64 Facts About Iran

Iran has a population of 85 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East.

Under the reign of Nader Shah in the 18th century, Iran became a major world power, though by the 19th century, a series of conflicts with the Russian Empire led to significant territorial losses.

Iran went on to launch a far-reaching series of reforms in 1963.

Government of Iran is an Islamic theocracy that includes some elements of a presidential system, with the ultimate authority vested in an autocratic "Supreme Leader"; a position held by Ali Khamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989.

Iran is considered to be one of the biggest players within Middle Eastern affairs, with its government being involved both directly and indirectly in the majority of modern Middle Eastern conflicts.

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Iran is a regional and middle power, with a geopolitically strategic location in the Asian continent.

Since the earliest second millennium BC, Assyrians settled in swaths of western Iran and incorporated the region into their territories.

In 999, large portions of Iran came briefly under the rule of the Ghaznavids, whose rulers were of mamluk Turkic origin, and longer subsequently under the Seljuk and Khwarezmian empires.

From 1219 to 1221, under the Khwarazmian Empire, Iran suffered a devastating invasion by the Mongol Empire army of Genghis Khan.

Some historians have estimated that Iran's population did not again reach its pre-Mongol levels until the mid-20th century.

Iran was predominantly Sunni, but Ismail instigated a forced conversion to the Shia branch of Islam, spreading throughout the Safavid territories in the Caucasus, Iran, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia.

Iran subsequently took back the annexed Caucasian territories which were divided among the Ottoman and Russian authorities by the ongoing chaos in Iran.

In July 1982, with Iraq thrown on the defensive, the regime of Iran decided to invade Iraq and conducted countless offensives to conquer Iraqi territory and capture cities, such as Basra.

Northern part of Iran is covered by the lush lowland Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests, located near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.

Iran had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.

Gary Lewis, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Iran, has said that "Water scarcity poses the most severe human security challenge in Iran today".

Wildlife of Iran includes bears, the Eurasian lynx, foxes, gazelles, gray wolves, jackals, panthers, and wild pigs.

Iran lost all its Asiatic lions and the now extinct Caspian tigers by the earlier part of the 20th century.

Iran is divided into five regions with 31 provinces, each governed by an appointed governor.

Iran's population is concentrated in its western half, especially in the north, north-west and west of the country.

However, Iran scored lower than Saudi Arabia in the 2021 Democracy Index.

The budget bill for every year, as well as withdrawing money from the National Development Fund of Iran, require Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's approval and permission.

Legislature of Iran, known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly, is a unicameral body comprising 290 members elected for four-year terms.

Chief Justice of Iran is the head of the Judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is responsible for its administration and supervision.

In 2009, the U S Director of National Intelligence said that Iran, if choosing to, would not be able to develop a nuclear weapon until 2013.

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Iran is a member of dozens of international organizations, including the G-15, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, IDA, IDB, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, OIC, OPEC, WHO, and the United Nations, and currently has observer status at the World Trade Organization.

On 17 September 2021 Iran began the processes of becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance.

Islamic Republic of Iran has two types of armed forces: the regular forces of the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy, and the Revolutionary Guards, totaling about 545, 000 active troops.

Iran has around 350, 000 Reserve Force, totaling around 900, 000 trained troops.

Government of Iran has a paramilitary, volunteer militia force within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, called the Basij, which includes about 90, 000 full-time, active-duty uniformed members.

Since the 1979 Revolution, to overcome foreign embargoes, the government of Iran has developed its own military industry, produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, submarines, military vessels, missile destroyer, radar systems, helicopters, and fighter planes.

Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East.

The regime in Iran is undemocratic, has frequently persecuted and arrested critics of the government and its Supreme Leader, and severely restricts the participation of candidates in popular elections as well as other forms of political activity.

Women's rights in Iran are described as seriously inadequate, and children's rights have been severely violated, with more child offenders being executed in Iran than in any other country in the world.

Iran has strict regulations when it comes to internet censorship, with the government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps persistently blocking social media and other websites.

Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures.

Iran is ranked as a lower-middle income economy by the World Bank.

Iran has leading manufacturing industries in the fields of automobile manufacture, transportation, construction materials, home appliances, food and agricultural goods, armaments, pharmaceuticals, information technology, and petrochemicals in the Middle East.

Iran has a long paved road system linking most of its towns and all of its cities.

Transport in Iran is inexpensive because of the government's subsidization of the price of gasoline.

Iran has the world's second largest proved gas reserves after Russia, with 33.

In 2005, Iran spent US$4 billion on fuel imports, because of contraband and inefficient domestic use.

In 2004, Iran opened its first wind-powered and geothermal plants, and the first solar thermal plant was to come online in 2009.

Iran is the world's third country to have developed GTL technology.

Iran was ranked 60th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, up from 67th in 2020.

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Iran has increased its publication output nearly tenfold from 1996 through 2004, and has been ranked first in terms of output growth rate, followed by China.

Iran placed its domestically built satellite Omid into orbit on the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Revolution, on 2February 2009, through its first expendable launch vehicle Safir, becoming the ninth country in the world capable of both producing a satellite and sending it into space from a domestically made launcher.

Iran is the seventh country to produce uranium hexafluoride, and controls the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

In northern Iran, mostly confined to Gilan and Mazenderan, the Gilaki and Mazenderani languages are widely spoken, both having affinities to the neighboring Caucasian languages.

Iran was predominantly Sunni until the conversion of the country to Shia Islam by order of the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century.

Judaism has a long history in Iran, dating back to the Achaemenid conquest of Babylonia.

Iran has the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel.

Currently three Armenian churches in Iran have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Art of Iran encompasses many disciplines, including architecture, stonemasonry, metalworking, weaving, pottery, painting, and calligraphy.

Iran is the apparent birthplace of the earliest complex instruments, dating back to the third millennium BC.

Third-millennium BC earthen goblet discovered at the Burnt City, a Bronze Age urban settlement in southeastern Iran, depicts what could possibly be the world's oldest example of animation.

Iran is the world's seventh major tea producer, and a cup of tea is typically the first thing offered to a guest.

Iran is most likely the birthplace of polo, locally known as cowgan, with its earliest records attributed to the ancient Medes.

Iran's traditional wrestling, called kosti e pahlevani, is registered on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

In September 1974, Iran became the first country in West Asia to host the Asian Games.

Direct access to many worldwide mainstream websites has been blocked in Iran, including Facebook, which has been blocked since 2009 due to the organization of anti-governmental protests on the website.

The exact date of the emergence of weaving in Iran is not yet known, but it is likely to coincide with the emergence of civilization.

The clothing of ancient Iran took an advanced form, and the fabric and color of clothing became very important at that time.

Beauty pageant festivals inside Iran were not held after the 1979 revolution, and the last selection ceremony of the "beauty queen of Iran" was held in 1978 in this country.