Iran Education

Education and Cultural Activity
Following the change in government in 1979, Iran's educational system and its cultural life were altered to conform with precepts of Shiite Islam. Approaches borrowed from the West were not allowed to continue.

Education
Education is compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14; enforcement has been lax, however, because of a shortage of teachers and schools and the pressures of war with Iraq. About 62 percent of the population aged 15 or older was literate in the late 1980s. In that period, about 7.4 million pupils attended primary schools each year, and some 3.4 million students were enrolled annually in secondary schools. In addition, teacher-training and vocational schools together had about 252,600 students yearly. Higher education is provided by more than 100 universities, colleges, and other institutions, which had an aggregate yearly enrollment of some 167,800 students. Major institutions included the University of Tehran (1932), the University of Isfahan (1950), and the University of Shìraz (1945). Some universities were closed or renamed in the early 1980s.

Culture
The culture of Iran is heavily influenced by the Muslim religion, as is evident in the art, literature, and social structure of the country. After the 1979 government change, the Shiite clergy led a drive for renewed Islamization. Women were ordered to return to more traditional roles, movie theaters were closed, and music was not allowed to be broadcast by radio stations. The segregation of men and women at social functions was reinstituted. Many women again wore the traditional chador, a long black cloth that is draped over the head and body. See also IRANIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE; ISLAMIC MUSIC.

Cultural Institutions
Iran has a number of notable museums. These include the Iran Bastan Museum, with displays on archaeology, and the Negarestan Museum, with exhibits of Iranian art, both in Tehran; the Qum Museum; and the Pars Museum, in Shìraz. The National Library is in Tehran, and other important book collections are housed in university libraries.

Iran, officially Islamic Republic of Iran, republic in southwestern Asia, bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea; on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan; on the south by the Gulf of Oman, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Persian Gulf; and on the west by Iraq and Turkey. The area of Iran is 1,648,000 sq km (636,296 sq mi). Until the 1930s Iran was known abroad as Persia. The capital and largest city is Tehran.
Iran is one of the world's leading producers of petroleum. The country was a constitutional monarchy ruled by a shah from 1906 to 1979, when a popular uprising led by Islamic clergymen resulted in the establishment of a republic.

Land and Resources
Most of Iran is made up of rugged terrain. The country contains enormous mineral wealth, much of which has yet to be exploited. Iran has always been subject to severe earthquakes, and the geologic instability has frequently resulted in major physical damage and great loss of life.

Physiographic Regions
Iran is dominated by a central plateau, which is about 1220 m (about 4000 ft) high and is almost ringed by mountain chains. In the north, paralleling the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, are the Elburz Mountains. The highest peak in Iran, Mount Damavand (5604 m/18,386 ft), is part of this mountain system. The Caspian Sea, at 28 m (92 ft) below sea-level, is the lowest point in Iran. Along the western border the complex Zagros Mountains extend southeast to the region bordering the Persian Gulf. Mountains of lower elevation lie to the east of the central plateau. Except for the relatively fertile plateaus of the northern Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan, mountain soils are thin, heavily eroded, and infertile. The narrow Caspian coastal plain, in contrast, is covered with rich brown forest soil. The only other generally flat area is the plain of Khuzistan in the west.
Two great deserts extend over much of central Iran. The Dasht-i-Lut is covered largely with sand and rocks, and the Dasht-i-Kavir is covered mainly with salt. Both deserts are inhospitable and virtually uninhabited. In the winter and spring small streams flow into the Dasht-i-Kavir, creating little lakes and swamps. In other times of the year both deserts are extremely arid.

Rivers and Lakes
Most of Iran's rivers flow only during part of the year, when precipitation is heaviest. The country's principal permanent rivers flow off the mountains on the slopes facing the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, or the Gulf of Oman. The Karun River, flowing from the Zagros Mountains to the Shatt al-Arab at Khorramshahr, is the country's main navigable river. Besides the Caspian Sea, Iran has few large lakes. Most shrink in size during the hot, dry summer and have a high salt content because they have no outlet to carry away the salt left when the water evaporates. The largest water body entirely within Iran is Lake Urmia, in the northwest.

Climate
Iran is divided climatically into three main regions: the extremely hot coast along the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; the temperate but arid central highland; and the tableland of the intensely cold Elburz Mountains. The average temperatures for the months of January and July in Tehran are 2.2° C (36° F) and 29.4° C (85° F), respectively. The average temperatures during the same months in Abadan are 12.2° C (54° F) and 36.1° C (97° F). Average annual precipitation in Tehran and Abadan are 246 mm (10 in) and 204 mm (8 in), respectively.

Vegetation and Animal Life
On the semihumid plateaus of Iran, grass cover is used for grazing livestock. The Zagros Mountains have a semihumid forest cover dominated by oak, elm, pistachio, and walnut trees. On the seaward slopes of the Elburz Mountains and on the Caspian plain, vegetation is abundant. In these areas broadleaf deciduous trees such as ash, elm, oak, and beech flourish, along with some broadleaf evergreens, ferns, and shrubs. On the arid plateaus, scrub and cactus growth dominate.
Iran has a wide variety of indigenous wildlife. Fauna includes the rabbit, fox, wolf, hyena, jackal, leopard, deer, porcupine, ibex, bear, badger, weasel, and tiger. Pheasants and partridges are found inland; pelicans and flamingos breed along the Persian Gulf. Sturgeon, whitefish, and herring live in the Caspian Sea.

Mineral Resources
The most valuable mineral resources of Iran are its great deposits of petroleum and natural gas. The principal oil fields are in Khuzistan. Other mineral resources, including iron, copper, lead, zinc, coal, and chromite, are located in the Zagros and Elburz mountains and elsewhere.

Population
Nearly half (46 percent) of the people of Iran are Persians, the descendants of the original Indo-European peoples who entered the country from Central Asia in the 2nd millennium BC. The remainder of the population consists of Azeri (17 percent), Kurdish (9 percent), and other groups including Gilanis, Luris, Mazandarais, Baluchistanis, Arabs, and Bakhtiaris.

Population Characteristics
The population of Iran (1993 estimate) was 63,369,809. The average density was about 39 people per sq km (about 100 per sq mi), but concentrations were much higher in the northern and western parts of the country. The population is about 54 percent urban, and the proportion of city dwellers increased in the 1970s and 1980s. The birth rate declined much less steeply than the death rate between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s; during the early 1990s Iran had a relatively high annual rate of population increase of about 3.4 percent.

Principal Cities
The capital and largest city of Iran is Tehran, with a population of 6,042,984 in 1986. The country's two most important urban centers, after Tehran, are Meshed (1,463,508), a grain center and important commercial and transportation point, and Isfahan (986,753), an industrial and commercial hub noted for its fine architecture.

Language
The official language of Iran is Modern Persian, or Farsi, one of the Indo-Iranian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European languages. Farsi emerged from Middle Persian (see PERSIAN LANGUAGE) and is written in the Arabic alphabet (see ARABIC LANGUAGE: ARABIC SCRIPT) with many Arabic loan words. Several minority groups in Iran retain their own languages. See also ARABIC LITERATURE; PERSIAN LITERATURE.

Religion
The official religion of Iran is the Shiite branch of Islam, which is followed by more than 91 percent of the population. Some of the most sacred Shiite places are in Iran; the city of Qum, south of Tehran, is a noted place of pilgrimage. Sunni Muslims form about 8 percent of Iran's population, and the country also has dwindling communities of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Baha'is.

Ethnic Minorities
The periphery of Iran is inhabited by ethnic minorities, who at times have been perceived to hold greater allegiance to their individual ethnic groups than to the national government. The Baluchi in the southeast, the Turkomans in the northeast, and the Kurds in the west are Sunni Muslims. Arabs inhabit the southwest. The Azerbaijani, although they are Shiites, came into conflict with the politically active Iranian Shiite clergy in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Communications
Postal, telegraph, and telephone services, as well as radio and television broadcasting, are administered by the Iranian government. Approximately 2.1 million telephones were in use in the late 1980s; radios numbered more than 11 million and television sets about 2.3 million. Nearly all the nation's daily newspapers and most of the weeklies are published in Tehran. Dailies with large circulations include Kayhan and Ettelaat, both published in Tehran.

Government
Iran's constitutional monarchy, founded in 1906, was ended in 1979. In the 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. A religious leader, called the faqih, oversees the operation of the government.

Executive
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, and also approves the prime minister's cabinet.

Legislature
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 for the Protection of the Constitution. All citizens over age 16 are entitled to vote.

Judiciary
The highest regular tribunal in Iran is the supreme court, the president of which is appointed by the faqih. In addition, Islamic revolutionary courts were established in 1979.

Local Government
Iran consists of 24 provinces (ustans), which are divided into 195 counties and 500 districts; districts are subdivided into villages and municipalities. Provincial and district officials are appointed by the central government; municipalities elect their own mayors.

Political Parties
After the 1979 revolution the Islamic Republican party and its allies dominated the national legislature. In 1987, however, the IRP was disbanded, and no political parties were allowed to contest the 1988 parliamentary elections. Political parties were also banned in the 1992 parliamentary balloting, but two rival Islamic factions were recognized; Ruhaniyat, the more reform-minded faction, defeated the hard-line faction, Ruhaniyoun.

Social Services
Health care in Iran is overseen by the national department of health. Programs have been undertaken to combat tuberculosis, smallpox, and trachoma. Opium addiction, once a major problem, has been virtually eradicated, as has malaria.

Defense
A two-year period of military service is required of all male citizens of Iran. In the late 1980s the regular Iranian armed forces had 473,000 active members.

International Organizations
Iran is a charter member of the United Nations and also belongs to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Economy
The great income from the petroleum industry led, in the late 1960s and 1970s, to a rapid growth of the entire economy of Iran. The influx of foreign capital and the rate of establishment of new industries dropped sharply, however, after the change in government in 1979. Annual budgeted expenditure was about $55 billion in the late 1980s.

National Output
The annual gross domestic product (GDP) of Iran in 1992 was $71.01 billion.

Labor
About 25 percent of the Iranian wage labor force of some 13 million people is employed in agriculture. Approximately 11 percent of the workers is employed in manufacturing, and about 9 percent in construction. The unemployment rate exceeded 25 percent in the mid-1980s.

Agriculture
Under a land-reform program begun in Iran in the 1950s, about 800,000 hectares (about 2 million acres) were redistributed among peasant farmers. Most of the best farmland is in the north, south, and west. In the early 1990s, the annual production of Iran's principal crops included about 8.2 million metric tons of wheat, 2.5 million metric tons of potatoes, 3.6 million metric tons of barley, 1.4 million metric tons of grapes, and 2.1 million metric tons of rice. Other important crops included sugar beets, sugarcane, corn, pulses (legume seeds), citrus fruit, tobacco, tea, oilseeds, and pistachio nuts. Livestock on farms included an estimated 45 million sheep, 23.5 million goats, 6.8 million cattle, 1.9 million asses, and 110 million chickens.

Forestry and Fishing
Because of concern over excessive cutting, commercial lumbering in Iran was not expanded during the 1970s. Annual production remained at approximately 6 million cu m (about 212 million cu ft) throughout the decade, rising to 6.8 million cu m (240 million cu ft) in the late 1980s. Commercial fishing is important to the Iranian economy, but it has not been fully developed. The Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea yield trout, carp, sturgeon, salmon, whitefish, and herring. Annual production was about 150,000 metric tons in the late 1980s. Iranian caviar (sturgeon eggs) is considered among the best in the world.

Mining
Iran is noted for the production of petroleum. The principal oil fields, located at the head of the Persian Gulf in the southwestern region, are considered among the richest in the world. The oil industry was nationalized in 1951, and in the mid-1980s petroleum production was controlled by the national ministry of petroleum. About 828 million barrels of oil were produced annually in the late 1980s; 15.8 billion cu m (558 billion cu ft) of natural gas and 1.2 million metric tons of coal were also produced. Petroleum output dropped in the late 1970s and early 1980s, first as part of an effort to keep oil prices from declining, then because the principal oil-producing regions were the scene of warfare with Iraq. Much of the oil is usually exported by supertankers loaded at facilities on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. Substantial quantities of iron ore, lead, zinc, and chromite are also produced in Iran.

Manufacturing
Large-scale manufacturing in Iran developed during the 1970s. Major products include petrochemicals, textiles (especially cotton and wool from the Isfahan area, wool from Tabrìz, and silk from the Mazanderan region), processed food, electronic equipment, construction materials, steel, and motor vehicles. One of the world's largest petroleum refineries, at Abadan, suffered severe war damage in the early 1980s. Iran is known for its finely crafted rugs.

Energy
More than 80 percent of Iran's electricity is generated in thermal plants burning petroleum products, natural gas, or coal, and almost all the rest is produced in hydroelectric facilities. In the late 1980s Iran had an installed electricity generating capacity of some 13.4 million kilowatts, and annual electrical production was about 37.9 billion kilowatt-hours.

Transportation
In the late 1980s passenger cars in Iran numbered more than 2.2 million, and commercial vehicles totaled about 440,000. The country was served by some 139,400 km (86,600 mi) of roads, of which 48 percent were paved. In addition, Iran had approximately 4570 km (about 2840 mi) of operated railroad track. Major Iranian ports on the Caspian Sea include Enzeli (formerly called Pahlevi or Pahlavi) and Bandar-i Torkaman (Bandar Shah), and among the seaports on the Persian Gulf are Khorramshahr, Bandar-i Khomeini (Bandar Shahpur), and Bandar-e 'Abbas as well as the oil-shipping facilities on Kharg Island. Iran Air, the state-run airline that was formed in 1962, operates both domestic and international flights; the main airports serve Tehran and Abadan.

Currency and Banking
The Iranian unit of currency is the rial, which is divided into 100 dinar (70.6 rial equal U.S.$1; 1990). The Bank Markazi, established in 1960 and operated by the government, is the bank of issue. Commercial banking, nationalized and reorganized in 1979, includes some seven major banks.

Foreign Trade
More than 90 percent of Iran's export earnings typically come from sales of crude petroleum and petroleum products; most of the country's imports consist of manufactured goods such as machinery, transportation equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, mineral products, and basic consumer goods. In the late 1980s Iran's exports annually earned about $9.4 billion, and its imports cost some $11 billion. The country's leading trade partners include Japan, Germany, France, Italy, the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

History
For the history of Iran before the Muslim conquest, see PERSIA.
The fall of the Sassanid Empire to Muslim Arabs in 641 changed Iran for all time. The lands were incorporated into the caliphate, ruled at first from Medina and later from Damascus and Baghdad. The old Zoroastrian religion, although officially tolerated by the new Muslim rulers, could not withstand the force, backed by the state authority, of the new; except for a few thousand faithful, who have persisted even to the present, the number of adherents gradually decreased, and the religion virtually disappeared. Iran was henceforth a Muslim country.
Cultural influences, however, were not all one-sided; the old Iranian traditions also exerted their fascination over the new rulers. The Umayyad caliphs at Damascus imitated Sassanid court etiquette, and the succeeding Abbasids at Baghdad were even more enmeshed, giving up the simple Arab ways of the desert for the luxury of Eastern palace life.

Turks and Mongols
In the mid-11th century Iran was conquered by the Seljuk Turks under Togrul Beg, and during the ensuing four centuries, it was dominated successively by the Seljuks, by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, by Tamerlane and his Mongol hordes, and finally by the Turkomans. The rule of the Turkomans was overthrown by Ismail I, who claimed descent from Ali, the fourth caliph. He was regarded as a saint by the Iranians and proclaimed himself shah, marking the founding of the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736) and the establishment of the Shiite doctrine as the official Iranian religion (see SHIITES). Ismail's reign was marked by the beginning of a conflict with Ottoman Turkey that lasted more than a century and led to the capture of Baghdad in 1623 by Shah Abbas I, greatest of the Safavid rulers. The reign of Abbas is also notable for the commencement of trade with the English East India Company. During the century following his reign, Iran steadily declined, and in 1722 Iran was conquered by an Afghan army under Mir Mahmud and the Safavids were overthrown.

European Intervention
Two years later Russia and Turkey, taking advantage of the confusion within Iran, concluded an agreement for its dismemberment. Within those provinces not seized by these two powers, an Iranian national army was formed under a warrior chief who drove out the Afghans in 1729 and ascended the throne in 1736 as Nadir Shah. Two years later he invaded India, capturing and sacking Delhi in 1739. Russia, meanwhile, had evacuated its Iranian conquests, and Nadir later succeeded in freeing Iran from all foreign occupation by driving out the Turks. His death in 1747 was followed by a period of relative peace and prosperity during the Zand dynasty, which ended in 1794, when Agha Muhammad Khan, a cruel ruler, proclaimed himself shah and founded the Qajar dynasty (1794-1925). Muhammad Khan was succeeded in 1797 by his nephew Fath Ali Shah, during whose reign (1797-1834) the British were allowed to extend their influence over Iranian trade and finances.
The 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by the struggle between Britain and Russia for hegemony in Iran. The British warred against and defeated the Iranians in 1856 and 1857 and compelled them to evacuate Afghanistan and to recognize its independence. During the 1880s the Russians gradually established a sphere of influence in northern Iran, and Britain gained control in the Persian Gulf area. Between 1900 and 1902 the Russian government made substantial loans to Iran, receiving as security all the country's customs receipts except those of the Gulf ports. In 1901 the British were granted a 60-year concession to exploit the petroleum resources of Iran.

Nationalism and Constitutional Government
The rise of foreign influence in Iran and the weakness and corruption of the country's rulers led early in the 20th century to the development of a nationalist movement that demanded the establishment of a constitutional government. In 1906 the reigning shah, Mazaffar ad-Din, was forced by popular demand to convene the first Majlis, or national assembly, which drew up a liberal constitution. His son and successor, Muhammad Ali, attempted to destroy the constitutional movement by force, but was defeated and deposed; his 12-year-old son was placed on the throne as Ahmad Shah, and a regency was set up. In 1911 the American financier William Morgan Shuster arrived in Iran at the invitation of the Majlis and was given full power to reorganize the national finances. His reforms were, however, frustrated by the hostility of Russia; Shuster was dismissed, and Russian power subsequently became dominant in Iran.

Rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty
During World War I (1914-1918) Iran was neutral, but was the scene of several battles for the oil fields between the British and Russian allies and the Turks. In 1919 Iran signed an agreement whereby Britain was to exercise controlling influence in Iranian affairs, but the Majlis refused to ratify it. Two years later the British began to withdraw their forces from the country. Soon afterward, Reza Shah Pahlavi, commander of an Iranian cossack force, established a new independent government, with himself as minister of war. He became prime minister in 1923 and two years later was elected shah by the Majlis, which had deposed Ahmad Shah, the last of the Qajar dynasty. During his reign the judiciary was modernized, transportation and communication facilities were improved, and a broad program of Westernization was begun. One decree ordered the Sunni to wear European-style hats instead of their traditional fezzes. Most of the population obeyed without protest; a minority, led by Muslim clergy, rioted, and several were killed. The government next abolished all feudal titles and began a long-range program for the economic modernization of the country. Early in 1936 the shah's wife and daughters appeared in public without veils, breaking an ancient tradition of the country. Thereafter, most Iranian women gradually stopped wearing their veils. In 1936 Iran signed a treaty of friendship and nonaggression with Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan.

World War II (1939-1945)
At the beginning of World War II, Germany, Turkey, Great Britain, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) attempted unsuccessfully to form alliances with Iran. In 1941, however, both Great Britain and the USSR occupied areas of the country to protect the oil fields from possible German seizure. As a result of the Allied invasion, all Axis nationals were expelled, all Axis consulates and legations were closed, the Allies assumed control of all Iranian communication facilities, and Reza Shah Pahlavi, who had been friendly to Axis interests, abdicated.
The shah's son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, succeeded his father; he adopted a pro-Allied policy and granted the parliament's demand for liberal reforms. In January 1942, Iran, Great Britain, and the USSR signed a treaty guaranteeing Anglo-Soviet respect for Iranian territorial integrity and military aid to fulfill this pledge. The Allies also agreed to consult the Iranian government on all economic, political, and military measures affecting the domestic policy of the country, to withdraw the occupation forces as soon as possible, and to provide economic assistance.
By 1943, the USSR and Great Britain, with the assistance of United States military forces and lend-lease, had made extensive improvements in Iran's transportation facilities in order to strengthen the country's usefulness in the transfer of military supplies to the Soviet fighting front. Iran complained, however, that the USSR had completely isolated its occupation zone from outside contact. The Soviet government defended its action by explaining that it was protecting itself against possible Anglo-American expansion in Iran. This dispute was adjusted in November 1943 at the Tehran Conference attended by President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill of Great Britain, and Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. The Declaration on Iran, produced by this conference and issued on December 1, stated that the three governments were “at one with the government of Iran in their desire for the maintenance of the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Iran.”
By the early part of 1945 it became safe for Allied shipping to use the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to send war matériel to the USSR, eliminating the need for an overland route through Iran. In May the government of Iran requested the occupying countries to withdraw their troops. The United States agreed, but neither the USSR nor Great Britain would consent. After prolonged negotiations, Great Britain and the USSR agreed to withdraw from Iran by March 2, 1946. The Iranian government nevertheless became increasingly concerned over the Soviet occupation. Iranian officials claimed that they were not permitted to enter the Soviet-occupied provinces of Azerbaijan and Kurdistan to quell anti-Iranian disturbances provoked by pro-Soviet forces. By mid-November, Azerbaijan was the site of an independence movement supported by Soviet authorities.

Battle over Oil
Iran signed the United Nations (UN) charter at San Francisco on June 26, 1945, becoming one of the original members of that organization. In the latter part of 1946, the USSR began to press for immediate action on the part of Iran for the formation of a Soviet-Iranian oil company. Iran, counting on U.S. aid, announced in October 1947 the rejection of the Soviet oil plan and the establishment of a five-year oil program whereby Iran would develop its own oil resources. On July 29, 1948, the United States made a $26-million loan to Iran for the purchase and repair of surplus American army equipment.
In the realm of domestic politics outstanding developments during 1949 included the outlawing of the pro-Soviet Tudeh (Masses) party, enactment of legislation making parliament a bicameral body, and growth of widespread resentment over foreign oil concessions. In response to public sentiment on the oil question, the government obtained (July) from the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company an agreement to double royalty payments on petroleum taken from Iranian fields. Parliament, however, failed to ratify the agreement, which was characterized as unsatisfactory by various members.
Severe economic difficulties developed during the first half of 1950, causing several political crises. In June General Ali Razmara accepted the premiership. A vigorous executive, he succeeded in improving the economic situation. He strongly opposed nationalization of the oil industry, however, and on March 7, 1951, he was assassinated by a nationalist fanatic.

Nationalization
Within a week of Razmara's assassination the Majlis passed a bill nationalizing the oil industry, but the new prime minister, Hasain Ala, did nothing to take over the property of the British company. As a result his government fell on April 27. He was succeeded by Muhammad Mossadegh, leader of a coalition of nationalist groups (National Front) and supporter of oil nationalization, and on April 29 a law evicting the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was approved by parliament. Attempts to settle the ensuing crisis in British-Iranian relations through direct negotiation between the two countries ended in failure. The efforts of the United States to mediate the dispute were to no avail. On October 3, 1951, Great Britain, deciding against the use of force, acceded to an Iranian ultimatum and withdrew the company's technical staff from the Abadan refinery. Later in the month, when Great Britain brought the dispute before the UN Security Council, Prime Minister Mossadegh flew to New York to present the case for Iran. The council agreed to postpone debate until the International Court decided on the court's competence to deal with the dispute. On December 26 Iran rejected a proposal made by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) that the oil industry be administered by the bank or by some other international authority pending final settlement. In May 1952 Mossadegh appeared before the International Court at The Hague and argued that it had no jurisdiction in the case.
Parliamentary (lower-house) elections had been completed meanwhile, and early in July Mossadegh, having resigned in accordance with constitutional procedure, was requested by the shah to resume his office. Mossadegh's acceptance was based on various conditions, notably that he receive control of the army and the right to rule by decree for six months. The shah, constitutional head of the army, rejected the former condition, and on July 16 Mossadegh resigned. Former Prime Minister Ahmad Qavam agreed the next day to form a new government. Mossadegh's supporters responded to this development with riotous demonstrations and a general strike (July 21), which forced Qavam's resignation. On July 22 Mossadegh was designated prime minister; the same day the International Court ruled that it had no jurisdiction in the Anglo-Iranian dispute. The lower house subsequently granted Mossadegh unlimited power for six months.

Mossadegh's Fall
On August 30, 1952, Iran turned down a joint Anglo-American proposal designed to break the oil deadlock. In the proposal Great Britain for the first time accepted the Iranian nationalization law as valid, but still insisted that compensation be based on potential revenue losses as well as on physical assets of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Iran broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain on October 22.
Early in 1953 the parliament extended Mossadegh's dictatorial powers for another year. The prime minister demanded that the shah be stripped of power.
The dissension between pro- and anti-Mossadegh forces reached a climax during the summer of 1953. The premier dissolved the lower house on the basis of a plebiscite (August 3-10) in which he suspended the secret ballot. The shah, who opposed many of Mossadegh's policies, including his uncompromising stand on the oil question, dismissed the prime minister on August 13. Mossadegh refused to yield his office, his followers rioted against the royalists, and on August 16 the shah fled to Rome. After three days of bloody riots the royalists, supported by the army and police, won control of Tehran, and Mossadegh and several aides were placed under arrest. On August 22 the shah returned in triumph; the next day General Fazullah Zahedi, who had been previously designated prime minister by the shah, formed a government. On September 5 the U.S. government granted Iran a $45-million emergency loan. Two months later Iran resumed diplomatic relations with Great Britain. Mossadegh was sentenced (December 2) to three years' solitary confinement for leading a revolt against the shah.

New Oil Agreements
The Iranian electorate went to the polls in March 1954 to elect a new lower house of parliament. During the voting, which reportedly was attended by widespread fraud, government supporters assaulted hundreds of alleged Communists and opponents of the Zahedi regime near polling places in Tehran.
Beginning on April 14 the Iranian government and representatives of an eight-company petroleum consortium, including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and three U.S. firms, conducted discussions on terms for the reactivation of the nationalized oil industry. The conferees concluded (August 5) a pact, under which the consortium agreed to operate the industry, market the oil output, share the profits equally with Iran, and compensate Anglo-Iranian for its seized property. International interest in Iran's petroleum resources continued strong, and in July 1957 Iran announced the formation of an Iranian-Italian oil combine; the transaction aroused interest, for it guaranteed Iran a margin of profit greater than any previously obtained by Middle Eastern countries in their dealings with European firms. The following year the Iranian government and American oil interests in Iran concluded an agreement for an unprecedented 25-75 percent division of profits in favor of Iran.

The Shah's Growing Power
After he was restored to his throne with the aid of the United States in 1953, Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi became increasingly confident and secure in his ruling position and began to devote more attention to his dynastic aspirations. He had divorced his first wife in 1948 because she had borne him no male heir, and in 1959 he dissolved his second marriage for the same reason. He remarried in 1959, and the new queen gave birth to a son, Prince Reza Pahlavi, in 1960.
At the same time he began to exercise more and more control over the government, keeping it closely aligned with the United States. In March 1959, Iran signed a defense agreement with the United States. On July 23, 1960, Iran recognized Israel; the step led to difficulties with Egypt, and the Arab League announced extension of its boycott of Israel to include Iran.
Elections for the lower house of the parliament were held in August. They were annulled by the shah on September 1, after the opposition had charged that they had been rigged by the government. The deputies elected in January 1961 held office until May 9, when both houses of parliament were dissolved. The shah thereupon gave Prime Minister Ali Amini the power to rule by decree. Opposition elements shortly thereafter loosely grouped themselves into a so-called National Front.
On October 5, 1961, the shah created the Pahlavi Dynasty Trust with a donation equal in value to $133 million, the bulk of his remaining fortune; the income from the trust was to be used for social and educational purposes. The first transfers of land from large estates to peasant farmers under a newly enacted law took place on March 3, 1962. Some opposition to the land program, known as the White Revolution, on the part of some religious and conservative groups led to uprisings in June 1963, but by 1966 all large and middle-sized estates had been broken up, benefiting some 4 million farming families. Throughout the remainder of the 1960s the shah continued and expanded programs of land distribution, improvement of domestic industries, and diversification of export trade. Economic growth led to an impressive rise in the national standard of living.

Coronation and Changing Policies
The shah was formally crowned on October 26, 1967. Although he had ruled the country for 26 years, the ceremony had been postponed until he had a male heir and Iran had attained social stability and economic development.
By the time of his coronation the shah's rule had become virtually absolute, and he was pursuing a foreign policy less dependent on the United States than it had been before. Thus, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he strengthened Iran's international relations with Communist countries as well as with the West. In the early 1970s Iran also drew closer to the Arab bloc, except for Iraq, with which it was disputing territorial rights in the Shatt-al-Arab and possession of several islands in the Persian Gulf. In 1971 Iran occupied these islands, and Iraq broke off diplomatic relations. The two countries temporarily resolved their differences and signed a pact in March 1975.
In that same month a major change took place in Iranian domestic politics. On March 2, the shah announced the end of the multiparty system and the formation of a single-party system, the Iran National Resurgence party. Elections were held in June, and a new national assembly was formed.
Despite growing prosperity during the 1970s, owing to greatly increased oil revenues, opposition to the shah was widespread, fanned mainly by conservative religious leaders. The shah's responses to such opposition were increasingly repressive, and he relied heavily on his secret police, the Savak, which was much dreaded for its harsh methods. In the late 1970s there were antigovernment demonstrations, both in Iran and abroad, over alleged human rights violations, most of which could be traced to the Savak. In 1978, riots in several Iranian cities were led by the conservative Shiite Muslims, who wanted the nation governed by Islamic law. They were directed—from his refuge in France—by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a revered Muslim clergyman and long-time foe of the Pahlavi regime, who had been exiled in 1963. By late autumn the country was virtually in a state of civil war, and in January 1979 the ayatollah's followers forced the shah to flee abroad, ending his 37-year reign. Shortly afterward, Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph.

Islamic Republic
Having toppled the shah, Khomeini, supported by the clergy and a large segment of the population, presided over the establishment of an Islamic republic. The new regime ended the country's close relationship with the United States and executed scores of Savak members and other supporters of the shah. In November 1979, after the shah had been allowed entry into the United States for medical treatment, militant Iranians stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 66 U.S. personnel as hostages. Thirteen of these were soon released, but in return for the other 53 Iran demanded a U.S. apology for acts committed in support of the shah, his personal return to face trial (moot after his death in July 1980), and return of the billions of dollars that he was said to have illicitly hoarded abroad.
As the hostage dispute dragged on—they were finally released in January 1981—the regime tried to create a new governmental machinery, while coping with economic chaos, internal unrest, and external threats. A new constitution was approved in December 1979, and presidential elections were held in January 1980. The voters chose Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, a Western-educated liberal economist and Khomeini collaborator. Parliamentary elections, however, were won by the clergy, who opposed Bani-Sadr; parliament chose a fundamentalist prime minister, Muhammad Ali Rajai, who also was at odds with him. This rift greatly weakened the regime, while some of Iran's minorities—the Kurds in the west, the Azerbaijanis in the north, and the Arabs in Khuzistan—took up arms against the government in an attempt to win autonomy. In September 1980 Iraq demanded a revision of the agreement of March 1975 and autonomy for the Arab minority. When these demands were rejected, Iraq unilaterally abrogated the 1975 agreement and invaded Iran, capturing much of oil-rich Khuzistan by December.
By June 1981, the clergy dominated parliament and Prime Minister Rajai had managed to outmaneuver President Bani-Sadr, who was removed from office and went into exile, while Rajai succeeded him to the presidency. A week after Bani-Sadr's ouster, a bomb blast killed 74 of Iran's political and religious leaders. President Rajai and his successor as prime minister were killed in another explosion in August. The government then embarked on a campaign of severe reprisals, which stemmed the tide of assassinations. After general elections were held in October, Hojatolislam Said Ali Khamenei became Iran's third president in a year.
In late 1981 Iran went on the offensive in its war with Iraq. By May 1982 Iraqi forces had been driven out of much of the territory overrun in 1980. In the ensuing stalemate, both sides attacked shipping in the Persian Gulf, indirectly drawing other Gulf nations—and later the United States—into the conflict. Iran and Iraq finally agreed to a cease-fire as of August 20, 1988, suspending a war that had cost the two nations an estimated total of 1 million dead and 1.7 million wounded.
When Khomeini died in June 1989, President Khamenei became Iran's supreme leader. In July Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former speaker of parliament, was elected president. In June 1990 a massive earthquake in northwestern Iran took at least 35,000 lives. Iran condemned both Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August and the subsequent deployment of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, but resumed diplomatic relations with Iraq, which dropped its territorial claims against Iran. In the Persian Gulf War, Iran remained officially neutral, but provided refuge for more than 100 Iraqi warplanes, which it later seized. After hostilities between allied and Iraqi forces ended, Iran helped Shiite rebels in southern Iraq against the Baghdad government. Rafsanjani supporters won a parliamentary majority in 1992.
The Iranian economy fared poorly under Rafsanjani as the national debt grew and inflation rose sharply. In January 1993 Rafsanjani reaffirmed the 1989 fatwa (death sentence) against Indian-born author Salman Rushdie for his book The Satanic Verses (1989). Iran also continued to deny that it is an international sponsor of terrorism and turned aside accusations by both Algeria and Egypt that Iran sponsored terrorist groups in their countries. In June 1993 Rafsanjani was reelected president.