ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN Official name: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran) Location: Central Asia International organisations: The Non-Aligned Movement, The Organisation of Islamic Conference, The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, The United Nations. Borders: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey Coastline: Gulf of Oman, Persian Gulf Land area: 1,648,000 Km2 Population: 66,600,000 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%, and Kurdish 9%.
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 persecuted 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. Spiritual Leader: The Spiritual Leader (Wali Faqih) 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 2005 rating: Political Rights 6, Civil Liberties 6

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

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

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 the Marxist Mujaheddin 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 Spiritual Leader and the clergy exercise power free from any legal restraint, and a presidential democracy in which reasonably free elections are held and the press can criticise the government (though not the religious authorities).

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."

It is unclear how long this duality can be maintained. The efforts of President Khatami (elected 1997) to reform the regime have been repeatedly frustrated, but the rapidly growing population of younger, secularised Iranians seem unlikely to tolerate theocratic rule much longer.

Amnesty International's 2002 Report on Iran noted that:

"President Khatami, the incumbent candidate, won the presidential election in June in a comprehensive victory seen by many as a reaffirmation of a reform agenda. He made public appeals to the judiciary to respect the constitutional rights of parliamentarians and citizens."

Despite this: "Scores of political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, were arrested and others continued to be held in prolonged detention without trial or following unfair trials. Some had no access to lawyers or family. In a continuing clamp-down on freedom of expression and association, led by the judiciary, scores of students, journalists and intellectuals were detained. At least 139 people, including one minor, were executed and 285 flogged, many in public."

No political parties are permitted in Iran, though informal organisations of reformers and conservatives abound. The legislative elections in 2004 were grossly rigged by the conservatives and most liberal candidates were banned from taking part. At the presidential election in June 2005 an ultra-radical Islamist, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was elected, ending any hope of reform.