sections inhabited by the various trade guilds. Thus all the carpenters are in one section, the goldsmiths in another, and the shoemakers in yet another.

The bazaar is punctuated with the "outside brought inside" in the form of pools and running water, and even perhaps a religious school with a small garden. The urban space surrounding the bazaar is likewise punctuated by the "inside brought outside" in the form of enclosed public gardens for private discourse in public. Houses in residential neighborhoods are built with abutting walls, each home having its bit of the outside in the form of an open courtyard with a pool, and a tree and a few flowers or a kitchen garden.

In the twentieth century, however, the needs of modern motor transportation and increased urban population density have destroyed much of the texture of the traditional city. Wide avenues have been cut through the traditional quarters in almost every city, disrupting the integrity of the old neighborhoods. Faceless apartment buildings have sprung up depriving residents of their gardens, save for a pot or two of flowers on a small balcony.

Public architecture has always been the essence of biruni in Iran. Grandiose in style, it almost demands formal social behavior. This has been true since Achaemenid times, as a visit to the ruins of their capital, Persepolis, will attest. The grandiose public mosques, shrines, and squares of Isfahan, Mashhad, Shīrāz, and Qom are overwhelming in their beauty and architectural excellence. Unfortunately, the great public buildings of Tehran built in the twentieth century have the bad fortune to have been built to emulate the most stark Western architectural styles.

Food and Economy

Food in Daily Life. As one might expect from Iran's geographic situation, its food strikes a medium between Greek and Indian preparations. It is more varied than Greek food, and less spicy and subtler than Indian food with a greater use of fresh ingredients.

Iranians have a healthy diet centered on fresh fruits, greens and vegetables. Meat (usually lamb, goat, or chicken) is used as a condiment rather than as the centerpiece of a meal. Rice and fresh unleavened or semileavened whole-grain bread are staple starches. The primary beverage is black tea. The principal dietary taboo is the Islamic prohibition against pork.

Breakfast is a light meal consisting of fresh unleavened bread, tea, and perhaps butter, white (feta-style) cheese, and jam. Eggs may also be eaten fried or boiled. Meat is not common at breakfast.

The main meal of the day is eaten at around one o'clock in the afternoon. In a middle-class household it usually starts with a plate of fresh greens- scallions, radishes, fresh basil, mint, coriander, and others in season. This is served with unleavened bread and white cheese. The main dish is steamed aromatic rice ( chelow ) served with one or more stews made of meat and a fresh vegetable or fruit. This stew, called khoresht resembles a mild curry. It centers on a central ingredient such as eggplant, okra, spinach, quince, celery, or a myriad of other possibilities. One particularly renowned khoresht , fesenjun , consists of lamb, chicken, duck, or pheasant cooked in a sauce of onions, ground walnuts, and pomegranate molasses. In addition to its preparation as chelow, rice may also be prepared as a pilaf ( polow ) by mixing in fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit, or meat after it is boiled, but before it is steamed.

The Iranian national dish, called chelow kabab , consists of filet of lamb marinated in lemon juice or yogurt, onions, and saffron, pounded with a knife on a flat skewer until fork tender and grilled over a hot fire. This is served with grilled onions and tomatoes on a bed of chelow to which has been added a lump of butter and a raw egg yolk. The butter and egg are mixed with the hot rice (which cooks the egg), and ground sumac berries are sprinkled on top. A common drink with a meal is dough , a yogurt and salted water preparation that is similar to Turkish ayran, Lebanese lebni, and Indian lassi.

Sweets are more likely to be consumed with tea in the afternoon than as dessert. Every region of the country has special confections prized as travel souvenirs, and served casually to guests. Among the most famous are gaz , a natural nougat made with rose water, and sohan , a saffron, butter, and pistachio praline. After a meal Iranians prefer fresh fruit and tea. In fact, fruit is served before the meal, after the meal-indeed, at any time.

The evening meal is likely to be a light meal consisting of leftover food from the noon meal, or a little bread, cheese, fruit, and tea. Urban dwellers may eat a light meal at a café or restaurant in the evening.

Outside of large cities, restaurants are not very common in Iran. On the other hand, teahouses are ubiquitous, and widely frequented at all times of day. One can always get some kind of meal there.

Alcoholic beverages are officially forbidden in Iran today under the Islamic republic, but their consumption is still widely practiced. Armenian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian communities still produce wine, and local moonshine is found everywhere in rural areas. The principal alcoholic beverage is "vodka" distilled from grain, grapes, or more commonly, raisins. It is consumed almost exclusively by men in the evening or at celebrations such as weddings.

Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. Ritual foods fall into two categories-foods that are eaten in celebration, and foods that are prepared and consumed as a charitable religious act.

A few foods are traditional for the New Year's celebration. Fish is widely consumed as the first meal of the New Year, along with a polow made with greens. One food appears on the ritual New Year's table, but is rarely eaten. This is a kind of sweet pudding made of ground sprouted wheat called samanou.

During the Islamic month of fasting, Ramadan, no food or drink is consumed from sunrise to sunset. Families rise before dawn to prepare heavy breakfasts that look like the noon meal. The process is repeated at sundown. Special crispy fried sweets made from a yogurt batter and soaked in syrup are frequently served. Two forms are popular: zulbia , which looks a bit like a multi stranded pretzel, and bamieh , which looks a bit like the okra pods it is named after.

Food is frequently prepared for distribution to the community as a charitable religious act. When a sheep is slaughtered for a special occasion it is common to give meat to all of one's neighbors. To give thanks for fulfillment of a desire, a community meal is frequently prepared. Likewise, during the mourning ceremonies for Hossein during the months of Muharram and Safar, communal meals are paid for by charitable individuals. The most common food served on these occasions is a polow made with yellow peas and meat.

Basic Economy. Historically Iran has been an agricultural nation with fairly rich resources both for vegetable crops and animal husbandry. In the twentieth century, Iran's economy changed in a radical fashion due to the discovery of oil. By the time of the Revolution the nation received more than 80 percent of its income from oil and oil-related industry. While in 1955 more than 75 percent of the population lived in rural areas, distribution has reversed. Now more than 75 percent of Iranians live in urban areas, deriving their incomes either from manufacturing or from the service sector (currently the largest sector of the economy).

The goals of the Islamic Republic include a drive for self-sufficiency in food and manufacture. At present, however, only about 10 percent of the nation's agricultural land is under cultivation, and subsistence farming is all but dead. Iran remains a net importer of food and manufactured goods, a condition that will not change soon. Inflation is a continual problem. Were it not for oil income, the nation would be in difficult straits.

Land Tenure and Property. Absentee landlords in Iran held traditional agricultural land for many hundreds of years. They employed a sharecropping arrangement with their tenant farmers based on a principle of five shares: land, water, seed, animal labor, and human labor. The farmer rarely supplied more than human and animal labor, and thus received two-fifths of the produce. Additionally landlords hired some agricultural laborers to work land for them for direct wages.

Sharecropping farmers received the land they farmed in the land reform movements of the 1960s and 1970s, but the wage farmers received nothing, and largely abandoned agricultural pursuits.

Nomadic tribes claim grazing rights along their route of migration, with the rights parceled out by family affiliation. Government officials have contested and opposed these rights at various times on environmental grounds (overgrazing), but they have not been able marshal effective enforcement. Tribal members also maintain agricultural land both at their summer and winter pasture headquarters.

Religious bequest ( waqf ) land plays a large role in Iranian life. Large landowners on their death have willed whole villages as well as other kinds of property to the religious bequest trust. Nearly the entire city of Mashhad is waqf land. Individuals in that city can buy houses and office buildings, but not the land on which they stand. Part of the strategic plan of the Pahlavi rulers was to break the economic power of the clergy who controlled this vast property by nationalizing it, and placing its administration under a government ministry. This was one of the government actions most vehemently opposed by the clergy before the Revolution. Nevertheless, the waqf is still administered by a government ministry.

Major Industries. Iran today has a steel plant, automobile and bus assembly plants, a good infrastructure of roads, a decent telecommunication system, and good broadcast facilities for radio and television. These have all been extended under the Islamic Republic, as has rural electrification. Mining and exploitation of Iran's extensive mineral wealth other than oil is largely moribund. Moves to privatize industry have been slow; 80 percent of all economic activity is under direct government control.

Trade. Aside from oil products, the nation's exports include carpets, caviar, cotton, fruits, textiles, minerals, motor vehicles, and nuts. A small amount of fresh produce and meat is exported to the states of the Persian Gulf.

Social Stratification

Classes and Castes. Iranian society presents a puzzle for most standard social science analysis of social structure. On the one hand there is an out-ward appearance of extensive social stratification. When one peers beneath the surface, however, this impression breaks down almost immediately.

In Iran one can never judge a book by its cover. A traditional gentleman in ragged clothes, unshaven, and without any outward trapping of luxury may in fact be very rich, and as powerful as the mightiest government official; or he may be a revered spiritual leader. On the other hand a well-dressed gentleman in an Italian suit driving a fine European car may be mired in debt and openly derided behind his back.

Social mobility is also eminently possible in Iran. Clever youths from poor backgrounds may educate themselves, attach themselves to persons of power and authority, and rise quickly in status and wealth. Family connections help here, and hypergamy (marriage into a higher class) for both men and women is very important.

High status is precarious in Iran. There is a symbiotic relationship between superior and inferior. Duty is incumbent on the inferior, but the noblesse oblige incumbent on the superior as a condition of maintaining status is often greater, as the last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, discovered in the Revolution.

Nevertheless there are genuinely revered figures in public life. Public respect is largely accorded by diffuse and generalized acclimation, this being a form of status recognition that Iranians trust. The public has a tendency to dismiss awards, promotions, and public accolades as the result of political or social intriguing. The clerical hierarchy in Shi'a Islam is a good model for genuine advancement in social hierarchy because clerics advance through the informal acknowledgment of their peers.

Political Life

Government. Iran has made the transition in the last twenty years from a nominal constitutional monarchy to a democratic theocracy. As the United States has checks and balances in its governmental system, so does Iran. There is a strong president elected for a four-year term, and a unicameral legislature ( majles ) of 270 members, elected directly by the people, with some slots reserved for recognized minorities. The position of speaker is politically important, since there is no prime minister. Suffrage is universal, and the voting age is sixteen. The president selects a Council of Ministers, an Expediency Council, and serves as the head of the Council of National Security.

Over and above these elected bodies there is a supreme jurisprudent selected by an independent Assembly of Experts-a council of religious judges. The office of chief jursiprudent ( faqih ) was created for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the time of the Revolution. It was designed to implement a controversial philosophy unique to Khomeini's teachings-a "guardianship" to be implemented until the day of return of the twelfth Shi'a Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is in occultation (being hidden from view). Alongside the chief jurisprudent is a twelve-member Council of Guardians, six selected by the chief jurisprudent, and six by the Supreme Judicial Council ratified by the majles. The Council of Guardians rules on the Islamic suitability of both elected officials and the laws they pass. They can disqualify candidates for election both before and after they are elected. Another council mediates between the Council of Guardians and the legislature.

The judiciary consists of a Supreme Judge and a Supreme Judicial Council. All members must be Shi'a Muslim jurisprudents. Islamic Shari'a law is the foundation for the court's decisions. Freedom of the press and assembly are constitutionally guaranteed so long as such activities do not contradict Islamic law.

The units of governmental division are the province ( ostan ), "county" ( sharestan ), and township ( dehestan ). Each governmental unit has a head appointed by the Ministry of the Interior.

Military Activity. Although there is a standing army, navy, and air force, the Revolutionary Guards ( Pasdaran-e Engelab ), organized shortly after the Revolution, dominate military activities, often coming into conflict with the standard military forces. The Revolutionary Guards either accompany or lead all military activities, both internal and international. A national police force oversees urban areas, and a gendarmerie attends to rural peacekeeping.

Social Welfare and Change Programs

The Islamic Republic of Iran is replete with charitable organizations. It is incumbent upon all Muslims to devote a proportion of their excess income to the support of religious and charitable works. This contribution is voluntary, but the government collects this tithe and uses the income to support hospitals, orphanages, and religious schools. The government is also committed to rural development projects. A movement called the "sacred development struggle" ( jihad-e sazandegi ) was launched early in the Islamic Republic and was successful in bringing important development projects-electrification, drinking water and roads-to remote rural areas. There are many small private charitable organizations organized to help the poor, fatherless families, children, and other unfortunate citizens. The Iranian Red Crescent Society (the local version of the Red Cross) is active and important in the instance of national disaster. Iran is a net exporter of charity to neighboring countries. It has assisted with disaster relief in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Lebanon, and the Persian Gulf region.

Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations

There are very few international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating independent development or health programs in Iran at present, except in conjunction with Iranian governmental organizations. The current regime views independent NGOs with deep suspicion, and in its aim for self-sufficiency views the work of many international charities as unnecessary. The United Nations (UN) is the one important exception. Iran has supported the UN since its inception, and a number of UN programs in health, development, population, and the preservation of cultural antiquities are active. The nation's Mostazafin ("downtrodden people") Foundation and the Imam Khomeini Foundation have operated in the international sphere.

Gender Roles and Statuses

The Relative Status of Women and Men. The question of gender roles is one of the most complex issues in contemporary Iranian society. Women have always had a strong role in Iranian life, but rarely a public role. Their prominent participation in political movements has been especially noteworthy. Brave and often ruthlessly pragmatic, women are more than willing to take to the streets for a good public cause. Moreover, although the world focuses increasingly on the question of female dress as an indicator of progress for women in Iran (and indeed, in the Islamic world altogether), this is a superficial view. In the years since the Revolution, women have made astonishing progress in nearly every area of life.

Both the Pahlavi regime and the leaders of the Islamic Republic have gone out of their way to emphasize their willingness to have women operate as full participants in government and public affairs. Women have served in the legislature and as government ministers since the 1950s. The average marriage age for women has increased to twenty-one years. Iran's birthrate has fallen steadily since before the Revolution, now standing at an estimated 2.45 percent. Education for women is obligatory and universal, and education for girls has increased steadily. The literacy rate for women is close to that of men, and for women under 25 it is over 90 percent, even in rural areas.

Female employment is the one area where women have suffered a decline since the Revolution. Even under the current Islamic regime, virtually all professions are theoretically open to women-with an important caveat. The difficulty for the leaders of the Islamic republic in allowing women complete equality in employment and public activity revolves around religious questions of female modesty that run head-to-head with the exigencies of public life. Islam requires that both women and men adopt modest dress that does not inflame carnal desire. For men this means eschewing tight pants, shorts, short-sleeved shirts, and open collars. Iranians view women's hair as erotic, and so covering both the hair and the female form are the basic requirements of modesty. For many centuries women in Iran have done this by wearing the chador, a semicircular piece of dark cloth that is wrapped expertly around the body and head, and gathered at the chin. This garment is both wonderfully convenient, since it affords a degree of privacy, and lets one wear virtually anything underneath; and restricting, since it must be held shut with one hand. Makeup of any kind is not allowed. In private, women dress as they please, and often exhibit fashionable, even daring, clothing for their female friends and spouses.

Any public activity that would require women to depart from this modest dress in mixed company is expressly forbidden. Professions requiring physical exertion outdoors are excluded, as are most public entertainment roles. Interestingly, film and television are open to women provided they observe modest dress standards. This has created an odd separate-but-equal philosophy in Iranian life. Some

activities, such as sports events, have been set up for exclusively female participants and female spectators.

Westernized Iranian women have long viewed obligatory modest dress in whatever forms as oppressive, and have worked to have standards relaxed. These standards certainly have been oppressive when forced on the female population in an obsessive manner. Revolutionary Guards have mutilated some women for showing too much hair or for wearing lipstick. But the majority of women in Iran have always adopted modest dress voluntarily, and will undoubtedly continue to do so in the future no matter what political decisions are made on this matter.

The emotional roles of Iranian men and women are different from those in the United States and many other Western countries. In particular, it is considered manly for men to be emotionally sensitive, artistically engaged, and aesthetically acute. Women, by contrast, can be emotionally distant and detached without seeming unfeminine. Open weeping is not shameful for either sex. Both sexes can be excessively tender and doting toward their same-sex friends with no intention of eroticism. Kissing and hand-holding between members of the same sex is common.

By contrast, physical contact between members of the opposite sex is assiduously avoided except between relatives. Western men offering to shake a traditional Iranian woman's hand may see her struggling between a desire to be polite, and a desire not to breech standards of decency. The solution for many a woman is to cover her hand with part of her chador and shake hands that way. Under no circumstances should a proper man or woman willingly find themselves alone in a closed room with a member of the opposite sex (except for his or her spouse).

Marriage, Family, and Kinship

Marriage. In Iran women control marriages for their children, and much intrigue in domestic life revolves around marital matters. A mother is typically on the lookout for good marriage prospects at all times. Even if a mother is diffident about marriage brokering, she is obliged to "clear the path" for a marriage proposal. She does this by letting her counterpart in the other family know that a proposal is forthcoming, or would be welcome. She then must confer with her husband, who makes the formal proposal in a social meeting between the two families. This kind of background work is essential, because once the children are married, the two families virtually merge, and have extensive rights and obligations vis-á-vis each other that are close to a sacred duty. It is therefore extremely important that the families be certain that they are compatible before the marriage takes place.

Marriage within the family is a common strategy, and a young man of marriageable age has an absolute right of first refusal for his father's brother's daughter-his patrilateral parallel cousin. The advantages for the families in this kind of marriage are great. They already know each other and are tied into the same social networks. Moreover, such a marriage serves to consolidate wealth from the grandparents' generation for the family. Matrilateral cross-cousin marriages are also common, and exceed parallel-cousin marriages in urban areas, due perhaps to the wife's stronger influence in family affairs in cities.

Although inbreeding would seem to be a potential problem, the historical preference for marriage within the family continues, waning somewhat in urban settings where other considerations such as profession and education play a role in the choice of a spouse. In 1968, 25 percent of urban marriages, 31 percent of rural marriages, and 51 percent of tribal marriages were reported as endogamous. These percentages appear to have increased somewhat following the Revolution.

In Iran today a love match with someone outside of the family is clearly not at all impossible, but even in such cases, except in the most westernized families, the family visitation and negotiation must be observed. Traditional marriages involve a formal contract drawn up by a cleric. In the contract a series of payments are specified. The bride brings a dowry to the marriage usually consisting of household goods and her own clothing. A specified amount is written into the contract as payment for the woman in the event of divorce. The wife after marriage belongs to her husband's household and may have difficulty visiting her relatives if her husband does not approve. Nevertheless, she retains her own name, and may hold property in her own right, separate from her husband.

The wedding celebration is held after the signing of the contract. It is really a prelude to the consummation of the marriage, which takes place typically at the end of the evening, or, in rural areas, at the end of several days' celebration. In many areas of Iran it is still important that the bride be virginal, and the bedsheets are carefully inspected to ensure this. A wise mother gives her daughter a vial of chicken blood "just in case." The new couple may live with their relatives for a time until they can set up their own household. This is more common in rural than in urban areas.

Iran is an Islamic nation, and polygyny is allowed. It is not widely practiced, however, because Iranian officials in this century have followed the Islamic prescription that a man taking two wives must treat them with absolute equality. Women in polygynous marriages hold their husbands to this and will seek legal relief if they feel they are disadvantaged. Statistics are difficult to ascertain, but one recent study claims that only 1 percent of all marriages are polygynous.

Divorce is less common in Iran than in the West. Families prefer to stay together even under difficult circumstances, since it is extremely difficult to disentangle the close network of interrelationships between the two extended families of the marriage pair. One recent study claims that the divorce rate is 10 percent in Iran. For Iranians moving to the United States the rate is 66 percent, suggesting that cultural forces tend to keep couples from separating.

Children of a marriage belong to the father. After a divorce, men assume custody of boys over three years and girls over seven. Women have been known to renounce their divorce payment in exchange for custody of their children. There is no impediment to remarriage with another partner for either men or women.

Domestic Unit. In traditional Iranian rural society the "dinner cloth" often defines the minimal family. Many branches of an extended family may live in rooms in the same compound. However, they may not all eat together on a daily basis. Sons and their wives and children are often working for their parents in anticipation of a birthright in the form of land or animals. When they receive this, they will leave and form their own separate household. In the meantime they live in their parents' compound, but have separate eating and sleeping arrangements. Even after they leave their parents' home, members of extended families have widespread rights to hospitality in the homes of even their most distant relations. Indeed, family members generally carry out most of their socializing with each other.

Inheritance. Inheritance generally follows rules prescribed by Islamic law. Male children inherit full shares of their father's estate, wives and daughters half-shares. An individual may make a religious bequest of specific goods or property that are then administered by the ministry of waqfs.

Kin Groups. The patriarch is the oldest male of the family. He demands respect from other family members and often has a strong role in the future of young relatives. In particular it is common for members of an extended family to spread themselves out in terms of professions and influence. Some will go into government, others into the military, perhaps others join the clergy, and some may even become anti-government oppositionists. Families will attempt to marry their children into powerful families as much for their own sake as for the son or daughter. The general aim for the family is to extend its influence into as many spheres as possible. As younger members mature, older members of the family are expected to help them with jobs, introductions, and financial support. This is not considered corrupt or nepotistic, but is seen rather as one of the benefits of family membership.

Socialization

Infant Care. The role of the mother is extremely important in Iran. Mothers are expected to breast-feed their babies for fear the babies will become "remorseless."

Child Rearing and Education. Mothers and children are expected to be mutually supportive. A mother will protect her children's reputation under all circumstances. Small children are indulged, and not just by their parents. They are magnets for attention from everyone in the society. Some parents worry about their children becoming vain and spoiled, but have a difficult time denying their wishes.

Older children often raise younger children, especially in rural settings. It is very common to see an older child with full responsibility for care of a toddler. Children are usually more than up to this task, and develop strong bonds with their siblings. There is some rivalry between children in a family, but the rule of primogeniture is strong, and older children have the right to discipline younger children.

The father is the disciplinarian of the family. Whereas most fathers dote on their small children, they can become fierce and stern as children approach puberty. It is the father's responsibility to protect the honor of the family, and this means keeping close watch on the women and their activities. A girl is literally a treasure for the family. If she remains chaste, virginal, modest, and has other attributes such as beauty and education she has an excellent chance of making a marriage that will benefit everyone. If she falls short of this ideal, she can ruin not only her own life, but also the reputation of her family.

Boys are far more indulged than girls. Their father teaches them very early, however, that the protection of family honor also resides with them. It is not unusual to see a small boy upbraiding his own mother for some act that shows a lack of modesty. This is the beginning of a life long enculturation that emphasizes self-denial, collectivism, and interdependence with regard to the family.

Families place a very strong emphasis on education for both boys and girls. For girls this is a more modern attitude, but it was always true for boys. The education system relies a great deal on rote memorization, patterned as it is on the French education system. Children are also strongly encouraged in the arts. They write poetry and learn music, painting, and calligraphy, often pursuing these skills privately.

Higher Education. All Iranians would like their children to pursue higher education, and competition for university entrance is fierce. The most desired professions for children are medicine and engineering. These fields attract the best and the brightest, and graduates receive an academic social title for both professions ( doktor and mohandess ). The social rewards are so great for success in these professions that families will push their children into them even if their interests lie elsewhere. Many young people receive an engineering or medical degree and then pursue a completely different career.

Etiquette

The social lubricant of Iranian life is a system known as ta'arof , literally "meeting together." This is a ritualized system of linguistic and behavioral interactional strategies allowing individuals to interrelate in a harmonious fashion. The system marks the differences between andaruni and biruni situations, and also marks differences in relative social status. In general, higher status persons are older and have important jobs, or command respect because of their learning, artistic accomplishments, or erudition.

Linguistically, ta'arof involves a series of lexical substitutions for pronouns and verbs whereby persons of lower status address persons of higher status with elevated forms. By contrast, they refer to themselves with humble forms. Both partners in an interaction may simultaneously use other-raising and self-lowering forms toward each other. Ritual

greetings and leave-takings such as ghorban-e shoma (literally, "your sacrifice") underscore this sensibility.

In social situations, this linguistic gesture is replicated in behavioral routines. It is good form to offer a portion of what one is about to eat to anyone nearby, even if they show no interest. One sees this behavior even in very small children. It is polite to refuse such an offer, but the one making the offer will be sensitive to the slightest hint of interest and will continue to press the offer if it is indicated.

Guests bring honor to a household, and are eagerly sought. When invited as a guest a small present is appreciated, but often received with a show of embarrassment. It will usually not be unwrapped in front of the giver. It is always expected that a person returning from a trip will bring presents for family and friends.

An honored guest is always placed at the head of a room or a table. The highest status person also goes first when food is served. It is proper form to refuse these honors, and press them on another.

One must be very careful about praising any possession of another. The owner will likely offer it immediately as a present. Greater danger still lies in praising a child. Such praise bespeaks envy, which is the essence of the "evil eye." The parent will be alarmed, fearing for the child's life. The correct formula for praising anything is ma sha' Allah , literally, "What God wills."

Iranians can be quite physically intimate with same-sex friends, even in public. Physical contact is expected and is not erotic. In restaurants and on buses and other public conveyances people are seated much closer than in the West. On the other hand, even the slightest physical contact with non-family members of the opposite sex, unless they are very young children, is taboo.

A downward gaze in Iran is a sign of respect. Foreigners addressing Iranians often think them disinterested or rude when they answer a question without looking at the questioner. This is a cross-cultural mistake. For men, downcast eyes are a defense measure, since staring at a woman is usually taken as a sign of interest, and can cause difficulties. On the other hand, staring directly into the eyes of a friend is a sign of affection and intimacy.

In Iran the lower status person issues the first greeting. In the reverse logic of ta'arof this means that a person who wants to be polite will make a point of this, using the universal Islamic salaam or the extended salaam aleikum. The universal phrase for leave-taking is khoda hafez -"God protect."

Religion

Religion Beliefs. The state religion in Iran is Ithnaashara or Twelver Shi'ism, established by the Safavid Dynasty in the seventeenth century. This branch of Islam has many distinctive practices and beliefs that differ from the Sunni Islam practiced in most of the Muslim world. Shi'a Muslims revere the descendants of Fatimah, daughter of the prophet Muhammad, and her husband, Ali, Muhammad's cousin. There are twelve Imams recognized by this branch of Shi'ism. All were martyred except the twelfth, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who disappeared, but will return at the end of time with Jesus to judge mankind. A common symbol seen throughout Iran is an open hand. This is a complex symbol with a number of interpretations, but one is that the five fingers represent the "five bodies" central to Shi'ism-Muhammad, Fatimah, Ali, and the two sons of Fatimah and Ali, Husayn and Hassain.

It is Hassain, however, who is the true central figure in Iranian symbolic life. Hassain was martyred in a struggle for power between rival sects, later concretized as Shi'a and Sunni. This martyrdom is ritually observed throughout the year on every possible occasion. Pious individuals endow recitation of the story by professional panegyrists on a regular basis. The Islamic months of Muharram and Safar are months of ritual mourning for Hassain, with processions, self-flagellation, and ten-day dramatic depictions of the events of the martyrdom.

Just as Hassain is a central figure, everyone associated with him and his descendants who lived in Iran are equally revered-in particular Imam Reza, the eighth leader of Shi'a Muslims. Whereas all other Shi'a Imams are buried in modern Iraqi territory, Imam Reza is buried in the northeastern Iranian city, Mashhad. His astonishingly lavish shrine is one of the major pilgrimage destinations for Shi'a Muslims.

Although the vast majority of Iranians are Twelver Shi'a Muslims, important religious minorities have always played an important role in Iranian life. Zoroastrians date back to the Achaemenid Empire more than two thousand years ago. Iranian Jews claim to be the oldest continuous Jewish community in the world, dating back to the removal to Babylon. Armenians, an ancient Christian people, were imported by Iranian rulers for their artisanry, and Assyrian Christians, who follow a non-Trinitarian

doctrine, have been continually resident in Iran since the third century. Sunni Muslims are represented by Arab and Baluchi populations in the south and Turkish populations in the north and west. One religious group is homegrown. The Baha'i movement, a semi-mystical nineteenth-century departure from Shi'ia Islam, won converts not only from Islam, but also from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity. Considered a heresy by many Shi'a Muslims, Baha'i has spread from Iran to virtually every nation on earth.

Religious Practitioners. There is no formal certification for Islamic clergy. Technically, all sincere Muslims can establish themselves as religious practitioners. Women cannot preach to men, but female clerics ministering to women are not uncommon. In the normal course of training a young man attends a religious school. He takes classes from revered scholars who give him a certificate when he has completed a course of study to their satisfaction. After some time he may receive a call to take up residence in a community needing a cleric.

In time, he may acquire a reputation as a mujtahed or "jurisprudent," capable of interpreting Islamic law. Since there is no fixed theological doctrine in Shi'ism beyond the Koran and the Hadith (traditions of the prophet Muhammad), believers are free to follow the religious leader of their choice, and his interpretation of Islamic law. In time, as a mujtahed gains respect and followers, he may rise to become an ayatollah (literally, Reflection of God"). Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who in the 1970s had the largest number of followers of all religious leaders, led the Iranian Revolution.

Mysticism plays an important role in Iranian religion. Religious orders of Sufi mystics have been active in Iran for many centuries. Sufis focus on an inward meditative path for the pursuit of religious truth that may include group chanting and dance. Because they believe religion to be a personal spiritual journey, they eschew the outward trappings of social and economic life, and are highly revered.

Rituals and Holy Places. Shrines of Islamic saints are extremely important in Iranian religious practice. Most of these burial places, which receive regular visits from believers, are purported graves of the descendants of the prophet Muhammad through the Shi'a Imams. A pilgrimage to a local shrine is a common religious and social occasion. Longer pilgrimages to Karbala, Mashhad, or Mecca are greatly respected.

Most holidays in Iran are religious holidays revolving around the birth or death of the various Shi'a Imams. There are thirty of these days, all calculated according to the lunar calendar, which is always at variance with the Iranian solar calendar. This can complicate people's lives. It is necessary to have a Muslim cleric in the community just to calculate the dates. Most of these holidays involve mourning, at which time the story of Hassain's martyrdom at Karbala is recited. The exception is the birthday of the Twelfth Imam, which is a happy celebration.

Medicine and Health Care

Health care in Iran is generally very good. Life expectancy is relatively high (70 years) and the nation does not have any severe endemic infectious diseases. The principal cause of death is heart and circulatory disease. Many physicians emigrated at the time of the Islamic Revolution, but a sufficient number, supplemented by doctors from South Asia, continue to serve the population.

Health care programs in recent years have been highly successful. Malaria has been virtually eliminated, cholera and other waterborne diseases are generally under control, and family planing programs have resulted in dramatic decreases in fertility rates. The infant mortality rate remains somewhat elevated (twenty-nine per thousand) but it has declined significantly over the past twenty years. AIDS figures are suppressed.

Opium addiction has been a continual medical concern in Iran. The Pahlavi regime attempted to phase out its use by licensing the sale of state-produced raw opium only to certified addicts born after a specified date. It was thought that all the addicts would eventually die, and the problem would be solved. Of course, the availability of opium on the free market simply guaranteed that it would be resold to younger people at a profit, and the problem continued. The use of opium persists as a casual drug for all classes of society, with a small proportion of continued addicts.

A folk belief prevalent in Iran revolves around dietary practice. This philosophy tries to maintain balance between the four humors of the body- blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile-through judicious combinations of foods. Although more sophisticated Iranians use the full range of four humors in their dietary calculations, most adhere to a two-category system: hot and cold. For example, visitors quickly learn that their friends will not allow the simultaneous consumption of watermelon and yogurt (both cold foods), for fear that this combination will cause immediate death.

Secular Celebrations

Most holidays in Iran are religious in nature. The few secular holidays relate to pre-Islamic practices, or modern political events.

The Iranian New Year's Celebration ( Now Ruz ) is the nation's principal secular holiday. The Now Ruz celebration is replete with pre-Islamic symbolism, beginning with the practice of jumping over bonfires on the Wednesday before the equinox. An array of symbols emphasizing agricultural renewal is displayed throughout the long period of celebration, which lasts for thirteen days. Accompanying the festivities is the celebratory presence of a black-faced clown, Hajji Firouz . In some parts of the country a "king" of the New Year is selected and catered to during the holiday. On the thirteenth day he is ritually sacrificed.

In some parts of Iran the winter solstice is celebrated in a special manner. Watermelons are saved from the summer and hung in a protected place. On the longest night of the year, family and friends stay up all night, tell stories, and eat the watermelons.

The nation also celebrates Islamic Republic Day on 1 April to mark the 1979 Revolution.

The Arts and Humanities

Support for the Arts. The role of the arts in Iran is highly complex. On the one hand, Iranians have one of the richest and most elaborate artistic traditions in the world. On the other hand, Islamic leaders disapprove of many forms of artistic expression. Under the Pahlavi regime, especially under the patronage of the empress, Farah Diba, the arts were heavily supported and promoted. Under the Islamic republic this support has continued, but with many fits, starts, and caveats. Moral censorship has invaded virtually every form of artistic expression, but the inventive Iranians somehow manage to produce marvelous art despite these restrictions.

Two Islamic prohibitions affect arts in the most direct way: a prohibition against music, and one against the depiction of humans and animals in art. The prophet Muhammad disapproved of music because it acted to transport listeners to another mental sphere, distracting them from attention to the world created by God. The depiction of humans and animals is disapproved on two grounds: first, because it could be construed as idolatry; and second, because it could be seen as an attempt to create an alternate universe to that created by God. Additionally, the early Muslims considered poetry to be suspect, since it was thought to be inspired by jinn. For these reasons the Koran, certainly one of the most poetic works ever created, is explicitly not poetry. Chanting of the Koran is likewise not music. Over the centuries Iranians have taken these prohibitions somewhat lightly.

Literature. Iranian poets have penned some of the most wonderful, moving poetry in the history of humankind. The great poets Firdawsī, Hāfez, Sa'adī, and Jalāl ad-D n ar-R m and a host of others are an intimate part of the life of every Iranian. Modern poets writing in non-metric styles are equally revered, and the nation has developed a distinguished coterie of novelists, essayists, and exponents of belles lettres, both male and female.

Graphic Arts. Persian miniature paintings illustrating Iranian epics and classic stories are among the world's great art treasures. These miniatures depicted both humans and animals. Another tradition, more religiously approved, is the artistic development of calligraphy. This is a highly developed Iranian art, as it is throughout the Middle East. Iran has its own styles of Arabic calligraphy, however, and has developed many modern artists who fashion common words into figurative art of great beauty. Iran's modern painters often use classic themes from miniatures combined with calligraphy for a uniquely Persian effect. Geometric design is also approved, and is seen in architectural detail and carpet design.

No discussion of Persian art would be complete without mention of carpet making. Carpets are Iran's most important export item after oil, and their creation is an art of the highest order. Carpets are hand-knotted. The finest take years to complete and have hundreds of knots per square inch. The designs are drawn from a traditional stock of motifs, but are continually elaborated upon by weavers. Each region of Iran has its own traditional designs. Carpets are not only beautiful works of art, they are investments. Older carpets are worth more than new carpets. Every Iranian family will try to own one, with the secure knowledge that if they take care in their purchase it will always increase in value.

Also of significance are the centuries-old traditions of silverwork, wood-block printing, enamel ware, inlay work, and filigree jewelry manufacture. These arts were revived during the Pahlavi era in government-sponsored workshops and training programs. This support has continued after the Revolution, and owning excellent examples of these artistic products has become a hallmark of good taste in Iranian homes.

Performance Arts. Persian classical music is one of the most elaborate and inspiring artistic forms ever created. The musical system consists of twelve modal units called dastgah. These are divided into small melodic units called gusheh , most of which are associated with classic Persian poetic texts. A full performance of classical music consists of alternating arhythmic and rhythmic sections from a single dastgah. The instrumentalist and the vocal artist improvise within the modal structure, creating a unique performance. Traditional instruments include the tar ,: a lute like instrument with a body shaped something like a figure eight; the setar ,a smaller lute with three strings and a small, round body; the nei , a vertical flute; the kemanche , a small vertical fiddle with a long neck and a small body; the qanun , a larger, broader vertical fiddle; the santur , a hammer dulcimer; the dombak , a double-headed drum; and the daf , a large tambourine. Popular music forms are largely based on the more melodic structures of classical music, and are highly disapproved by the religious authorities. Many popular Iranian musicians now live abroad, where

they record and export their music back to Iran. Women are not allowed to perform music in public under the current government.

Iran has two unique traditional dramatic forms. The first, ta'zieh , is an elaborate pageant depicting the death of Imam Hassain. In its full form, it lasts ten days during the month of Muharram, and involves hundreds of performers and animals. The other dramatic form is less elevated, but equally unique. It is a comic improvisatory form known commonly as ru-howzi theater, because it was typically performed on a platform placed over the pool ( howz ) in a courtyard. Ru-howzi theater is performed by itinerant troupes at weddings and other celebrations, and is greatly appreciated. It has undergone a revival since the Revolution. Modern Western drama entered Iran at the end of the nineteenth century and attracted a number of fine playwrights whose works are regularly performed in live theater and on television.

Iranian film has captured the interest of the entire world in recent years, winning major international prizes. The Iranian film industry is decades old, but in the 1970s it began to develop as a serious art form under the sponsorship of National Iranian Radio and Television. Young film makers remained in Iran after the Revolution to create masterpieces of film art, despite censorship restrictions. This is somewhat confounding for the religious officials of the Islamic republic, since the most conservative officials condemned film attendance as immoral before the Revolution. Now they realize that Iranian film makers give Iran a progressive, positive image, and they grudgingly lend their support to the industry.

The State of the Physical and Social Sciences

Iran has had a long and proud national tradition in mathematics and the sciences. Iranians view this as an emanation of their cultural heritage. During the period from the ninth to the twelfth centuries the greatest scientists in Baghdad, often thought of as Arabs, were in fact Iranian scholars. Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā) is perhaps the most famous of these. The high regard for medicine and engineering has produced the strongest education and research programs in the country. More than half of all university students are enrolled in these fields.

There are forty-four universities (fifteen in Tehran) currently active in Iran along with a number of other institutes of higher learning and technical training. Approximately 450,000 students are enrolled, men outnumbering women two to one. The University of Tehran, Tehran Polytechnic University, the University of Isfahan, the University of Shīrāz, and the University of Tabrīz are premier educational institutions operating at a high international standard.

One of the more interesting developments following the Revolution was the establishment of the Islamic Open University. This was largely due to student discontent with the restrictive admission policies of the existing universities. Set up throughout the country, it is truly a university without walls, enrolling nearly 400,000 students. Although admission examinations are required, it is not necessary for applicants to submit standard high school diplomas for admission.

A third innovation in higher education has been the establishment of a correspondence institution, the Remote University. This is open to everyone, but in practicality it serves primarily government officials, teachers, and civil servants who wish to further their education.

The nation has enough applied scientists to carry out the functions of infrastructure maintenance and health care. Nevertheless, research institutes have suffered severe declines since the Revolution. Many of the country's best scientists and researchers emigrated to Europe and the United States. A few have returned, but the combination of the massive brain drain and the relatively young population of the nation indicate that it will be some time before much rebuilding can take place.

The government has realized that this is a problem and has increased appropriations to research institutes in recent years. The National Research Council formulates national research policy. The Industrial and Scientific Research Organization of the Culture and Higher Education Ministry carries out research for the government. Other institutes, such as the Institute for Theoretical Physics and Mathematics and the Institute for Oceanographic Research, are given little support.

Social science research is somewhat underdeveloped in Iran. Where it exists it has been developed on French models. The University of Tehran has strong faculties in sociology, psychology, and linguistics, and an active Institute for Social Studies and Research. The University of Shīrāz also has instruction and research in anthropology and sociology.

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Also read article about Iran from Wikipedia

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Iranian, Persian The term "Persian" is used as an adjective- especially pertaining to the arts-and to designate the principal language spoken in Iran. The term is often used to designate the larger cultural sphere of Iranian civilization. This includes populations living in Iraq, the Persian Gulf region, the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India.

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How the Religion Became a Cornerstone of Iranian Culture

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Iranian Revolution, popular uprising in Iran in 1978-79 that resulted in the toppling of the monarchy on February 11, 1979, and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic.

Prelude to revolution

The 1979 revolution, which brought together Iranians across many different social groups, has its roots in Iran's long history. These groups, which included clergy, landowners, intellectuals, and merchants, had previously come together in the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-11. Efforts toward satisfactory reform were continually stifled, however, amid reemerging social tensions as well as foreign intervention from Russia, the United Kingdom, and, later, the United States. The United Kingdom helped Reza Shah Pahlavi establish a monarchy in 1921. Along with Russia, the U.K. then pushed Reza Shah into exile in 1941, and his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took the throne. In 1953, amid a power struggle between Mohammed Reza Shah and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.K. Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) orchestrated a coup against Mosaddegh's government.

Years later, Mohammad Reza Shah dismissed the parliament and launched the White Revolution-an aggressive modernization program that upended the wealth and influence of landowners and clerics, disrupted rural economies, led to rapid urbanization and Westernization, and prompted concerns over democracy and human rights. The program was economically successful, but the benefits were not distributed evenly, though the transformative effects on social norms and institutions were widely felt. Opposition to the shah's policies was accentuated in the 1970s, when world monetary instability and fluctuations in Western oil consumption seriously threatened the country's economy, still directed in large part toward high-cost projects and programs. A decade of extraordinary economic growth, heavy government spending, and a boom in oil prices led to high rates of inflation and the stagnation of Iranians' buying power and standard of living.

In addition to mounting economic difficulties, sociopolitical repression by the shah's regime increased in the 1970s. Outlets for political participation were minimal, and opposition parties such as the National Front (a loose coalition of nationalists, clerics, and noncommunist left-wing parties) and the pro-Soviet Tūdeh ("Masses") Party were marginalized or outlawed. Social and political protest was often met with censorship, surveillance, or harassment, and illegal detention and torture were common.

For the first time in more than half a century, the secular intellectuals-many of whom were fascinated by the populist appeal of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a former professor of philosophy in Qom who had been exiled in 1964 after speaking out harshly against the shah's recent reform program-abandoned their aim of reducing the authority and power of the Shiʿi ulama (religious scholars) and argued that, with the help of the ulama, the shah could be overthrown.

In this environment, members of the National Front, the Tūdeh Party, and their various splinter groups now joined the ulama in broad opposition to the shah's regime. Khomeini continued to preach in exile about the evils of the Pahlavi regime, accusing the shah of irreligion and subservience to foreign powers. Thousands of tapes and print copies of Khomeini's speeches were smuggled back into Iran during the 1970s as an increasing number of unemployed and working-poor Iranians-mostly new migrants from the countryside, who were disenchanted by the cultural vacuum of modern urban Iran-turned to the ulama for guidance. The shah's dependence on the United States, his close ties with Israel-then engaged in extended hostilities with the overwhelmingly Muslim Arab states-and his regime's ill-considered economic policies served to fuel the potency of dissident rhetoric with the masses.

Outwardly, with a swiftly expanding economy and a rapidly modernizing infrastructure, everything was going well in Iran. But in little more than a generation, Iran had changed from a traditional, conservative, and rural society to one that was industrial, modern, and urban. The sense that in both agriculture and industry too much had been attempted too soon and that the government, either through corruption or incompetence, had failed to deliver all that was promised was manifested in demonstrations against the regime in 1978.

Revolution

In January 1978, incensed by what they considered to be slanderous remarks made against Khomeini in Eṭṭelāʿāt, a Tehrān newspaper, thousands of young madrasah (religious school) students took to the streets. They were followed by thousands more Iranian youth-mostly unemployed recent immigrants from the countryside-who began protesting the regime's excesses. The shah, weakened by cancer and stunned by the sudden outpouring of hostility against him, vacillated between concession and repression, assuming the protests to be part of an international conspiracy against him. Many people were killed by government forces in anti-regime protests, serving only to fuel the violence in a Shiʿi country where martyrdom played a fundamental role in religious expression. Fatalities were followed by demonstrations to commemorate the customary 40-day milestone of mourning in Shiʿi tradition, and further casualties occurred at those protests, mortality and protest propelling one another forward. Thus, in spite of all government efforts, a cycle of violence began in which each death fueled further protest, and all protest-from the secular left and religious right-was subsumed under the cloak of Shiʿi Islam and crowned by the revolutionary rallying cry Allāhu akbar ("God is great"), which could be heard at protests and which issued from the rooftops in the evenings.

The violence and disorder continued to escalate. On September 8 the regime imposed martial law, and troops opened fire against demonstrators in Tehrān, killing dozens or hundreds. Weeks later, government workers began to strike. On October 31, oil workers also went on strike, bringing the oil industry to a halt. Demonstrations continued to grow; on December 10, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Tehrān alone.

During his exile, Khomeini coordinated this upsurge of opposition-first from Iraq and after 1978 from France-demanding the shah's abdication. In January 1979, in what was officially described as a "vacation," the shah and his family fled Iran. The Regency Council established to run the country during the shah's absence proved unable to function, and Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhtiar, hastily appointed by the shah before his departure, was incapable of effecting compromise with either his former National Front colleagues or Khomeini. Crowds in excess of one million demonstrated in Tehrān, proving the wide appeal of Khomeini, who arrived in Iran amid wild rejoicing on February 1. Ten days later, on February 11, Iran's armed forces declared their neutrality, effectively ousting the shah's regime. Bakhtiar went into hiding, eventually to find exile in France.

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Iranian Revolution | Summary, Causes, Effects, & Facts

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Iranian Revolution, popular uprising in 1978-79 that resulted in the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the establishment of an Islamic republic. It came about as the culmination of decades of popular discontent mixed with economic turmoil and an increasingly repressive regime.

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Iran's Islamic Revolution shook the world in 1979, with currents that continue to be felt today. Decades later, the details of this watershed event-which redrew the geopolitical order in many ways-are worth recalling. On the eve of the revolution's 40th anniversary, we here at Brookings have put together a timeline featuring key events that led to the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty and the rise of the Islamic Republic.

Storm clouds gather

1977

January - July
Journalists, intellectuals, lawyers, and political activists publish a series of open letters criticizing the accumulation of power at the hands of the Shah.

October
A 10-night poetry festival organized by the Iranian writers' association at the Goethe Institute in Tehran attracts thousands of participants for lectures criticizing the government.

October 23
Mostafa Khomeini, the eldest son of exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dies of unknown causes at age 47 in Najaf, Iraq. The elder Khomeini has lived in exile since 1963, when he was arrested for leading protests against the Shah's modernization program.

November 15-16
During a visit to Washington, the Shah's welcome at the White House is disrupted by protests by Iranian students (as well as the tear gas used by police to quash the protests.)

A spark ignites

1978

January 6
Iranian newspaper Ettela'at publishes a front-page editorial disparaging Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, reportedly written by the royal court at the directive of the Shah.

January 9
The main bazaar in Qom, where Iran's largest seminaries are based, closes to protest the defamation of Khomeini. Several thousand protestors attacks symbols of the monarchy; security forces kill at least five people.

February 18
Consistent with Shia tradition, mourning ceremonies are held in cities across Iran on the fortieth day following the death of the Qom protestors. A student protestor is killed in Tabriz, provoking riots and further violence.

June 7
The Shah replaces General Nematollah Nassiri, the head of SAVAK; one of his successor's first moves was to order the release of 300 detained clerics.

July 20
Protests erupt in Mashhad after the death of a cleric in a road accident; a number of people were killed in the upheaval there and elsewhere.

August 9-10
The arrest of a cleric provokes riots in Isfahan, which quickly spread to Shiraz, Qazvin, Tabriz, Abadan, and Ahwaz. The Shiraz Art Festival is cancelled and an estimated 100 are killed. Martial law is declared in Isfahan.

A revolution erupts

August 27
Prime Minister Jamshid Amouzegar resigns; his successor, Jafar Sharif-Emami, undertakes reforms intended to assuage.

September 8
On the morning after the Shah declared martial law, security forces fire on a large protest in Tehran's Jaleh Square. At least 100 were killed and the event became known as "Black Friday."

October 3
At the Shah's behest, the Iraqi government deports Khomeini. After he is denied entry to Kuwait, Khomeini travels to France and settles in Neuphle-le-Chateau, a Parisian suburb, where he benefits from far greater media access and attention.

November 6
Days after protests swell in Tehran on a religious holiday, efforts to broker a national unity government with the opposition collapse, thanks to Khomeini's defiance. Prime Minister Sharif-Emami resigns, succeeded by Gen. Gholamreza Azhari. The Shah broadcast on national television a promise not to repeat past mistakes and to make amends saying, "I heard the voice of your revolution...As Shah of Iran as well as an Iranian citizen, I cannot but approve your revolution."

December 6
Only a week after he publicly reaffirmed U.S. support for and "confidence in" the Shah, President Jimmy Carter publicly hedges in press statements, noting that "We personally prefer that the Shah maintain a major role, but that is a decision for the Iranian people to make."

December 10-11
Millions of Iranians protest all over the country demanding the removal of the Shah and return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

December 29
The Shah appoints Shapour Bakhtiar as prime minister. A long-time nationalist politician and vocal critic of the Shah, he is confirmed by the parliament two weeks later.

1979

January 12
In Paris, Ayatollah Khomeini forms the Revolutionary Council to coordinate the transition.

The Interregnum

January 16
Shah and his family leave Iran for Egypt, ostensibly for "vacation." As he departs, the Shah tells Prime Minister Bakhtiar "I give Iran into your care, yours and God's." The Shah's farewell address can be heard here.

February 1
Khomeini returns to Iran and is greeted by millions of people in the streets of Tehran.

February 4
Khomeini appoints Mehdi Bazargan as the prime minister of an interim government. Bakhtiar insists that he remains the head of the only legitimate Iranian government.

1979

February 10
Bakhtiar announces country-wide curfew and martial law. Khomeini orders his followers to ignore the curfew and rise up in national revolution.

February 11
The armed forces declare neutrality, and any remnants of the Shah's government collapse. Bakhtiar quickly fled Iran for France, where he was assassinated in 1991 by Iranian agents.

The provisional government

February 14
The U.S. Embassy in Tehran is attacked by crowds; embassy staff initially surrender, but the protestors were ousted on the order of Iran's acting Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi.

March 8
Tens of thousands of Iranian women protest in Tehran on International Women's Day to oppose mandatory veiling. (See also: https://designyoutrust.com/2018/10/rare-photographs-document-iranian-women-protest-against-the-hijab-law-in-march-1979/)

March 30-31
Iranians participate in a national referendum on whether Iran should become an "Islamic Republic;" the motion (which offered no alternatives) received near-unanimous support.

May 5
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is established by a decree issued by Khomeini.

August 3
Iranians vote in nation-wide elections for the Assembly of Experts, a clerical-dominated body empowered to finalize the draft constitution. Due to boycotts by leftist, nationalist, and some Islamist factions, voter turnout falls far below the March referendum.

October 14
Assembly of Experts approves draft new constitution, enshrining Khomeini's innovative doctrine of velayat-e faqih, which accords ultimate authority to a religious leader.

October 22
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi is allowed to enter the U.S. for medical treatment. Khomeini condemns the U.S. for allowing the deposed Shah entry into the country.

The hostage crisis

November 4
Student protestors overrun the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seizing its personnel as hostages.

November 6
The leaders of Iran's provisional government resign in protest, ceding uncontested authority of the new state to Khomeini and the Revolutionary Council.

November 7
U.S. President Jimmy Carter sends emissaries with a personal note to Iran to negotiate the release of the hostages, but they are refused entry.

November 14
U.S. freezes all the property and interests of the government of Iran and the Central Bank of Iran.

November 19-20
13 female and African-American hostages are released in a unilateral Iranian gesture.

December 2-3
Iran's new constitution overwhelmingly approved in a popular referendum that drew participation from 75% of the electorate.

December 4
The United Nations Security Council passes a resolution calling for Iran to release the hostages.

December 15
The Shah leaves the United States for Panama.

1980

January 25
Abolhassan Bani Sadr is elected as the Islamic Republic's first president; within 18 months, he would be impeached and flee the country.

March 14
Iranians vote in parliamentary elections, with a second round held in May.

April 7
U.S. formally severs diplomatic relations with Iran.

April 25
Operation Eagle Claw: Embassy hostage rescue mission fails, after sandstorms cause the crash of one of the helicopters and the death of eight U.S. soldiers.

April 28
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance announces his resignation, submitted to President Carter four days before the rescue operation was launched.

July 9
Iranian authorities discover a coup plot and launch a new purge of the military.

July 27
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi dies in Cairo, Egypt.

September 12
In a speech, Ayatollah Khomeini outlines the preconditions for an agreement.

September 22
Iraq invades Iran, setting off an eight-year conflict that resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides.

1981

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The Iranian revolution-A timeline of events

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Iran's Islamic Revolution shook the world in 1979, with currents that continue to be felt today. Decades later, the details of this watershed event-which redrew the geopolitical order in many ways-are worth recalling.

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Iran protests: Supreme leader blames unrest on US and Israel

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In his first comments on the protests, Ayatollah Khamenei accuses Iran’s enemies of planning “rioting”.

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Protesters have gathered in cities around the world in recent days in a show of solidarity with women in Iran.

The gatherings are an echo of the protests that have erupted in Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country's so-called morality police.

Whether in Istanbul or Los Angeles, protests are marked by the striking words and images that have typified the protests rocking Iran: chants of "Women, life, freedom!" and in some cases, women taking scissors to their hair.

"When Iranian woman see what happened to Mahsa, they think it could have happened to them because you hardly find an Iranian woman who has not been either warned or detained or harassed by the morality police," Golnaz Esfandiari, senior correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, told NPR last week. "So we all know we've all had this experience."

"I was talking to several women in Iran, and they told me, look, even if she wasn't tortured, but she probably died from fear. She had a heart attack from fear. Because they know how scary this is," Esfandiari said.

Istanbul

In Turkey's most populous city, hundreds reportedly gathered on Sunday to protest against the Iranian government.

Many Iranians were among those who protested, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Washington, D.C.

In Washington, protesters gathered in Farragut Square, holding signs and chanting Amini's name.

There was also a candlelight vigil in front of the White House on Saturday night in support of anti-government protesters in Iran.

"This time is different because, in my opinion, is led by the women. Women are the revolutionaries at this time, at this time in history," said protester Aref Alvandi at the D.C. rally, according to ABC News.

"Iranian people are not backing down. The Iranian Regime has miscalculated their resolve for changing this regime, and we're asking the White House to do the same," demonstrator Ramesh Sepehrrad told the D.C. affiliate of NBC News.

On Capitol Hill last week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution condemning Amini's detention and death. The resolution calls for the government of Iran "to end its systemic persecution of women."

Los Angeles

The Los Angeles metro area is home to a large population of Iranian immigrants - more than a third of the U.S. population of Iranian descent lives in the area, LAist reports.

A march through the city's downtown ended at City Hall. Marchers played drums, shouted "Free Iran," held Iranian flags, and held aloft signs with messages such as "No to Islamic Republic" and "Freedom for Iran."

San Francisco

Thousands marched in San Francisco on Saturday in support of the Iranian protests.

Nazanin Balsa, an Iranian woman living in the United States, told NPR that the death of Amini is heartbreaking, but not surprising.

"I was dragged with my hair on the street because I didn't have my hijab right. And I know how they can kill you. It's not very shocking to me, but I'm glad the world is waking up to how brutal this regime is," Balsa said.

During the protests, marchers chanted Amini's names, and held up photos - some of Amini, while others held photos of their own loved ones who are arrested or missing in Iran.

Afghanistan

In Kabul last week, about 30 women in headscarves protested outside the Iranian embassy chanting, "Women, life, freedom," according to Voice of America.

But Taliban security forces dispersed the protests with force, tearing at banners and firing into the air, Voice of America reported.

"We are sure that one day, our people will rise in the same way as the Iranian people," a protester who spoke on condition of anonymity told the news outlet.

Paris

In the French capital, several feminist groups organized a protest in support of Iranian women on Friday evening, calling for President Emmanuel Macron to take action.

"Internet access has been limited in Iran, so we have a role to play in relaying the messages of Iranian men and women here and amplifying their actions," Fabienne El-Khoury, the spokeswoman for feminist group Osez le Féminisme, told France24.

"When we protest here [in France], we do not fear for our lives. We salute the courage of Iranian women who are playing their part by taking to the streets and continuing to unveil themselves publicly to call for equality and social justice in a country where women's bodies are controlled by the state," she added.

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Around the world, protesters take to the streets in solidarity with Iranian women

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The gatherings are an echo of the protests that have erupted in Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained by the country's so-called morality police.

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Archaeological evidences and modern researches in history of Iran show that from 100,000 B.C., various ethnic groups with similar cultures lived on the Iranian Plateau. But very little has been known about these cultures until the Aryan migration about 90,000 years later. Nonetheless, archaeological discoveries have shown that the people, who lived in that area before the Aryans, were people of peace-loving, agricultural, and artistic nature.

In order to make it easier to learn about the history of Iran and to be able to have a brief idea of Iranian history, Iran Safar present this historical information in chronological order.

Iran's History

Linguistically, Iran means the land of Aryans, the eastern branch of Indo-Europeans. A group of Aryans (or Indo-Iranians) who migrated to the Iranian plateau around 2000 BCE from Central Asia, are thought to be the direct ancestors of modern Iranians, This has encouraged many historians to start the history of Iran from the Aryan migrations or the establishment of the first Aryan political power, the Achaemenid Empire. At the same time, it is true that long before the influx of Aryans into Iran, different peoples with established civilizations and kingdoms inhabited the country. These dynasties that deteriorated before the arrival of the Aryans or were defeated by them had an extensive system of international trade and relations with other civilizations of their time, as far west as Egypt and maybe Southern Europe and to China in the east.

Medes

708 - 550 BC

The Medes were an ethnic group of Aryan descent who settled in the western part of the Iranian plateau. The land of the Medes included the western part of the Iranian plateau. The land of Azerbaijan in the northwest of the Iranian plateau was known as Little Media and the rest of the Zagros region was known as Great Media. The capital of the Medes was ancient Hegmataneh - Present Hamadan. Deioces founded the Median Empire. The exact date of the era of Deioces' rule is not clear and probably covered most of the first half of the seventh century BC. According to Herodotus, Deioces governed for 53 years.
The Assyrian kingdom, considered the most ruthless power at the time, fell to the Medes. Medes were able to establish the first state in the history of Iran in the late 8th century BC.

The Mede's government was abolished by Cyrus the Great in around 550 BC, and the Median rule passed to the Persians.

The Achaemenid Persian Empire

550-330 BC

The Achaemenid empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia (current Turkey) and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. The foundation of Achaemenids began in 550 B.C., when King Astyages of Media, who dominated much of Iran and eastern Anatolia, was defeated by his southern neighbor (in a word, his grand son) Cyrus I, a Persia ruler (r. 559-530 B.C.). This upset the balance of power in the Near East. The Lydians of western Anatolia and The Babylonian Empire who controlled Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean territories were later conquered by Cyrus the great.
Persepolis, Iran
Seleucid Empire

312 - 63 BC
Alexander of Macedonia, in battle against Darius III
After Alexander's death (323 BC), his conquered regions were divided among his generals, and most of his Asian conquests, of which Iran was the core, reached Seleucus I. Thus Iran came under the rule of the Seleucids (330-250 BC). Seleucids ruled over large parts of western Iran for eighty years, but there was almost no peace in their territory. After a while, the Parthians expanded their influence and finally they were able to destroy the Seleucids.

Parthian Empire

247 BC - 224 AD

The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a great Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe in conquering the region of Parthia in Iran's northeast, then a province under a Seleucid governor called Andragoras, in rebellion against the Seleucid Empire. Later, Mithridates I (r. c. 171-132 BC) expanded the boundaries by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to present-day Afghanistan and western Pakistan. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han dynasty of China, became a center of trade and commerce.

The Parthians valued the Greek civilization that had emerged in Iran during the Seleucid period. Some Parthian kings were well acquainted with Greek literature, and some Greek games were performed at the court of the Parthian kings. At that time, there was a parliament called , which itself consisted of two parliaments, one was the aristocratic parliament and the other was the religious parliament of the Zoroastrian priests, which had a consultative aspect and did not have much influence in affairs.

Sasanian Empire

224-651

The name " Sasanians" is derived from a Persian priest named Sasan, the ancestor of the dynasty. Sasan's grandson Ardashir I defeated the last Parthian king Artabanus IV in 226. He took Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian empire and ended Parthian dynasty, Ardashir accepted the title of "king of kings", which had until then been used by the Parthian kings and - centuries before - the Achaemenid rulers of Persia.

In the Sasanian rock reliefs (Such as those of Naqsh-e Rostam) and inscriptions, we often see "investiture scenes", in which the god Ahuramazda, seated on a horse, hands over power to a king. These "Mazda-worshiping kings", or believers in the supreme god Ahuramazda conferred many privileges to the Magians, the religious specialists of Zoroastrianism, who gained great political power by playing a role in the inauguration ceremony in Ctesiphon, served as judges and tax collectors.

The Arab Rule

After the establishment of Islam in Iran, which occurred as a result of the victory of the Muslim Arabs over the Sassanids and their conquest of Iran, many changes in the social, religious and political spheres took place in the history of Iran.

Muslim domination of Iran was not easy. The cities soon accepted Muslim rule, but the countryside simply did not submit to their rule. The eastern parts of Iran, as well as Tabarestan and Gilan, were later occupied by the Muslims. They had to conquer a place many times.

Dissatisfied with the class discrimination in their country, the Iranians embraced Islam and sought to spread it, but they never hid their opposition to Umayyad and Abbasid rule in Iran, and formed independent movements that formed Governments such as Taherians (881-826 AD) and Saffarids (866-903 AD) can be considered as their results.

Seljuk Empire

1037-1194

The Seljuk Empire (also Seljuqs or Seldjuks) , was a high medieval Turko-Persian Sunni Muslim empire. The Seljuks were a group of nomadic Turkish warriors from the Qiniq branch of Oghuz Turks from central Asia who established themselves in the Middle East during the 11th Century as guardians of the declining Abbasid caliphate. After 1037, they founded the great Seljuk Sultanate; an empire centered in Baghdad and including Iran, َAfghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

At the time of its greatest extent, the Seljuk Empire controlled a vast area, stretching from western Anatolia and the Levant in the west to the Hindu Kush in the east, and from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf in the south.

The Seljuk empire was founded in 1037 by Tughril (990-1063) and his brother Chaghri (989-1060). From their homelands near the Aral Sea, the Seljuks advanced first into Khorasan and then into mainland Persia, before eventually conquering Baghdad and eastern Anatolia. The Seljuks won the battle of Manzikert in 1071, and then conquered most of the rest of Anatolia, wresting it from the Byzantine Empire. This was one of the impetuses for the First Crusade (1095-1099). The Seljuk empire began to decline in the 1140s, and by 1194 had been supplanted by the Khwarazmian Empire.

Mongol Empire

1206-1368

The Mongol Empire emerged from the unification of several nomadic tribes in the Mongol homeland under the leadership of Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227), whom a council proclaimed as the ruler of all Mongols in 1206.

Under Genghis Khan, the Mongols first conquered northern China and then the eastern Islamic lands. The empire grew rapidly under his rule and that of his descendants, who sent out invading armies in every direction.

After Genghis Khan died in 1227, this golden dynasty passed to his family.

Timurid Empire

1370-1507

The Timurid Empire, self-designated as Gurkani, was a Persianate Turco-Mongol empire comprising modern-day Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the southern region of the Caucasus, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, as well as parts of contemporary Russia, India, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.

The empire was founded by Timur (also known as Tamerlane), a warlord of Turco-Mongol lineage, who established the empire between 1370 and his death in 1405. Timur acquired the title Gurkan, Mongolian term for 'royal son-in-law' because of his marriage to a Genghis Khan's descendant.

Timur was interested in settled lands of ancient Islamic or Indian culture and eventually built his capital at Samarkand (modern Uzbekistan). His rise to power began in Transoxiana. The later Timurids were mere local rulers in Khurasan and Transoxiana. The Timurid period was one of the most glorious periods in Medieval Islamic art in Transoxiana and Persia. He envisioned himself as the great restorer of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, regarded himself as Genghis's heir. Timur continued vigorous trade relations with Ming China and the Golden Horde. The empire led to the Timurid Renaissance, particularly during the reign of astronomer and mathematician Ulugh Begh. By 1467, the ruling Timurid dynasty, or Timurids, lost most of Persia to the Aq Qoyunlu confederation. But members of the Timurid dynasty continued to rule smaller states, sometimes known as Timurid emirates, in Central Asia and parts of India. In the 16th century, Babur, a Timurid prince from Ferghana (modern Uzbekistan), invaded Kabulistan (modern Afghanistan) and established a small kingdom there. Twenty years later, he used this kingdom as a staging ground to invade India and establish the Mughal Empire.

Safavid Empire

1501-1736

The Safavid Empire, which was founded as a political dynasty in 1501, was the second Great Islamic Empire to form in Persia. It originated as a religious sect, and it acquired the military and political traits of an empire only after 1501. The Safavid Empire also differed from the Ottoman and Mughal Empires because it was an official Shi'ite empire. religious differences led to much hostility between the Safavids and its Sunni rivals. The Safavid Empire was formed in 1501 and ended by the invasion of Afghans in 1722. It forever influenced Persian nationalism.

Qajars

1789-1925

One of the largest families in Iran was called the Qajar family who ruled Iran for about 150 years. The Qajar dynasty was notorious for its incompetence in Iranian history, and the Iranian economy was declining during this period. Agha Mohammad Khan, as the founder of this dynasty, held his coronation ceremony in 1796 in Tehran. The last Qajar king was Ahmad Shah, whose was overthrown in 1304.

In the early 20th century, the Iranian Constitutional Revolution created an elected parliament or Majlis, and sought the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, deposing king Mohammad Ali Shah for Ahmad Shah , but many of the constitutional reforms were reversed by an intervention led by the Russian Empire. Qajar Iran's territorial integrity was further weakened during the Persian campaign of World War I and the invasion by the Ottoman Empire. Four years after the 1921 coup d'état, Reza Shah took power in 1925 forming Pahlavi Iran.

Agha Mohammad Khan (r.1789 - 1797)

Timeline of Iran history

B.C.E.

100,000 Evidence of man habitation in Zagros
8000E Development of settled village in Zagros
5500 The oldest settlements in Sialk, Central lran
4200 Susa is founded in southwestern Persia
3200-2700 Proto-Elamite period
2700 Elamite Kingdom with Susa as capital
2700-1600 Old Elamite period
1500-1100 Middle Elamite period
1100-539 Neo-Elamite periods
1000 birth of Zoroaster, Iranian prophet
708 Deioces founds Median Kingdom in Ecbatana
633 Scythian Invasion of Media
624 Medians defeat and oust the Scythians
558 Cyrus the Great moves the capital to Susa
546 Cyrus invades Lydia
539 Cyrus captures Babylon
539 Cyrus allows exiled Jews return to Jerusalem
529 Death of Cyrus the great
525 Cambyses conquers the conquet of Egypt
521 Death of Cambyses, son of Cyrus
521 Darius ascends the throne
514 Darius invades Scythia, Caucasus
494 Invasion of Greece by Darius
490 Defeat of Persians at the Battle of Marathon
486 Death of Darius I, Accession of Xerxes
484 Xerxes suppresses the revolt in Babylon
479 Battle of Plataea, Greek defeat of the Persians
405 The Persian Empire loses Egypt
404 Accession of Artaxerxes II to the throne
359 Accession of Artaxerxes III
342 Egypt is re-conquered
336 Darius III, ascends to the throne
334 Alexander the Great defeats the Persian army
330 Assassination of Darius III
327-326 Alexander invades India
323 Alexander returns to Babylon, and dies at 33
320Seleucus I (Nicator) founds the Seleucid Empire
247 Arsaces I (Arashk) founds the Parthian dynasty

C.E.

214-17Birth of the prophet Mani
224 Establishment of the Sasanians by Ardashir I
241 Accession of Shapur I.
259 Emperor Valerianus is defeated by Shapur I.
274 or 277 Execution of Mani.
363 Julian killed in a war against Persia.
376 Peace established between Rome and Persia.
531 Massacre and suppression of the Mazdakites.
531 Administrative, military, and social reforms.
533 Peace with Byzantium.
570 Conquest of Yemen.
570 Birth of the Prophet Moḥammad.
611-16 Ḵosrow II's conquest of Syria and Egypt.
622 Moḥammad's move from Mecca to Medina,
632 Death of Prophet Moḥammad.
632-34 Abu Bakr's caliphate.
633 Yazdegerd III succeeds to the Persian throne.
636 Persians are defeated by Arabs at Qadesiya.
637 Muslims capture Ctesiphon, the Sasanian capital
637 Arab Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia.
642 Defeat of Persians by Muslims at Nehavand.
651 Murder of Yazdegerd III; end of the Sasanians
656 Murder of Othman; Ali is chosen as caliph.
680 Revolt of Ḥusain b. Ali, the third Shiʿite Imam.
680 Death of Hussein at the battle of Karbala.
749 Abu Moslem's army attacks the Omayyads.
750 Establishment of the Abbasid dynasty.
755 Murder of Abu Moslem by caliph Manṣur.
813 The pro-Persian Maʾmun is elected caliph.
820 Ṭaher establishes the Taherid dynasty.
833 Death of Maʾmun.
878 Mahdi, the twelfth Shiʿism disappears.
903 Rise of the Samanid dynasty.
925 Death of Abu Bakr Moḥammad Rāzi
935 foundation of the Buyid dynasty
940 Death of Rudaki "father of Persian poetry,"
977 Foundation of Ghaznavid dynasty.
999 Ferdowsi completes the first draft of Šāh-nāma.
1019 or 1025 Death of Persian poet, Ferdowsi
1037 Rise of the Saljuqids.
1037 Death of Avicenna, Persian physician.
1078-87 foundation of Ismailis by Ḥasan Ṣabbaḥ
1132 Death of Omar Khayyam
1157 End of Saljuks, rise of the Ḵharazmshahians
1209 Death of Neẓāmi Ganjavi, prominent poet.
1220 Genghis Khan overthrows the Ḵharazmshah
1221 Death of Farid-al-Din Aṭṭar, mystic poet.
1227 Genghis Khan dies
1258 End of the Abbasid caliphate
1271 Marco Polo journeys through Persia
1273 Death of Jalal-al-Din Rumi, poet
1313-93 Mozaffarid dynasty in Yazd and Fars
1370 Timur becomes head of Ulus Chagatai, and begins to develop Samarkand as his capital
1385-6 Timur conquers western Iran; beginning of conflict with his protégé, Tokhtamysh, whom he had helped become Khan of the Golden Horde.
1393 Timur defeats the Mozaffarids
1397 Timur invades India
1405 Death of Timur
1500-06 Overthrow of the Timurids
1501 Esmaʿil I establishes the Safavid dynasty
1502-24 Esmaʿil I establishes Shiʿite official religion.
1507 Portuguese fleet occupies Hormuz.
1508 Safavid forces capture Iraq.
1514 Chaldoan battle;Selim I defeats Esmaʿil.
1514-20 Ottoman economic boycott of Persia.
1548 Ṭahmasb transfers his capital to Qazvin.
1585 Ottomans invade Persia and occupy Tabriz.
1588 Accession of Abbas I (the Great).
1590 Shah Abbas makes peace with the Ottomans.
1598 Shah Abbas' victory over the Uzbeks.
1600 Shah Abbas transfers his capital to Isfahan.
1601-03 Shah Abbas occupies Bahrain.
1603 War with Ottomans; Abbas retakes Tabriz.
1603-04 deportation of Armenians to New Julfa.
1622 Persians oust the Portuguese from Hormuz.
1629 Death of Shah Abbas I.
1630 The Ottomans capture Hamadan.
1638 The Ottomans capture Erevan and Tabriz.
1664 First Russian mission sent to Isfahan.
1664 A French trade mission is sent to Persia.
1697-1701 The Safavids control Basra.
1722 The Afghans under Maḥmud invade Isfahan.
1722-30 The Afghans occupy much of Persia.
1723 The Russians occupy Rasht and Baku.
1723 Ottomans occupy Georgia and Hamadan.
1724 Maḥmud captures Shiraz.
1725 The Ottomans occupy Ganja and Tabriz.
1729 Nader defeats Afghans.
1733 Nader ends the Ottoman occupation.
1734 Nader invades the Caucasus,Baku, Erevan.
1736 Nader is proclaimed Shah; end of Safavids.
1738 Nader Shah occupies Qandahar.
1739 Nader invades India.
1740 Nader Shah conquers Bukhara and Ḵiva.
1747 Assassination of Nader Shah.
1758 Karim Khan becomes ruler of Persia.
1779 Karim Khan dies at the age of 80.
1783 The Persians are driven from Bahrain.
1789 Aqa Moḥammad Khan establishes Qajar.
1796 Coronation of Aqa Moḥammad Khan.
1797 Assassination of Aqa Moḥammad Khan.
1810 First Persian students are sent to Europe.
1812 Treaty of friendship between Persia and Britain.
1813 First war with Russia; Abbas Mirza is defeated.
1813 Treaty of Golestan; Persia cedes Georgia.
1826 Second war with Russia; defeat of Persians.
1826 Turkmenchay treaty with Russia.
1836 Rebellion of Aqa Khan against government.
1844 Foundation of Babi movement.
1848 Accession of Nāṣer-al-Din Shah.
1850 Execution of the Bab by order of Amir Kabir.
1850 Amir Kabir is exiled to Kashan.
1851 Inauguration of the Dār-al-Fonun College.
1852 Execution of Amir Kabir iby Naṣer-al-Din Shah.
1852 Massacre of the Babis by Naṣer-al-Din Shah.
1857 Shah recognizes independence of Afghanistan.
1860 Freemasonry is introduced in Persia.
1891 tobacco boycott by Mirzā Ḥasan Shirzi.
1892 Death of Baha Allah, founder of the Bahāis.
1896 Assassination of Nāṣer-al-Din Shah.
1904 Tea plant seed is imported from India.
1906 First formation of a national assembly.
1906 The first Majles opens on October 7.
1908 Excavation of oil at Masjed-e Solayman.
1908 movement of Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan.
1909 Execution of Shaikh Fażl-Allāh Nuri.
1909 Formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company..
1915 Movement of Mirza Kuchak Khan in Gilan.
1915 British forces enter Bushehr.
1916 Russian forces occupy Qom and Kashan.
1920 Mirza Kuchak Khan occupies Rasht.
1921 Reza Khan defeats Kuchak Khan.
1921 Founding of the Qom religious center.
1923 Reza Khan assumes the premiership.
1923 Aḥmad Shah leaves for Europe,
1925 Parliament approves the deposing of Aḥmad Shah.
1925 Reza Khan is elected Shah.
1928 Formation of Bank-e Melli (National Bank).
1928 Bandar-e Anzali is renamed Bandar-e Pahlavi.
1930 Political relations established with Japan.
1934 Reza Shah visits Turkey and Kemal Ataturk.
1935 Inauguration of the University of Tehran.
1935 Adoption of Western-style uniform dress
1935 Uprising in the Gowharshad Mosque.
1936 Women are banned from wearing veil (chador).
1939 Prince Moḥammad Reza marries Fawzia.
1939 Iran declares its neutrality in the World War II.
1941 Reza Shah is overthrown
1943 Tehran Conference.
1944 Death of Reza Shah in Johannesburg.
1948 The Shah and Queen Fawzia divorce.
1950 Military agreement between Iran and US.
1951 Shah marries Sorayya Esfandiari.
1951 The Oil Nationalization Law is passed.
1951 Moṣaddeq is named prime minister.
1952 Moḥammad Moṣaddeq resigns.
1953 Dismission of Mosaddegh by Shah.
1957 Formation of SAVAK, Iranian secret police.
1959 The Shah marries Farah Diba.
1960 Inauguration of the Central Bank of Iran.
1962 Inauguration of Iran Air, the national airline.
1962 Formation of the Iran National Car Company.
1964 Ayatollah Khomeini is exiled to Turkey.
1966 National Iranian television begins broadcasting.
1967 Death of Moḥammad Moṣaddeq.
1971 Iran occupies Abu Musa Island.
1971 Celebrations of 2,500th anniversary of foundation of the Persian monarchy
1972 President Richard Nixon visits Iran.
1979 Islamic revolution

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Archaeological evidences and modern researches in history of Iran show that from 100,000 B.C., various ethnic groups with similar cultures lived on the Iranian Plateau. But very little has been known about these cultures until the Aryan migration about 90,000 years later.