ISLAMIC REPUBLIC
OF IRAN

Official name: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran)
• Location: Central Asia
• International organisations: Non-Aligned Movement, Organisation of Islamic Conference, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, United Nations.
• Borders: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey
• Coastline: Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf
• Land area: 1,648,000 Km2
• Population: 74,200,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$12,900 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 68
• Ethnicity: Iranian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurdish 7%, Arab 3%
• Languages: Farsi or Persian is the official language, but is the first language on only 58% of the population. The remainder speak Azeri, Turkmen or other Turkic languages 26%, Kurdish or Arabic.
• Religion: Moslem 99% (Shi'a 89%, Sunni 10%). Shi'a Islam is the state religion and the Islamic clergy are very powerful. There are small minorities of Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians, and Baha'i.
• Form of government: Iran is formally a presidential democratic republic, but the Constitution gives supreme authority to unelected religious authorities. Iran is divided into 28 provinces.
• Capital: Tehran
• Constitution: The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran came into effect on 2 December 1979, but has been substantially amended since.
• Supreme Leader: The Supreme Leader (Vali-e-Faghih) is appointed for life by an assembly of Shi'a clergy, the Assembly of Experts. Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei has held this post since 1989.
• Head of state: The President, elected for a four-year term by direct universal suffrage. Candidates for the presidency cannot represent parties and must be approved by the religious authorities.
• Head of government: The President, who appoints the members of the Cabinet.
• Legislature: The Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami) has 290 members, elected for four-year terms from a mixture of single-member and multi-member constituencies. There are no formal political parties and candidates for election to the Assembly must be approved by the religious authorities.
• Electoral authority: National elections are conducted by the government.
• Freedom House 2011 rating: Political Rights 7, Civil Liberties 7
• Transparency International Corruption Index: 22% (146 of 178 countries rated)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom 2010 Index: 5.4% (175 of 178 countries rated)
• Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom 2010 Index: 42.1% (171 of 179 countries rated)

Political history

Iran, a traditional monarchy for many centuries, avoided colonial rule in the 19th century by agreeing to modernise its institutions under British supervision. A legislature was established in 1907 and the forms of constitutional government observed, but real power remained with the Shah, under the influence of foreign powers and later of the oil companies. The Pahlavi dynasty seized the throne in 1921.

Mohammed Reza Pahlavi came to power in 1941, and attempted a rapid westernising of the country, using the country's huge and growing oil wealth to fund his grandiose projects. In the 1960s his regime became increasingly autocratic and repressive. This provoked a conservative backlash which culminated in the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Shi'a religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, came to power.

The Islamic Republic was at first supported by nearly all Iranians, but its authoritarian rule, its restrictions on personal freedoms and its economic incompetence have made it increaingly unpopular. Although the threat to the regime from Marxist radicals has faded since a spate of bombings in the 1980s, there is widespread passive opposition.

Iran now presents a curious paradox: it is at once an absolute theocracy, in which the Supreme Leader and the clergy exercise power free from any legal restraint, and a presidential republic in which reasonably free elections are held, although the religious authorities restrict who may contest them. Despite regular elections, Iran is far from being a functioning democracy. Legislation passed by the Assembly can be, and frequently is, invalidated by the self-appointed religious body, the Council of Guardians. The government has little control over the police or the religious courts, which arrest and sentence people, including members of the Assembly, for vague offences such as "insulting Islam."

The efforts of President Mohammed Khatami (1997-2005) to reform the system were frustrated by the conservatives with the backing of Ayatollah Khamenei, but he refused to place himself in opposition to the theocratic regime. In 2005 popular anger at the deteriorating economic situation allowed the radical populist mayor of Teheran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to be elected President, defeating the establishment candidate, former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. In office Ahmadinejad has disappointed his supporters by not touching clerical corruption or reforming economic incompetence, and has responded to increasing unrest by becoming increasingly repressive and erratic. His pursuit of atomic weapons and his threats to attack Israel have increased Iran's international isolation. His re-election in 2009 over the reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was blatantly rigged. This sparked widespread and violent protests, in which hundreds have died, and which have continued into 2010.

Freedom House's 2011 report on Iran says: "Iran is not an electoral democracy. The most powerful figure in the government is the supreme leader (Vali-e-Faghih), currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei... The supreme leader, who has no fixed term, is head of the armed forces and appoints the leaders of the judiciary, the chiefs of state broadcast media, the commander of the IRGC, the Expediency Council, and half of the Council of Guardians. Although the president and the parliament, both with four-year terms, are responsible for designating cabinet ministers, the supreme leader exercises de facto control over appointments to the Ministries of Defense, the Interior, and Intelligence. All candidates for the presidency and the 290-seat, unicameral parliament are vetted by the Council of Guardians, which consists of six clergymen appointed by the supreme leader and six civil law experts selected by the head of the judiciary, all for six-year terms... The Council of Guardians also has the power to reject legislation approved by the parliament... Opposition politicians and party groupings have faced especially harsh repression since the 2009 presidential election, with many leaders facing arrest... Corruption is pervasive. The hard-line clerical establishment has grown immensely wealthy through its control of tax-exempt foundations that monopolise many sectors of the economy... Freedom of expression is severely limited. The government directly controls all television and radio broadcasting... Iran leads the world in the number of jailed journalists... Religious freedom is limited... The constitution recognises Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians as religious minorities, and they are generally allowed to worship without interference, so long as they do not proselytise. Conversion by Muslims to a non-Muslim religion is punishable by death. The non-Muslim minorities are barred from election to representative bodies... and face restrictions in employment, education, and property ownership... Academic freedom is limited... The judicial system is not independent, as the supreme leader directly appoints the head of the judiciary, who in turn appoints senior judges."

Updated November 2011