Iran

Iran is also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. It borders in the north-west with Armenia and Azerbaijan, in the north with the Caspian Sea, in the north-east with Turkmenistan, in the east with Afghanistan, in the south-east with Pakistan, in the south with the Persian and Oman gulfs. and in the west by Turkey and Iraq. Iran covers an area of ​​1,648,195 km2 (636,372 sq mi) with a population of 85 million. It is the second largest country in the Middle East (after Saudi Arabia), the sixth largest country in Asia, and its capital and largest city is Tehran.

Iran is home to one of the oldest civilizations in the world, dating back to the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first united by the Iranian Medes in the seventh century BC and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Great founded the Achaemenid Empire, which became one of the largest empires in history and has been described as a world empire. the first superpower. The empire fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BC and was divided into several Hellenistic states. The Iranian uprising established the Parthian Empire in the third century BC, which was replaced in the third century AD by the Sassanian Empire, the largest world power for the next four centuries. Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century AD, leading to the Islamization of Iran. Subsequently, it became a major center of Islamic culture and education, its art, literature, philosophy and architecture spread throughout the Muslim world and beyond during the Golden Age of Islam. Over the next two centuries, before the Seljuk Turks and Mongols conquered the region, a number of local Muslim dynasties arose. In the 15th century, the indigenous Safavids restored a unified Iranian state and national identity and converted the country to Shiite Islam. During the rule of Nadir Shah in the 18th century, Iran again became a major world power, although by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with Russia resulted in significant territorial losses. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Persian constitutional revolution took place. Attempts to nationalize the supply of fossil fuels by Western companies led to the Anglo-American coup in 1953, which led to an increase in autocratic rule under Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and increased political influence in the West. In 1963, he began a series of far-reaching reforms. After the Iranian revolution, the current Islamic Republic was founded in 1979 by Ruhollah Khomeini, who became the country's first supreme leader.

Iran's government is an Islamic theocracy that incorporates elements of a presidential democracy where the supreme power belongs to an autocratic "supreme leader", a position held by Ali Khamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989. The Iranian government is widely regarded as authoritarian. , and has drawn widespread criticism for its severe restrictions and violations of human rights and civil liberties, including several violent crackdowns on mass protests, unfair elections, and the limited rights of women and children.