This is mainly meant for my friends, coworkers, and anyone else who feels a little confused about what is happening in Iran. I realize that this is an extremely simplified version of history and events, but I only intend this to be a quick primer so people have some context in which to understand what is currently happen in Iran.
Okay to start with this is where Iran is located:
(image from http://www.globalresearch.ca)
There are approximately 70 million people living in Iran, the major language is farsi, the currency is the rial, and the official religion is Shia Islam. Iran is home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC.
Below is a list of the six most populist cities in Iran.
Tehran 7,705,036
Mashhad 2,410,800
Esfahān 1,583,609
Tabriz 1,378,935
Karaj 1,377,450
Shiraz 1,204,882
Some fun facts about Iran...
76% of Iranians are literate.
750,000 graduates are turned out by Iranian universities every year.
70% of Iranians are under the age of 30.
65% of university students are women.
17.5% of people are unemployed
Now a very brief history courtesy of wikipedia and flikr...
1925: Reza Shah Pahlavi overthrows the Qajar Dynasty to become Shah (King) and begin the Pahlavi dynasty.
1941: Reza Khan abdicates power to his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1951: Mohammed_Mossadegh is elected prime minister with enormous popular support and nationalizes Iran's oil reserves.
1953: Because of Cold War fears, Britain and the U.S. depose Mossadegh in Operation Ajax. (If you are interested in learning more I highly recommend the book "All the Shah's men" by Stephen Kinzer, about the CIA involvement in the coup). This is one the reasons for the distrust of the U.S. government in Iran.
The Shah with President Eisenhower
(image from http://www.parstimes.com)
1953-1964: Pahlavi's rule becomes increasingly autocratic. With the help of the American government, the Shah is able to both rapidly modernize Iranian infrastructure, while simultaneously crushing all forms of political opposition.
1964: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini publicly denounces the government and is arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. After his release he begins to also publicly criticized the United States government. Khomeini is first exiled to to Turkey, then to Iraq and finally to France.
January 1978-1979 : The Iranian revolution begins with major demonstrations against the Shah, followed by mourning periods for those who have died during the protests, which only further ratchets up the protests and violence in the streets. On February 11 Iran's military declares itself "neutral" after guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelm troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting. The Shah flees the country shortly there after.
April 1979: Voters approve referendum making Iran an Islamic Republic.
December 1979: Theocratic constitution makes Khomeini Supreme Leader. See below for a diagram of how Iran's government is supposed to work.
November 1979: A group of Iranian students seized US embassy personnel, labelling the embassy a "den of spies". They accuse its personnel of being CIA agents plotting to overthrow the revolutionary government, as the CIA had done to Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953. Khomeini supports the embassy takeover after hearing of its success. 52 hostages are held for 444 days, to be finally released according to the Algiers declaration.
September 1980: The Iran-Iraq war begins. The war will continue for six years until 1988, when Khomeini accepts a truce mediated by the United Nations. The total Iranian casualties of the war are estimated to be between 500,000 - 1,000,000.
(image from www.ica.org.uk)
1986 The Iran-Contra affair, in which senior US figures from the Reagan administration facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo, to secure the release of hostages and to fund Nicaraguan Contras.
1981-1989: Khamenei holds the post of President.
1989: Supreme Leader Khomeini dies and is succeeded by Khamenei. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri, a major figure of the Revolution, was initially designated by Khomeini to be his successor as Supreme Leader. Montazeri began increasing calls for the liberalization of Iran and openly critized Khomeini's rule. It is thought that this led to Khomeini ousting him from his position as official successor and naming the more conservative Khamenei instead as successor. (I am not doing this part of the story justice, see intothefuture's blog for a better breakdown of the characters involved.
1989-1997 Rafsanjani elected President and concentrates on a pro-business policy of rebuilding and strengthening the economy without making any dramatic break with the ideology of the revolution.
1997: Ayatollah Montazeri is placed under house arrest, for openly criticizing the authority of the Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. This condition ended in 2003.
1997-2005 Moderate reformist Mohammad Khatami elected President. During his two terms as president, Khatami advocates freedom of expression, tolerance and civil society, constructive diplomatic relations. However, Khatami is widely regarded as having been unsuccessful in achieving his goal of making Iran more free and democratic.
2005-2009 Conservative populist candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected President.
The Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that, with two-thirds of the votes counted, incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election with 66% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 33% of the votes cast. Mousavi issued a statement accusing the Interior Ministry, responsible for conducting the election, of widespread election fraud and urged his supporters to engage in peaceful protests. Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, have broken out all over the country. (For an excellent profile of Mousavi go here)
All this brings us to the events currently unfolding in Iran. I am not even going to try to summarize them or post pictures. There are some great diaries by electronicmaji, intothefuture, ShadowSD others if you want details. You can follow the unfolding events at the huffington post or Andrew Sullivan's blog. If you want to get a direct line into what the world is thinking and doing you can follow #iranelection on twitter.
I hope someone finds this helpful because I am seriously tired. I am in turns horrified, awstruck, elated, and utterly amazed by the events unfolding in Iran. Galbam bah showmust.