IRAN 2001

Introduction

Iran is one of the oldest civilized areas of the world. Quite apart from its role in fostering Mesopotamian civilization in modern Iraq, from the 7th century BCE the fertile Iranian plateau became the base of successive empires. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, ancient Iran competed successfully with the Roman Empire. Even after Iran's incorporation into the Islamic Caliphate by its Arab conquerors in the 7th century CE, Iran maintained a strong national identity; indeed, the Persian language and culture gained international repute in the following millennium, second in importance to Muslims behind only the Arabic language and culture. By the 19th century, though, Iran had become decrepit; unlike contemporary Egypt, the Qajar dynasty simply was unable to modernize the country, and Iran was divided into British and Russian spheres of influence.

Only after the First World War did Iran's situation improve. The 1920 annexation of Russian Azerbaijan at the behest of the anti-Communist British restored to Iran a territory of economic and sentimental importance, while the peaceful coup of 1924 against the Qajar dynasty installed the new modernizing Pahlavi dynasty. Under Emperor Reza Shah, Iran was pushed into the modern age, with cultural Westernization occurring at the same time that the Pahlavis used the proceeds from oil earnings to push forward with economic modernization and industrialization. By the 1970's, Iran had evolved into a moderately prosperous Third World country.

However, this modernization was achieved at high cost. Rapid population growth forced millions of young Iranians to migrate to urban slums, where they languished in poverty even as a fortunate minority enjoyed middle-class (or upper-class) lifestyles. Political dissent was strictly limited by SAVAK, the feared Iranian secret police, while the Pahlavi monarchy self-consciously cultivated an imperial mystique. Most offensively of all, the Pahlavis forced the general Westernization of what was still a conservative Muslim country, wreaking general havoc on religious life. Shockingly, in the winter of 1982 and 1983 even as one-third of the Iranian population starved to death, the Pahlavi monarchy maintained a decidedly offensive show of opulence. This apparent unconcern of the Iranian mercantile and governing elites ignited the Iranian revolution. Following the trial and execution of the Iranian Shah and many leading politicians, Iran became the first Islamic Republic in the world, engaging in radical reform after radical reform. In 1984, Iranian radicalism precipitated a war with the League of Nations in concert with Iran's revolutionary allies, initiated a bloody intervention in Afghanistan.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Iranian situation has stabilized, as Iran has managed to forge a modus vivendi with the League in the Middle East and Iranian political life has modernized. To the considerable surprise of Iranians, they find that they now live in a unified nation-state that is second in the Middle East only to Egypt, possessing a society radically reformed along egalitarian lines in wartime, and the beginnings of a truly democratic political system. Though Iranians are still moderately xenophobic, to an increasing degree Iranians have become confident enough about their new achievements to welcome in visitors from elsewhere. With the immense achievements of the past to look upon, and a hopeful future in the meantime, a properly-prepared visitor can find Iran to be a highly enjoyable experience.

Visiting Iran

Iranians travel abroad infrequently, while foreigners have only recently begun to enter Iran in large numbers. There are many countries with which Iran has extremely poor relations, including Egypt; travel from these nations is severely restricted. Visitors should familiarize themselves with entry and customs requirements, and be sure to check their visa status before entering. Iranian customs prohibits the import into Iran of material that is of a morally, theologically, or politically offensive nature, as well as firearms and drugs. Iranian customs regularly inspects visitors and their belongings for contraband materials; if one is caught with such items on their person, one risks criminal charges.

One should enter Iran only via legitimate crossing points. Quite apart from the stern eye turned by the Iranian Security Secretariat upon unauthorized entry, many borders -- in particular, Iran's eastern borders with Afghanistan and Baluchistan -- are unsafe owing to the extreme instability of these neighbours. One should consult authorities before venturing near border areas.

Money

Prior to the Third World War, Iran's domestic trade was done either in barter between peasants, in rials among the masses of the urban population, and in écus amongst the industrialist class and in international trade. The Third World War destroyed the rial's value against First World currencies. Although the rial remained in limited domestic use in western Iran, in eastern Iran trade was conducted largely by barter. Further, wartime hyperinflation and continuing economic chaos over the 1980's prevented the reestablishment of a stable monetary system across Iran.

In 1991, the new rial was formally instituted, at an exchange rate of eight new rials to the old rial, and of 15 new rials to the écu. Overnight, fortunes and life savings were lost, and the Iranian economy went into a tailspin that was halted only by the increased global consumption of oil.

Circa 1 June 2001, the official exchange rate for the New Rial against the écu is 10.5 new rials to the écu, although black-market exchange rates are significantly higher and foreign hard currencies command relatively greater purchasing power than the same amount in new rials. Banks and government exchanges will convert foreign currencies to new rials automatically, generally extracting 15% service charge.

Natural Environment

Climate

Iran has an arid climate in which most of the relatively scant annual precipitation falls from October through April. In the northwest, winters are cold with heavy snowfall and subfreezing temperatures during December and January. Spring and fall are relatively mild, while summers are dry and hot. In the south, winters are mild and the summers are very hot, having average daily temperatures in July exceeding 38° C. On the Khuzestan plain, summer heat is accompanied by high humidity.

Iran is divided climatically into four main regions: the extremely hot coast along the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; the temperate but arid central highland; the tableland of the intensely cold Elburz Mountains; and, the warm but dry Caspian Sea coast. The average temperature range in Tehran on the interior plateau is -3° to 7° C in January and 22° to 37° C in July. The average range in Abadan on the Persian Gulf is 7° to 17° C in January and 28° to 44° C in July. Average annual precipitation in Tehran is about 250 mm and in Abadan is less than 200 mm.

Geography

Iran consists of rugged mountain ranges surrounding high interior basins. The main mountain range is the Zagros Mountains, a series of parallel ridges that bisect the country from northwest to southeast. Many peaks in the Zagros exceed 3 000 metres above sea level, and in the south-central region of the country there are at least five peaks that are over 4 000 metres. As the Zagros continue into southeastern Iran, the average elevation of the peaks declines to under 1 500 metres. Surrounding the Caspian Sea's coastline is another chain of mountains, the narrow but high Alborz Mountains. Volcanic Mount Damavand (5 600 metres), located in the center of the Alborz, is not only Iran's highest point but the highest mountain in Eurasia west of the Hindu Kush. The Caucasus Mountains form Iran's northern border and contain Mount Bazardüzü, which reaches a height of 4 466 metres.

Between the Zagros and Alborz Mountains lies several closed basins that collectively are referred to as the Central Plateau. This plateau varies between 900 and 1 200 metres in height, but some points exceed 3 000 metres. The eastern part of this plateau is covered by two salt deserts, the Dasht-e Kavir and the Dasht-e Lut. Both deserts are inhospitable and virtually uninhabited. Except for some scattered oases, these deserts are uninhabited.

Iran has only two expanses of lowlands: the Khuzestan plain in the southwest and the Azerbaijan-Caspian Sea coastal plain in the north. The Khuzestan plain is a roughly triangular-shaped extension of the Mesopotamia plain, averaging about 160 kilometres in width and extending some 120 kilometres inland, barely rising a few metres above sea level, before meeting the Zagros Mountains' foothills. Much of the Khuzestan plain is covered with marshes. The Azerbaijan-Caspian plain is longer and narrower than the Khuzestan plain, extending more than 1 200 kilometres along the Caspian shore and narrowing dramatically from some 150 kilometres on the Iranian-Caucasian border to less than 2 kilometres separating the shore from the Alborz foothills. The Caspian Sea, at 28 m below sea level, is the lowest point in Iran.

Iran has no major rivers. The only navigable river is the Karun in Khuzestan, which shallow-draft boats can negotiate from Khorramshahr to Ahvaz, a distance of about 180 kilometres, while the Aras-Kura river valleys of North Azerbaijan provide abundant irrigation water. Several other permanent rivers and streams also drain into the Persian Gulf, while some small rivers that originate in the northwestern Zagros or Alborz drain into the Caspian Sea. On the Central Plateau, numerous rivers form from snow melt in the mountains in spring and flow through permanent channels, draining eventually into salt lakes that dry up like the riverbeds themselves in summer. There is a permanent salt lake, Lake Urmiyeh, in the northwest, that is almost as rich in brine as the Dead Sea between Palestine and Syria.

The People

Demography

The population of Iran peaked at 45 million in 1981. Had pre-war patterns of growth continued, there would now be almost 80 million Iranians. Subsequently, famine and plague devastated the Iranian population, eventually stabilizing after the declaration of the Islamic Republic and the arrival of League food aid at 30 million in 1984-5. After that, despite the Persian Gulf War and various natural disasters, the Iranian population soon began to recover, with annual growth rates of 2 to 2.5% in the second half of the 1980's, 3% in the first half of the 1990's, and an estimated 2.5% in the second half of the 1990's. Throughout the decade, an exceptionally high rate of natural increase was diminished by mass immigration to depopulated yet fertile Turkestan, where immigrant Iranians formed a majority of the population as early as 1985, as well as to the labour-hungry Islamic League member-states on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. The Iranian population has thus grown almost 47%, to reach an estimated total population of 44.9 million people at the beginning of 2001.

Recently, birth rates have begun to decline. From 1995 to 2000, the average number of children born per woman has dropped from 5.8 to 4.3, and is continuing to decline. This fertility decline is brought about by numerous factors, including an increase in the age of marriage, lower infant and general mortality rates, the progressive elimination of illiteracy, the construction of a universal public medical system, and rapid urbanization. In 1999, the Iranian Secretariat of Population has begun a family-planning program. League projections suggest that the Iranian population will eventually stabilize at roughly 80 million in 2050.

Iran is not prone to ethnic rivalry or persecution -- capable individuals were and remain free to participate in national affairs regardless of their ethnic background, and most non-ethnic Persian intellectuals assimilated into the Persian-speaking community. Prior to the Third World War, just under half of the Iranian population spoke Persian as their mother tongue, concentrated in the major urban areas of central and eastern Iran and in the villages of the Central Plateau. The Persian language was the most prestigious language, from the cultural, historical, and political points of view. Another quarter spoke Azeri -- a Turkic language spoken in the northwest of the country, around Baku and Tabriz. The remaining Iranian population spoke a variety of different languages in pockets on the fringes of the country, with some of the more notable ones -- each spoken by between 4% of the population -- including Arabic in the southwest, Kurdish in the west, Gilaki along the Caspian seacoast, Turkmen in the northeast, and a large Afghanistani immigrant population of two million people dispersed across the country. Other notable populations included Baluchi and Pashtun nomads in the south and east, and Jews and Armenians in the major cities.

As elsewhere in the world, the chaos of the post-Third World War environment encouraged a considerable degree of ethnic intermixture, with large ethnic groups gaining relatively more members while smaller ethnic groups diminished, or even disappeared. Preliminary analysis of data from the 1999 census suggest that between 50 and 55% of the Iranian population uses Persian as their main language, while 20 to 25% use Azeri, and 10% of the population uses Kurdish. Smaller ethnolinguistic groups are being assimilated into Iran's Persian-speaking population, save in Azerbaijan where these groups are becoming Azerified. Moreover, some ethnic groups have been lost to assimilation and emigration. Many of the quarter-million ethnic Armenians, for instance, resident in Iran since the 5th century, left after the foundation of the Islamic Republic, as have almost half of Iran's Jews (90 thousand in 1980). However, there are new minorities resident in Iran, including one million Urdu-speaking Shi'ite Muslims who fled persecution in South Asia, another million Afghanistani immigrants, and a quarter-million North Caucasians. There are also sprinklings of smaller groups numbering in all about one hundred thousand people, running from Western refinery technicians to migrants from Turkestan.

Culture

Iranian culture has been profoundly influenced by Islam, at the levels of both the Great Tradition and the Little Tradition. Still, as a crossroads for Eurasian trade Iran has historically been fairly open to foreign cultural influences, while many pre-Islamic traditions still survive. Iranian art, crafts, literature, and architecture are all produced by this triple confluence. Before the revolution, Iran was becoming a superficially Westernized society; the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic led a drive for renewed Islamization. To this end, women were ordered to return to more traditional roles, movie theaters were closed, and radio stations were prohibited from broadcasting music. Western cultural influences were damned for their untoward sensuality; even Egypt, one of Iran's most important sources of popular culture, was condemned as corrupt. Lately, though, has this changed.

The graphic arts -- in particular, painting in fresco and the illumination of manuscripts -- have been practiced in Iran at least as early as the Sassanian period, but only fragments of the work have survived. In Islamic Iran, painting became one of the most important arts. In particular, ornamental calligraphy was soon adopted as a major graphic art form. Later, manuscripts that once depended upon calligraphy alone were supplemented by painting and illumination. Iranian manuscript art was further modified by the introduction in the 10th century CE of paper for making books, and by the introduction in the 13th century CE by the Mongols of the styles of Chinese landscape painting. Further, the text was usually written in Persian rather than the traditional Arabic. Iranian styles of miniature and portrait painting soon spread throughout Turkestan and South Asia. After the 17th century, Iranian artists copied European paintings and engravings, and the native traditions declined. Over the 20th century, demand for modern imitations of 16th-century miniature paintings were also common; as yet, no contemporary national style of painting has emerged.

Iran is also noted for its well-honed techniques of weaving, metalwork, and pottery. Iran is particularly noted for its famous Persian rugs, which remain an important art form and export good to this day. Made in small villages and in court workshops, rugs designed for secular use or export have animal or human figures woven into the fabric, while rugs used in mosques or for private prayer usually consist of a medallion or arch within a field surrounded by a border, the whole covered with delicate floral forms. Metalwork and pottery are also important; fine bronze, brass, and copper wares are made by Azerbaijani craftsmen, while Tehrani pottery is second to none with its lusterware decorated with metallic glaze.

The literary arts are perhaps the most notable cultural form in Iran. From the 12th century on, the ancient Persian literary tradition reasserted itself, using the native language of Iran written in Arabic script and drawing upon a wide variety of motifs that included pre-Islamic Iranian and Arabic influences. Persian language and literature soon became renowned throughout Dar al-Islam; indeed, some Indian principalities retained Persian as an official language until the 20th century. In the late 19th century, the florid style was simplified and the subject matter changed, bringing to social and political problems. Some pioneering serious dramas in the Western sense on patriotic and nationalistic themes were also produced, written by such well-known dramatists are Malkam Khan and Sa'edi, a versatile satirist. By the beginning of the 20th century, a vigorous and lively press developed. This literary renaissance contributed greatly to the national awakening that culminated in the constitutional revolution of 1905. Since 1919, when the first collection of Persian-language short stories appeared, modern Iranian literature has specialized in the short story as opposed to the genre. Some major writers include M. A. Jamalzadeh, Sadiq Hidayat, Buzurq Alavi, Sadiq Chubak, and Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Hidayat has gained international renown in translation for his cynical, morbid works, and is also one of modern Iran's most significant writers. Further, since the Second World War poetry has gained a new vitality, with some modern poets, beginning to experiment in blank verse.

Although Iran has numerous lively traditions of folk music, often linked to ethnic cultures or to local Muslim cults, it has been the policy of the Islamic Republic to suppress popular musics -- Western, Indian, Egyptian -- as excessively sensual. Recently, though, this policy has changed, as have previous restrictions on the production of movies.

Religion

Iran is a Muslim nation. Islam was first introduced into Iran in the course of the 7th century Arab conquests, and it became a majority faith early in the Second Millennium. Unlike in the rest of the Islamic world, though, the dominant branch of Islam among Iranians is Shi'a. Most Iranians were Sunnis until the 17th century CE, when the Safavid dynasty made Shi'a Islam the official state religion. Some of the most sacred Shi'ite places are in Iran; the city of Qom, south of Tehran, is a noted place of pilgrimage. Shi'a differ from Sunni in their belief in the eventual establishment of an Islamic Caliphate by divine intervention, and in their profession of seven pillars of faith, including the five -- shahada, or the confession of faith; namaz, or ritualized prayer; zakat, or almsgiving; sawm, fasting and contemplation during daylight hours during the lunar month of Ramazan; and hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina once in a lifetime if financially feasible -- shared with Sunni and other two pillars unique to Shi'a Islam -- jihad, or crusade to protect Islamic lands, beliefs, and institutions, and the requirement to do good works and to avoid all evil thoughts, words, and deeds. A further characteristic of Shi'a Islam is the continual exposition and reinterpretation of doctrine. The most recent example is the Islamic Republic's exposition of the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or the political guardianship of the community of believers by scholars trained in religious law. Recently, velayet-e faqih has been used by doctrinal liberals to argue on behalf of an engaged social Islam, similar to the liberation theology of South African Christianity.

Sunni Muslims constitute approximately 7 percent of the Iranian population. Most Kurds, almost all Baluchis and Turkmen, and some Arabs are Sunnis, as are small communities of Persians in southern Iran and Khorasan. Generally speaking, Iranian Shi'as recognize Sunnis as fellow Muslims but whose religion is incomplete; some view missionary work among Sunnis as a worthwhile religious endeavor. In communities with mixed populations, religious tensions exist, and serve to aggravate Iranian-Egyptian diplomatic relations.

A unique minority, including only 25 thousand members, are the Zoroastrians. Despite its non-Abrahmic origins, Zoroastrianism is tolerated by even Islamic zealots as a religion of the People of the Book with deep roots in Iranian history. Zoroastrianism initially developed in Iran during the 7th century BCE, and later became the official religion of the Sassanid Empire, which ruled over Iran for approximately four centuries before being destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th century CE. After Iran's incorporation into the Islamic empire, most Iranians were converted to Islam by the 10th century CE. Zoroastrians are recognized as an official religious minority under the 1984 Constitution, and generally enjoy the same civil and political liberties as Muslims. Some Zoroastrians have emigrated to India or Europe in the past two decades, but Zoroastrianism in Iran appears likely to endure the next decades and centuries.

Other minor religions include Armenian Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, and Baha'i. The Christians and Jews are both predominantly urban and well-assimilated and are concentrated in Tehran and Esfahan. Christians and Jews have been guaranteed protection and political representation in the 1984 Constitution, despite institutional prejudice in the revolution's radical phase. In contrast, the Baha'i number some 150 000 members but are persecuted as heretics by the Islamic Republic. In recent years, many Baha'i have emigrated.

Cities

Iran has an ancient urban tradition, stretching back into the mists of unrecorded history. Only in the 20th century, though, have Iran's cities begun to grow by leaps and bounds. In the 1960's and 1970's, the growing unviability of peasant agriculture -- particularly in impoverished areas like Baluchestan and Iranian Kurdistan -- and the rapid growth of industrial employment drove a massive population shift. There also has been some migration from small towns to larger cities. In the decade following the Third World War, the population shifted towards rural areas as the Revolution's land reforms let peasants own their own relatively substantial plots of land. Still, over the 1990's rural-to-urban migration accelerated. The net result is a population that now, in 2001, is estimated to be 65% urban, as opposed to 40% urban before 1983. This rapid population shift has left urban services unable to keep pace with the population growth and the consequent spread of slum areas, particularly in south Tehran but including other large cities also had notable slum sections. Large income disparities are visible in modern Iranian cities.

Tehran is the capital of Iran, Iran's largest city, and with a total population of 6.5 million people is the second most populous city in the Middle East after Cairo. Located in the northern part of the country, Tehran is a major industrial centre that produces processed food, cotton textiles, cement, and bricks. In addition, the crude-oil industry, although centered in Abadan and other areas, is administered by the Iran National Oil Company from Tehran. It is a young city by Iranian standards, dating only seven centuries to the destruction of the ancient city of Rayy by the Mongols in 1220. Tehran -- then a small suburb -- survived and grew slowly in succeeding centuries, but it remained an insignificant small town until the end of the eighteenth century, when the founder of the Qajar dynasty, Agha Mohammad Khan, made Tehran the Iranian capital in 1788. Under the Pahlavis, Tehran was modernized, industrialized, and considerably rebuilt, and the city's population multiplied almost twelvefold between 1926 and the present. While several mosques and palaces of the 19th century remain, most of the architecture is new. The most rapidly-growing area of Tehran is in the north, where new residential sections now link the city with the Shemìranat residential district, while to the south are the factories and the older sections, including remnants of a large bazaar that has been largely replaced by shops. Farther south are the ruins of the ancient cities of Rages, birthplace of the caliph Harun ar-Rashid, and Rayy, where an oil refinery now stands. At the center of Tehran are Sepah and Ferdowsì squares, on or near which are the important government buildings and several mosques and palaces. Tehran is the major educational centre of Iran, home to: the Golestan Palace Museum, containing celebrated Persian treasures; the Iran Bastan Museum, containing artifacts from ancient Persian sites; and, the sprawling campuses of the University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University. Among recent additions to the city are the Senate building, the Marble Palace, the opera house, a stadium capable of seating some 100,000 spectators, and two international airports.

Mashhad is a city in northeastern Iran, the second-largest in the entire country with 1.7 million inhabitants, and capital of Khorasan Province. Located in the valley of the Kashaf River near Turkestan and Afghanistan. Mashhad, it is an important transportation, commercial, manufacturing, and religious center situated in a productive agricultural region. Carpet manufacturing, based on local wool supplies, is a traditional industry; other products include textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and processed food. The burial place and shrine of the early 9th century CE Islamic religious leader Ali ar-Rida, regarded by Shi'ite Muslims as one of Iran's holiest places, draws many tourists and pilgrims every year. The grave of the caliph Harun ar-Rashid is also in the shrine. Mashhad University was established here, and the ruins of the ancient city of Tus are nearby. The city developed after the destruction of the centuries-old city of Tus by the Mongols, though the city gained prominence as a religious center in the 9th century. Shah Abbas I (1588-1629) beautified the city, and it prospered under Nadir Shah as the capital of a great Iranian empire. Since the 19th century, Mashhad has served as the principal commercial center of Khorasan since the nineteenth century, although it rapidly grew only since the 1950's. Mashhad is home to a large community of Afghanistani immigrants, who with their descendants number perhaps a half-million people, and has become an important manufacturing center and has numerous carpet, textile, and food-processing factories.

Isfahan, the third-largest city in Iran with a total population of 1.2 million, is located in central Iran on the northern bank of the Zaindeh Rud. The city serves as a major market for agricultural goods, like cotton, grain, tobacco, and livestock, which are produced in the surrounding countryside, but Isfahan is also a major industrial centres whose textile mills produce cotton, silk, and woolen goods; other manufactures include brocade, carpets, foodstuffs, and metalwork. Although Isfahan could trace its history back to the pre-Roman kingdom of Media, it gained prominence only after the Arab conquest of the mid-7th century CE. Despite being sacked by the Mongols in the 13th CE, Isfahan remained a prosperous centre renowned for its status as a centre for long distance trade until the early 18th century, when the city was occupied by the Afghanistanis. Once known for its architectural grandeur and the beauty of its public gardens, the Isfahan city government has worked to restore many of these lost gardens and imposing structures. Of particular note is the 17th-century royal mosque Masjid-i-Shah, faced with colored tile, located in a huge rectangular garden, and an outstanding example of Persian architecture. Nearby is the Masjid-i-Shaikh-Lutfullah, a mosque famous for its dome of blue tile. The Ali-Kapu gate leads to the former royal gardens, in which is found the throne room, Chihil Sutun, or Forty Pillars. Other points of interest include the Shah Hussain madrasah, a magnificent building constructed in 1710 as a school for dervishes, and an arcaded bridge spanning the Zaindeh Rud.

Baku is the largest city of the Azerbaijani provinces, located on the Abseron Peninsula in the Caspian Sea, and home to 1.2 million people. Baku's location on the shores of the Caspian Sea and directly on the trade routes to the European Confederation makes it a major Iranian seaport, and, with its abundant oil refineries and local oil wells, a logical distribution centre for oil in pipelines routed to western and central Europe. Other industries in Baku include shipyards and the production of cotton, leather, and food products. The old quarter of Baku contains the large fortress of Icheri-Shekher and the 17th century khan's palace, now a museum. Baku is the site of Baku University, an opera house, and several theaters and museums. In the 12th century the city became the seat of the Shirvan khans. Baku was under Persian rule from 1509 until 1723, when it was captured by the Russians; it was returned to Persia in 1735. In 1806 the city was again incorporated into Russia, and by the late 19th century it had begun its rapid economic growth. From 1918 to 1920 Baku was the capital of an anti-Bolshevik regime until North Azerbaijan's conquest by Iran in 1920.

Tabrìz is a city in northwestern Iran and capital of East Azerbaijan Province, on the Ajì Cha'ì River, near Lake Urmia. Home to more than one million people at an elevation of about 1400 m. Tabrìz is a manufacturing, commercial, and transportation center. Principal products include carpets, textiles, processed food, footwear, and soap. Tabrìz is the site of the lovely 15th-century Blue Mosque, a 14th-century citadel, and the University of Tabrìz. The present-day city has been built and rebuilt on the site of the ancient settlement of Tauris, which prospered as a trade center and was the capital of Armenia in the 3rd century CE. Tabrìz has over the centuries been severely damaged by earthquakes and by invasions of outside forces such as the Seljuk Turks, Mongols, Ottoman Turks, and Russians.

Qom is a city in central Iran on the Qom River, and home to 700 thousand people. Founded in the 9th century, Qom was destroyed by the Mongol conqueror Tamerlane in the 14th century and by the Afghans in the 18th century. Modern Qom is one of the sacred cities of Iran, containing the much-visited 9th-century golden-domed shrine of Fatima, sister of the Shi'ite Muslim leader Ali ar-Rida. The city also has tombs of many kings of the Safavid dynasty, as well as old walls, numerous bazaars, and a government museum. Qom is also a major industrial centre, functioning as a road and rail hub in a region growing grain, cotton, fruit, nuts, and opium poppies, and with manufacturing plants that produce cotton textiles, shoes, pottery, and glass.

Kermanshah is a city in western Iran, capital of Kermanshah Province and the largest city of Iranian Kurdistan, home to 600 thousand people. Founded in the 4th century, Kermanshah has long been an important market center by virtue of its position on the caravan route from Hamadan to Baghdad. The city is the commercial center for grain and other produce of the countryside, and flour, textiles, refined oil, beet sugar, and carpets are produced here. One curiosity are the cliffs, east of the city, that bear the Behistun inscription, which became the key to deciphering several ancient Middle Eastern writings.

Abadan is the chief city of Khuzestan Province and home to 300 thousand people, on Abadan Island in the Shatt al Arab near the head of the Persian Gulf. Abadan is a new city, built beginning in 1913 as the major centre for refining and shipping the oil discovered just to its north in 1908. Crude oil is pumped to the city from oil fields that lie to the north. Abadan has an international airport and is the seat of Abadan Technikon.

Bandar-e 'Abbas is a city in southern Iran that is home to 200 thousand people. The city's strategic location on the northern shore of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, has allowed it to become the single largest mercantile port in the entire Islamic League. Indeed, Bandar-e 'Abbas owes its existence to its location -- it was founded in 1623 to compete with the Portuguese base from the island of Hormuz, and it was leased to Oman between 1793 and 1868 as an Omani port in the Persian Gulf. The modern city is the main base of the Iranian navy and home to large shipyards, while some Bandar-e 'Abbas's major industries include cotton textile manufacturing, fish processing, refining, aluminum smelting, and steel milling. Outside the city, chromium, red oxide, salt, and sulfur are mined for export, and a major natural gas field surrounds the offshore island of Hengam. Bandar-e 'Abbas's duty-free shops also attract large numbers of middle-class shoppers from across Iran.

The Iranian Government

The Iranian system of government represents an intriguing mixture of religious, legal, and political principles of highly diverse origins. Iran's constitutional monarchy, founded in 1906, was ended in 1983. In that same year, a new constitution established an Islamic republic in which principles of Islam were to be the foundation for social, political, and economic relations.

Structure

The chief executive and head of state of Iran is a president, who is popularly elected to a four-year term. The president appoints a prime minister, who must be confirmed in office by the national parliament; the president also approves the prime minister's cabinet. Legislative authority in Iran is vested in a unicameral parliament called the Majlis. Its 270 members, popularly elected for terms of four years, can dismiss the country's president by a no-confidence vote. Laws enacted by the Majlis must be approved by the Council of Guardians, who ensure accordance with Islamic code and the constitution. All citizens age 15 and older are entitled to vote.

The executive branch is headed by an elected president with limited powers, and who is flanked by the Ayatollah -- the leader of the Iranian Shi'ite religious hierarchy. The constitution of the Islamic Republic vested a considerable amount of power, including the ability to propose laws with the National Assembly, the Majlis. This body includes 300 parliamentarians, including 125 elected from geographically-defined ridings by popular vote from one of seven different political parties, 125 parliamentarians elected at large by Iran-wide popular referenda, and 50 selected by the Islamic clergy. The 50 clergy retain a veto over legislation -- so long as the majority of the clergy oppose a particular law on specified Islamic grounds, even if the remaining parliamentarians unanimously support a law, the law will be struck down. Opposition to this veto has grown rapidly among the Iranian masses and Iranian politicians.

The highest regular tribunal in Iran is the Supreme Court, the president of which is appointed by the wali faqih. A legal system based on Islamic law was introduced as part of the Islamic revolution of 1983, and courts established prior to the revolution were later abolished. The law in Iran provides for strict adherence to Islamic precepts; more than 100 offenses carry the possibility of a death sentence. Iran does not recognize the authority of the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, as a final court of appeal, owing to fundamental legal and philosophical differences.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has numerous political parties, although the Iranian constitution prohibits any political parties that question either the territorial integrity or the religious foundations of the Iranian state. The Republican Party of Iran is the establishment party, having won more than 40% of the popular vote in the 1997 national elections, but rising challengers include the Democratic Party and the Coalition of Reform, which each won, respectively, 20% and 15% of the Iranian vote. A variety of other, smaller, political parties exist, mainly professing various varieties of social democratic and communalist philosophies.

Provincial Governments

Iran is divided into 29 ustanha (singular ustan), or provinces. The ustanha typically serve only administrative functions, and possess little of the autonomy afforded to their German, Brazilian, or even French counterparts. This reflects the extreme centralization of Iran. Provincial officials are appointed by the central government, which has taken care to avoid too close a congruence between ethnic territories -- most particularly Azerbaijan, divided into three provinces -- and provincial boundaries.

The Iranian Military

During the 1970's, imperial Iran developed one of the most impressive military forces in the Middle East, and it used those forces to assume a security role in the Persian Gulf after the British military withdrawal in 1971. The defense of the strategic Strait of Hormuz preoccupied the shah, as it did the other conservative monarchs in the area, and Iran was perceived, at least in certain quarters, as the undeclared "policeman of the West in the Gulf." The European Confederation supplied Iran with sophisticated hardware and sent thousands of military advisers and technicians to help Iran absorb the technology.

Following the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the armed forces underwent fundamental changes. The revolutionary government purged high-ranking officials as well as many mid-ranking officers identified with the Pahlavi regime and created a loyal military force, the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards), whose purpose was to defend the Revolution. When the Persian Gulf War began, the revolutionary government acknowledged its need for the professional services of many of the purged officers to lead the armed forces. The army's success lessened the revolutionaries' considerable suspicion, although Islamic clergy continued to rely on the loyal Pasdaran to defend the regime. The bloody toll inflicted upon the Pasdaran by the Afghanistan War of 1986-9 helped strengthen the professional military's position relative to non-professional units.

The Iranian military depends upon the conscription of Iranians for two years upon the 18th birthday to maintain a total army of 540 000 soldiers, but it has no problem finding ample numbers of recruits since the Iranian military is a ladder for social advancement. The air force and navy are purely volunteer forces, comprising 45 000 and 13 000 servicemen each. Iranian matériel is relatively modern, most dating from the Shah's purchases in the 1970's, but is aging owing to insufficient maintenance. These armed forces are oriented towards the defense of Iranian national territory, and then of the territory of Islamic League member states insofar as it would not compromise Iranian national security and territorial integrity. Following the Persian Gulf War, Iranian national military doctrine has called for the creation of a small but highly trained and well-armed professional force, capable of supplementing the conscript armies and of defeating comparably-sized professional armed forces. Although there are differentiated services -- Army, Navy, and Air Force -- in wartime military district commands would control elements of each.

Iran is quite hostile to weapons of mass destruction, owing to the massive damage suffered by Iran in the aftermath of the Third World War even without direct nuclear bombardment. Although Iran is known to possess third-generation chemical weapons, it has renounced any aspirations towards a first-use policy of these or any other weapons.

Iranian Foreign Relations

Iran's foreign policy was dramatically reversed following the Revolution. Until the revolution, Iran was considered to be a European Confederation ally and a member in good standing of the League of Nations. The Revolution brought new leaders to power who disapproved of Iran's relationship with Europe and the League; indeed, the more radical revolutionaries were determined to eradicate all traces of Western influence from Iran. Fearing that the provisional government was seeking an accommodation with the European Confederation, these radicals precipitated the Persian Gulf War, thus terminating normal relations with Europe. This was considered a prerequisite for implementing their revolutionary foreign policy ideology, which consisted of two concepts: export of Islamic revolution elsewhere in the region, and rejection of the materialist ideologies (capitalism, communism, social democracy, communalism) of the non-Muslim world for indigenous Islam.

The most spectacular example of Iranian adventurism is the formation of the Islamic League after the Persian Gulf War of 1984-5 against the League of Nations. The Islamic League includes as members other than Iran: the Shi'ite-majority kingdom of Iraq and Shi'ite-majority republic of Dhahran; Afghanistan; the Urdu-speaking city-state of Karachi and the vast provinces of Baluchistan and Pushtunistan in the former Pakistan; Oman; and, the immigrant-founded Islamic Republic of Arabia. Iran's ideology of Islamic revolution has failed to spread beyond its allies, and recently, Iran has been moving towards a policy of détente with the outside world, in particular with Egypt (once condemned as heretical), Europe, and the League of Nations.

Regional

Afghanistan: Although Afghanistan is a member-state of the Islamic League, Iran's relations with this country are poor at best, owing to continued Afghanistani resentment of the continued Iranian occupation of western Afghanistan and Iranian disdain at Afghanistan's historically poor treatment of the Persian-speaking Shi'ite Hazara people of western Afghanistan. The two countries are major trading partners, and Iran maintains an embassy in Kabul and a consulate in Herat while Afghanistan maintains an embassy in Tehran and consulates in Mashhad and Bandar-e 'Abbas. Iran is suspected of planning to annex the Hazara areas of western Afghanistan if Afghanistan becomes too troublesome.

Arabia: Iran and Arabia maintain cordial relations, owing to the continuing respect of Arabia's heterogenous population at Iran's early recognition of the revolution against the old United Arab Emirates. Some conservative Iranian clerics question the protection given by the Arabian government to the country's Hindu and Buddhist minorities, but this does not detract substantially from an otherwise friendly relationship.

Armenia: Iranian-Armenian relations have varied substantially over time. Although Iran has traditionally treated its Armenian minority well and Armenia is one of Iran's major trading partners, Armenia's expulsion of Muslim Azerbaijani Turks from what is now eastern Armenia into Baku in the early 1920's has made Azerbaijanis generally anti-Armenian and forces the Iranian government to oscillate between Armenophilic and Armenophobic policies. Iran maintains an embassy in Kars and a consulate in Yerevan, while Armenia maintains an embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Tabrìz.

Baluchistan: Iran has difficult relations with this neighboring nation. Although Baluchistan's admission into the Islamic League in 1994 secured Iran's eastern strategic perimeter, the Iranian government is frustrated by Baluchistan's inability to limit its all-pervasive lawlessness. Baluchistan has an embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Bandar-e 'Abbas, while Iran has an embassy in Quetta.

Central Arabia: Iran was pleasantly surprised by the August 2001 revolution staged against the Saudian regime, if not by the relatively unorthodox Muslim Democratic traditions proclaimed by the revolutionaries. However, the Iranian government is concerned with ensuring that the overthrow of the Saudian regime will not reflect badly on Iran, much less risk inflicting a second Persian Gulf War upon the country. Iranian relations with Central Arabia are polite and friendly, but marked by Iranian restraint.

Dhahran: Iran maintains intimate relations with Dhahran -- like Arabia a post-revolutionary society made by immigrants, unlike Arabia a mostly Shi'ite country. Although Iran has renounced any territorial claims against Dhahran, the fact remains that Iranian immigrants constitute one-third of the Dhahrani population, and Persian is an official language alongside Arabic and Urdu.

Egypt: Iran and Egypt are the two major indigenous powers in the Middle East, each presenting a different form of social and political development to their smaller and poorer neighbours, each with their own respective spheres of influence. Even before 1983, the two countries never got along; after, they became mortal enemies. Bilateral relations have recently improved along with the rapid expansion of trade (Egyptian manufactures and Iranian oil), but remain strained.

Georgia: Historical memories of Iranian slave raids and contemporary fears of the Islamic Republic combine to make Georgia reluctant to establish particularly close ties with Iran. Despite recent Iranian entreaties, then, Iranian-Georgian relations are not particularly close. Iran maintains an embassy in Tbilisi, while Georgia maintains an embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Baku.

Hijaz: The unchangeable orientation of this kingdom, home to the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, towards Egypt has been a perennial source of embarrassment to Iran. Though Hijaz has not imposed numerical limits on Iranian pilgrims to the Holy Cities, any possibility that the Hijazi government might do that could well start a general Middle East war. Relations between Iran and Hijaz, then, are close out of necessity but highly conflictual.

Indian Successor States: The rapid development of the Republic of India before the Third World War into a Great Power greatly worried the strategists of Pahlavi Iran. The post-War fragmentation of South Asia worries the Islamic Republic still more, particularly considering the post-war genocides of Indian Muslims in part of the subcontinent. Iranian relations with this area of the world tend to be strained, save with enlightened Maharashtra and Kerala.

Iraq: Iraq is an anomaly in the Islamic League, inasmuch as it is a constitutional monarchy in a federation of radical republics. The pragmatic Iraqi government has allowed Iraq to join the Islamic League and to allow the country's Shi'ite Arab majority equality with the Sunni ruling population in exchange for Iranian support in maintaining Iraq as a united country. Iranian-Iraqi relations are nonetheless strained by Iraq's relative conservatism and diplomatic initiatives towards Egypt. Tehran maintains an embassy in Baghdad and consulates in Basra and Kuwait, while Iraq maintains an embassy in Tehran and consulates in Abadan and Bandar-e 'Abbas.

Israel: Polite relations between Pahlavi Iran and Israel were replaced after the revolution by ferocious Iranian invective that condemned Israel as a European colony on sacred Muslim soil and demanded that jihad be waged against Iran. Although this rhetoric was viewed by Israel's neighbours as an embarrassment rather than a call to arms, Israelis have not forgiven this unprecedented denunciation. Consequently, Israel does not maintain diplomatic relations with Iran, though informal negotiations in Genève seek to overcome this.

Jerusalem: Despite occasional Iranian resentment at the League of Nation's sovereignty over this, Islam's third-holiest city, the practical autonomy enjoyed by Jerusalemites and the liberal concessions made to the city's substantial population of Iranian expatriates is enough to ensure friendly Iranian-Jerusalemite relations.

Karachi: The Urdu-speaking inhabitants of this city-state, located at the mouth of the Indus River, are enthusiastically pro-Iranian since the Iranian military is the only factor preventing a Sindhi conquest of their city. The Iranian government views Karachi as a useful strategic outpost for the Iranian navy on the Arabian Sea, and sees it as a potential base for economic penetration of the former Pakistan.

Kurdistan: Iranian-Kurdistani relations are guardedly hostile due to Iran's continued possession of its Kurdish province. Kurdish nationalists continue to protest Iran's possession of the last Kurdish-populated territories not part of Kurdistan and argue that the Sunni Kurds suffer discrimination at the hands of the Iranian government. Iranians look down upon Kurdistan as a poor and primitive country more known for providing well-to-do Iranians with servants than anything else. Occasional war scares have been managed by the League, but relations remain tense.

Lebanon: Although puritanical Muslims despise Lebanese social liberalism, Lebanon is generally respected as a neutral Middle Eastern banking centre by most Iranians, and as a pleasant vacation destination for the affluent middle and upper classes. The two countries maintain full diplomatic relations, and there is a substantial Iranian expatriate community in Beirut.

North Caucasia: Iran's historical links with the peoples of the northern Caucasus mean little in the post-War environment, where Dagestanis, Chechens, and Ingush alike have grown to dislike Iran for its revolutionary Shi'ite ideology and its threat to their federation's security, as a march of the European Confederation.

Oman: Since the Omani Revolution of 1989, Oman has been a loyal follower of Iran in the Islamic League despite its largely Sunni population. Relations between Muscat and Tehran are good.

Palestine: Palestinian Muslims are more Westernized than their Iranian counterparts, and together with their Christian conationals dislike the extremism characteristic of revolutionary Iranian Islam. That said, the recent liberalization of Iranian politics has been greeted enthusiastically by Palestinians. Palestine is respected by Iranians as a small but prosperous nation-state that quietly resists Egyptian hegemonism, and as a fervently Islamic society that has managed to avoid the extremism and bigotry that marred Iranian communal life in the 1980's.  Hebron maintains full diplomatic relations with Iran.

Punjab: This country was once the dominant province in the Pakistani federation, but in the aftermath of the Third World War Pakistan fragmented, and in 1984, Punjab was invaded by Pushtunistan with the aim of creating a Pushtun empire. Following the fall of Lahore, if it was not for the Iranian counterinvasion of Afghanistan in 1986 Punjab might well have been permanently occupied. Since the end of the Punjabi war in 1989, the Republic of Punjab has maintained friendly relations with Iran, which appreciates Punjab's strategic position on the other side of Afghanistan. Many Iranians are offended, however, by independent Punjab's rejection of membership in the Islamic League.

Sind: The Sindhi Republic strongly resents the virtual protectorate imposed by Iran over the city-state of Karachi, but is not willing to war against the entire Islamic League to occupy what was once Sind's largest city. Iranian-Sindhi relations are frosty.

Syria: Immediately prior to the Persian Gulf War, some Iranian leaders hoped to make Syria into the next Islamic Republic. The initial rebuff suffered in Oman dissuaded Iranian leaders of this idea, and Iran has watched with some dismay as Syria has become integrated into the European Confederation and Egyptian peripheries and become generally Westernized. Bilateral Syrian-Iranian relations are cautious, if polite.

Turkey: Relations with the Turkish Fifth Republic initially promised to be friendly -- like Iran, after all, the Turkish Fifth Republic was a self-identified Islamic Republic. This initial proximity was disrupted by Turkey's strategic alignment towards Egypt and Turkish persecution of Turkish Shi'a, while the establishment of the Sixth Republic has worried Iran's clerics. Despite these problems, since the Third World War Iran's economic ties with Turkey have expanded, and the two countries have become important trade partners. Indeed, Turkey ranks with the Caucasus-Ukraine route as the most important transit route for goods traveling by truck and rail between Europe and Iran.

Turkestan: In the Soviet era, the northern frontier of Iran was seen by the Shah's government as the weakest point in Iran's defenses. Siberian mistreatment of Turkestani Muslims appalled most  Iranians, religious and otherwise, while the near-war over Baku after the Second World War ensured Iranian paranoia. The destruction of the Soviet Union promptly gave Iran preponderant influence in the whole region of the Middle East, but Iran's preoccupation with the Persian Gulf War allowed the League to constitute Turkestan as a mandate. Mass immigration to Turkestan, though, has created an overwhelmingly Iranian and Persian-speaking population, and there is growing sentiment in favour of Turkestan's annexation into Iran. The Iranian government supports the idea of absorbing Turkestan, but would be willing to accept an internationally-supervised referendum on independence.

Non-Regional

American Successor States: Resentment at the American role in initiating the post-War famine that cost so many Iranians their lives still runs high across the Iranian political and social spectrum. Relations between Iran and the American successor states are chilly where they are not non-existent.

Argentina: Argentina is a major trading partner and armaments supplier of Iran. Iranians appreciate Argentina's neutrality in the Persian Gulf War, while Argentina's sizable Iranian immigrant population provides Iran with extensive economic and cultural contacts inside Buenos Aires. Generally speaking, the two countries have good relations, with Argentina taking the more active role. Cynics have attributed this to Argentina's status as Iran's major military supplier, and Iran's status as an important Argentine arms customer.

Australia: Australia is respected as a prosperous and stable country, though Australian policies are simultaneously denounced for their role in limiting Iran's influence. Still, there is a large Iranian immigrant community in Australia, numbering three hundred thousand people, and despite political differences Australia is one of Iran's largest customers for oil and natural gas. Relations, then, are cool if friendly.

Brazil: Iranians recognize that Brazil can become a more globally assertive country than it is now. The concentration of Brazilian foreign policy on South America and African affairs may not endure indefinitely, while Brazil's economy -- largest in the world -- could easily afford the development of a military force with global reach on the level of the pre-Third World War United States, or modern Japan. So far, though, Brazil seems content to fuel its economy with Venezuelan, Yorubaland, and Angolan oil, and to remain relatively isolationist. Many Iranians respect Brazil's popular religiosity, even if they are also disconcerted by Brazil's religious syncretism and social liberalism.

European Confederation: Europe was singled out by the revolutionaries as a "Satan" that collaborated with the Soviet Union in the oppression of Muslims, and European-Iranian relations deteriorated steadily after 1983. Relations reached their nadir in the mid-1980's after Europe took the lead in the Persian Gulf War and Paris welcomed many of the expatriate opposition groups. Over the 1990's, relations have been normalized in the pursuit of economic profit. Contemporary relations between Paris and Tehran vacillate between correctness and tension.

Japan: As the second-largest consumer of Iranian oil, Japan is a vital market for Iranian goods, but Japan is also suspected as a potential hegemon in Asia. The Iranian government much preferred Japan's post-War concentration in the 1990's on East Asia and the Pacific, and is disturbed by signs that Japan would like to develop the single largest fleet in the world, with global projection abilities. Lately, Iran has favoured Korea over Japan in diplomatic disputes between the two countries, ensuring deteriorating Iranian-Japanese relations.

Korea: This kingdom is respected as a once-colonized state that has overcome its colonial legacy of backwardness to become one of the most important countries in the world. Korean construction companies played a major role in maintaining the oil infrastructure of the Islamic League following the Tripartite Alliance's decision to bar their domestic companies from participating, and Korea is a growing market for Iranian oil and natural gas. Relations are good, and improving.

League of Nations: Iran is a charter member of the League, but the Republic has not participated as actively as the monarchy in the world organization. Much of this can be traced to the League of Nations' condemnation of Iranian involvement in Oman and the subsequent Persian Gulf War. Relations between Tehran and Genève have improved only slowly, characterized by Iranian concentration on the peripheral agencies of the League to the neglect of the central pacts of the League of Nations.

Russian Successor States: Until the Third World War, Russia was Iran's overbearing northern neighbour, a perennial threat to Iranian independence and an oppressor of Soviet Muslim populations. Russia's decimation in the Third World War changed this relationship entirely; now, Iran has the upper hand over Russia. Iran openly championed non-Russian minorities -- particularly the Muslim Tatars -- as they sought to gain their independence in the aftermath of the Deccan Soviet invasion, and is openly concerned about the fate of the half-million Iranian immigrants in Russia, often persecuted by a resentful Russian population. Before 2000, Iran often complained that the Russian federal government has not done enough to limit environmental damage that Russia inflicted upon the delicate ecology of the Caspian Sea.

South Africa: Iran and South Africa have historically been at odds, since South Africa has favoured the construction of a multilateral and decentralized international structure in the Indian Ocean's littoral, while Iran would prefer the division of the area into spheres of influence of different regional power and resents South Africa's enthusiastic support of League of Nations policies. Relations are somewhat strained.

Economy

Iran is a Third World country verging upon the Second World. The Iranian economy is a mix of extremes, with merchant princes occupying palatial estates while nomadic herdsmen still wander the desert. Regardless of the changes in politics and ideology brought about by each successive regime in Iran, the one constant has been lack of fundamental economic change for the majority of Iran's people.  

At the beginning of the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran was quite backward: Only a few large or modern industrial plants were in operation in Iran and the increasing production of oil for the international market had little effect on the domestic economy, while the population was overwhelmingly rural and uneducated and transportation remained primitive. Following the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran began to modernize through developing a strong central government and entering Western markets with mixed results. Although modernization began to produce a relatively modern sector, it generally brought little benefit to Iran's undereducated, underemployed population since it focused on the development of industries that were capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive.

The postrevolutionary government was faced with tremendous problems. Most horrifically, the death of one-third of the pre-War population reduced the labour force substantially; even though real wages for unskilled labourers rose somewhat, Iran was faced with substantial labour shortages. Further, foreign investment in Iranian industry ended abruptly, and massive amounts of Iranian capital were taken out of the country by the fleeing rich. The human and financial expenses of the Persian Gulf War and the subsequent Afghanistan intervention did nothing to improve matters, as did the sharp decline in oil prices. The distribution of lands owned by absentee landlords to their tenants created a landowning peasantry, but domestic food production became insufficient and Iran was forced to import 20% of the food that it needed and to ration essential items such as meat, rice, and dairy products. Black marketing, long lines for consumer goods, and high unemployment exacerbated the effects of nonmilitary budget cuts. By the end of the 1980's, Iran was caught in a deflationary spiral.

Such economic recovery as has occurred since 1990 has been driven by the growing demand for oil on the part of First and Second World economies, and upon the remittances of Iranian immigrants in richer countries to their families back home. First contact with the ITA has finally allowed Iran to theoretically overcome its capital shortages, but it has also precipitated a sharp drop in oil prices. Iran is unlikely to resume its pre-War progress barring substantial changes in its internal politics that make it a more attractive target for foreign investment..

Agriculture

30% of the Iranian population works in agriculture, forestry, and the fisheries. Under a land-reform program begun in the 1950's and accelerated during the 1980's, about 3.7 million hectares were redistributed among peasant farmers. Iran's principal crops include large amounts of wheat, barley, potatoes, rice, and grapes. The main cash crop is fresh and dried fruit, which accounted for 35% of non-petroleum export earnings in 1997. Other important crops include sugar beets, sugarcane, vegetables, pulses, maize, tea, tobacco, oilseeds, and pistachio nuts. Livestock on farms include cattle, asses, sheep, goats, and chickens. Despite its large agricultural sector Iran is not agriculturally self-supporting, depending on imports of meat, produce and grains from South America and Australia. Iran does engage, though, in exports of high-value food items, such as dried fruit, olive oil, and both the meat and the caviar of the famous Caspian sturgeon. Shiraz wine is also famous outside Iran, but under the combined influence of revolutionary years of the Islamic Republic and the general economic crisis of the 1980's the Shiraz wine industry became marginal.

Because of concern over excessive cutting, commercial lumbering in Iran was not expanded during the 1970's. Annual production remained at approximately 5.4 million cubic metres in the 1970's, rising to an estimated 6.1 million cubic metres in the early 1990s.

Commercial fishing is important to the Iranian economy, and annual catches showed a steady increase through the 1990's. The Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea yield carp and related species, herring, Caspian shad, longtail tuna, and whitefish. Annual production was about 277 400 metric tons in the early 1990s. Iranian caviar is considered among the best in the world.

Manufacturing

Large-scale manufacturing in Iran developed during the 1970's. Major products include textiles (especially cotton and wool from Isfahan, wool from Tabrìz, and silk from Mazandaran), processed food (particularly sugar refining and vegetable oil production), construction materials, nonelectrical machinery, iron and steel, and petrochemicals. Iran is also known for its finely crafted rugs.

Petrochemicals

Prior to 1970, the oil industry provided almost all of Iran's export earnings. As the 1970's progressed and Iranian manufacturing industries developed, the oil industry became less overwhelmingly important, though still the single largest source of foreign exchange. Iran's petroleum fields located in the southwestern region of Khuzestan and the northwestern region of Azerbaijan are considered among the richest in the world. The Iran National Oil Country operates the oil industry, which was nationalized in 1951. The Third World War brought about a sharp decline in global oil consumption, as the vast consuming populations in North America and Asia had been mostly incinerated, and the global economic depression limited consumption even in economies untouched by the direct effects of the war.

This drop in oil prices devastated the economy of Iran and its revolutionary neighbours, prompting the Persian Gulf War in an attempt to seize Omani oil fields. In the early 1990's, though, as oil consumption increased the economy boomed. To this day, very large amounts of oil and natural gas are produced, along with large amounts of coal. However, first contact has caused oil prices to decline and total production to contract.

Transportation

The Iranian transportation system is very fragmentary. The country has some 154 000 kilometres of roads, of which 34% are paved, and some 5 100 kilometres of operated railroad track. Abadan and Bandar-e 'Abbas are the main seaports on the Persian Gulf, as is Baku on the Caspian Sea.

Bandar Abbas, located on the shores of the northern entrance to the Straits of Hormuz, is Iran's main seaport, and the second-largest seaport in all of the Islamic League behind Iraqi Bubiyan. The Persian Gulf is a busy maritime area, with supertankers arriving at Bandar Abbas and to rendezvous with the oil and gas pipelines that converge in this area, and ferries linking Iran with its allies on the southern and western shore of the Persian Gulf.

Iran Air, the state-run airline founded in 1962, operates both domestic and international flights; the main airports serve Tehran and Abadan. Tehran is home to the Tehran International Airport, while the airports in Bandar Abbas and Mashhad are major regional centres of air travel.

Problems

Despite Iran's ethnic diversity, ethnolinguistic tensions have played remarkably little role in aggravating Iranian social problems -- so long as Persian-speakers refrain from outright discrimination and violence against non-Persians, non-Persians are willing to accept assimilation into a Persian-speaking environment. The roughly eight million Azeri-speakers are a partial exception to this, with numerous Azeri language and culture societies organized in the Baku district, but the limited concessions to date have satisfied the vast majority of Azeris. Iranian Kurdistan remains restive with occasional rebellions, but even these outbreaks can be attributed as much to Sunni Kurdish reluctance to be part of an officially Shi'ite state as to ethnic tensions.

Remarkably, though, the class and religious divisions that marked Iranian society prior to the Islamic Revolution have managed to survive to the present day, though in modified form.  Income disparities remain a major problem in Iranian society despite the land reform and nationalization of the oil industry. The top five percent of Iranian society has a per capita annual income a twenty times greater than the bottom five percent. With such wide disparities of wealth, there is bound to be resentment among the disenfranchised. Radicals have occasionally tried to organize the Tehrani working class into supporting a second revolution, while banditry has begun to flourish in the neglected east of the country. So far, though, Iran has managed to placate the poor.

Population growth in Iran remains high, despite the recent drop in the birth rate and substantial emigration over the past 15 years, directed mainly to the empty lands of Turkestan and to the labour markets of Europe. Although this high rate of population growth did allow Iran to regain its pre-War population without territorial annexation -- unlike Thailand -- in record time, it threatens to overwhelm the Iranian labour market and to worsen the living standards of workers. So far, the Iranian government has not begun to deal with this impending problem.

Perhaps the most serious problem facing Iran is the radical religious changes that have overtaken Iranians since the Revolution. In the 1980's and early 1990's, most Iranians were genuinely religious and supportive of the radical aims of the Islamic Republic. Now, after almost a decade of war and continuing economic and social privation, Iranians are beginning to expect more from their government. The growing political opposition in Iran is beginning to cautiously challenge the conservative precepts installed by the clerics. Many even hope that Iran, suitably Westernized, might even become a model for the wider Islamic world, as an officially Islamic country that has nonetheless managed to become a true democracy. So far, this has not happened, and the longer that change is delayed the more explosive it will be when change forces its way into Iranian life.