republic. The constitution of the Islamic Repub-
lic of Iran, adopted in 1979, is organized on the
basis of Islamic law (sharia) and gives supreme
authority to the Shii leader (faqih, religious
jurist). The constitution describes the responsi-
bilities of the three branches of the government
(the legislative power, the executive power, and
the judiciary power), while emphasizing that
their operations are subject to the authority of
the leader and the guardian council. Any attempt
to introduce social change through legal and
parliamentary channels and by means of public
participation in national referenda is accordingly
monitored by the authority of the religious elite
who rule Iran.
Revolutionary Iran has had to contend with a
number of serious crises since the 1979 revolu-
tion. The first arose when revolutionary youths
seized the American embassy in Tehran and took
its personnel hostage for 444 days in 1979–80.
This ended with the release of the hostages and the
closing of the U.S. embassy in 1980. The United
States proceeded to penalize Iran by launch-
ing an economic embargo as part of a policy of
containment to limit its influence in the region.
In September 1980, Iran was invaded by Iraq,
which, under the leadership of saddam hUsayn
(r. 1968–2003), sought to gain control of access
to the Gulf through the Shatt al-Arab waterway
and to check the spread of Khomeini’s Shii revo-
lution to Iraq and other Arab Gulf countries. To
the surprise of many, Iranians rallied to halt the
invasion, but a bloody nine-year war of attrition
ensued that resulted in the deaths of as many as
a million Iranians and Iraqis. The war ended in a
cease-fire brokered by the United Nations. Iran’s
troubles continued in the 1990s, with a rapidly
growing population, economic stagnation, grow-
ing demands for liberalization by the postrevo-
lution generation, corruption, political chaos in
neighboring Afghanistan, and the proliferation
of nuclear weapons in Israel, Pakistan, and India.
At the same time, however, Iran encouraged radi-
cal Shii groups to take up arms against Sunni-led
governments in Iraq, saUdi arabia, Kuwait, and
Bahrain. It also supported hizbUllah in lebanon,
a Shii guerrilla movement that had formed when
Lebanon was invaded by Israel in 1982.
A short-lived period of cultural liberalization
occurred in 1998–2002, represented by such
figures as Muhammad Khatami (b. 1942), who
served as president from 1997 to 2005, Abd al-
Karim Soroush (b. 1945), a philosopher and intel-
lectual critic of Islamic radicalism, and human
rights activist Shirin Ibadi (b. 1947), who won
the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize. The liberal currents
these figures represented were especially popular
with women and young Iranians, but they were
strongly opposed by hard-line supporters of the
revolutionary Shii ideology of Khomeini and his
successors. This party regained significant popu-
lar support when U.S. president George W. Bush
identified that country as part of an “axis of evil”
responsible for terrorism around the world. Reac-
tionary elements were further energized when
the United States and Britain invaded neighbor-
ing Iraq to remove Saddam Husayn in 2003.
The invasion helped bring about the election of
Mahmoud Ahmadinajad (b. 1956), the hard-line
former mayor of Tehran, as president in 2005. His
government played an active role in supporting
Shii political groups in post-Saddam Iraq, oppos-
ing Israel, and seeking close ties with Syria. Also,
under his leadership, Iran accelerated efforts to
become a nuclear power, which provoked the
United States and European countries to take dip-
lomatic and military countermeasures.
See also constitUtionalism; gUlF states; gUlF
Wars.
Firoozeh Papan-MatinFurther reading: Ervand Abrahamian, Iran between
Two Revolutions (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press, 1983); W. B. Fisher, The Cambridge History of
Iran. Vols. 1–7 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1968); Nikki Keddie, Modern Iran: Roots and
Results of Revolution (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 2003).K 364 Iran