Updated: Iran 101 - Part 3

What is the general history of Iran from 1980 to 2025? How is the government structured and how does it function? What happened during the Iran-Iraq war? Why is the Iran nuclear deal so controversial and how has it affected current events? How do Iranians express discontent with the government, and what happens when they do? How is Iran doing economically, and how does that affect everyday life for citizens? What rights do women have in Iran?

We will learn the answers to these questions and many more in today's episode, part three of Iran 101. Welcome to Wiser World, a podcast for busy people who need a refresher on all things world. Here we explore different regions of the globe, giving you the facts and context you need to think historically about current events. I truly believe that the more we learn about the world, the more we embrace our shared humanity. I'm your host, Ali Roper. Thanks for being here.

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Hello again. Welcome back. It is now June 2025, late June, and I first recorded part three to this series in October 2022. I have since re-listened to the entire series again, and parts one and two felt very evergreen to me, with a few edits, but nothing too massive. This one, though, part three, I felt could use some reorganization and some improvement. So I have rewritten this entire series.

entire episode to make it more understandable. I've added quite a lot of things that I think will help us to navigate the news since a lot has happened between 2022 and today. And I think we needed a little bit more groundwork. So this is definitely the better part three. Hopefully you've listened.

into parts one and two of the Encore Iran episodes before listening to this. They lay all the groundwork for this episode to make sense. And I also explain that I have created these episodes for those who know little to nothing about Iran's history and just want to understand the context.

behind this nation and its decisions. So please make sure to follow up this episode with more resources. You can also check out my Patreon for a downloadable PDF with a timeline study guide that goes hand in hand with this episode on Patreon. slash wiserworldpodcast. You can buy it individually for just $3, which is the lowest price I can charge on Patreon, or you can purchase it with a subscription that gets you additional resources, ad-free episodes, and more.

All right. Today in part three, we are covering from 1981 to 2025. But before I begin, I want to say that this episode does briefly talk about some adult, mature topics such as rape. I keep it brief, but it is there. So just a heads up. We ended part two with the end of the Iranian hostage crisis, which lasted 444 days, if you remember from part two.

Now we have Ayatollah Khomeini, and he is setting up a theocratic Islamic republic, a type of government that's still in place today. So it's been the system of government in Iran for the last 46 years. We should know about it. Before this time, Iran had a shah, a king, and a parliament called the Majlis. But...

The Shah was authoritarian and the government was more secular. Now, Ayatollah Khomeini was setting up a theocracy. A theocracy is a system of government where a religious leader rules the nation in the name of God and the laws of the land. are the laws of the religion.

So it's the exact opposite of separation of church and state. It's a complete blend of religion and government. And in this case, Sharia law, as it is interpreted in Iran, is the law of the land. So there is a supreme religious leader called the...

Ayatollah. And as Frontline puts it, quote, on the surface, the U.S. and Iranian governments have much in common. A president who is popularly elected, a boisterous legislature and a powerful judiciary. The obvious difference lies in the fact that So, simply put, Iran's government today is a unique blend of theocracy and has elements of a republic. So there is a religious authority and elected institutions side by side. But the elected officials are limited by the religious authority.

So let's talk about the different parts of the government for a second. The religious authority is the Ayatollah and the Guardian Council. And the Guardian Council is very powerful. It has 12 members, and they make sure that all laws passed by the parliament, the Majlis, with Sharia law and Iran's constitution. They also control who can run for office in presidential and parliamentary elections. Terms for the Guardian Council are six years, but they're often renewed.

They also control who could run for the Assembly of Experts. Now, the Assembly of Experts is the group that chooses the Ayatollah. They are a group of 88 high-ranking Islamic scholars. And they are elected by the public, but again... All candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council and the Supreme Leader before elections. Members serve eight-year terms, and this was created after the revolution to make sure that Iran's leadership always stayed true to its religious foundations.

Supreme Leader dies or steps down, they would choose a new one. Or if a Supreme Leader needed to be replaced, they would remove him. Now, we talked about the religious authority. Let's talk about the elected body. The elected body includes the president, his cabinet. and the Parliament, the Majlis.

The Majlis has 299, sorry, 290 members, and they are elected for four-year terms. They are the legislative branch. They make the laws. The president is elected for four-year terms and can't serve more than two consecutive terms. very similar to the United States. For public elections, like for the president, all citizens age 18 and older can vote.

Not all government officials are elected, but those who are, again, are approved by the Guardian Council ahead of time. And they must show loyalty to the state, to the Supreme Leader. And many, many candidates are disqualified before. four elections even begin because of this. For example, in June 2021, it is said that the Guardian Council approved only seven of 592 applicants.

who is an Iranian activist, said, quote, Iran is unique in the region for having competitive elections. Throughout most of the Middle East, dictators either didn't hold elections at all or held far. events ignored by their people in which they won 99.9% of the vote. In Iran, there is enough political rivalry and enough of a constitutional mandate for an electoral process that elections draw a reasonable

And rarely since the 1979 revolution has the result been wholly or even partially known beforehand. Iran's elections have largely been clean, if only because the process of vetting candidates is itself dirty. High clerical authorities vet candidates and permit only those figures they consider acceptable to make it onto the ballot. end of quote. I also would add that after the revolution,

Many of the mullahs, again, those are religious leaders, became quite rich. So some of them would go from riding donkeys in the 1970s to driving Mercedes in the 1980s. So there's definitely corruption in the system. There's also a powerful judiciary in Iran. The head of the judiciary is appointed by the supreme leader, serves a five-year term, this can be renewed, and oversees the entire legal system. So major influence.

There are different courts in Iran, just like in most places. I'm not going to go into each one. But essentially, judges are chosen, not elected. And they are expected to be experts in Sharia law and uphold the state ideology. Regional judges are chosen by the head. of the judiciary. They are always male. Female judges were barred in the early days of the revolution.

Judges are extremely powerful in Iran and it's not terribly uncommon for there to be unfair trials, forced confessions, torture-based convictions, especially in the courts that handle political dissent. High profile judges are often clerics closely tied to the Revolutionary Guard or to other hardliner political factions. So with this background knowledge of the government structure, let's look at 1980 with the history.

and how it affected Iranians and their normal lives. We talked about this at the end of part two, but here are just a few ways that life changed in Iran post-revolution. Freedom of the press became limited. The Revolutionary Guard became more of a police force who had and still have immense power over people's lives. Reza Aslan, an Iranian, writes, quote, The Revolutionary Guard is in the military.

Imagine if the military, the FBI, the CIA and the mafia were one organization. That's the Revolutionary Guard and they control everything. End of quote. So rules about modesty for women's clothing changed significantly with the revolution requiring hijabs. That's the headscarf that covers the hair. So requiring hijabs publicly and in some places, the chador, which covers everything except the...

woman's face became much, much more popular. Within a few years, the guidance patrol, sometimes called the morality police, held the power to stop people on the street if their dress or public behavior was judged. improper. If you were stopped, you could get a warning. You could be taken to a re-education class or given a fine, sent to the courts, or even arrested. This is also still true today. Though I'm going to talk about how it has changed over time at the end of the episode.

Right after the revolution, curfews were installed in many cities. For example, Tehran had a curfew in 1981, and many men and women were not allowed to mix publicly in spaces as they had prior to the revolution. So in the 1980s, we have people who are questioning the new government. They don't want to follow the new rules or they're from a minority group. They disagree in some way. We now have women being picked up by the modesty police. We have people that are out past curfew.

you know, what happens to these people if they disagree? Well, many were arrested, usually not given due process, and sometimes they were taken to prison and even executed. Evan Prison is the most notorious prison in Iran. And many Iranians began living in a state of fear and hoping not to go there, hoping to get out of Iran. And as they get out of Iran, the world becomes more and more aware of

human rights abuses that were happening in Iran at the time. And one of the abuses that was leaked was the systemic raping of girls in these prisons, especially in Evan prison. There were reports from Iranians of how guards at the prison would rape virgins before they were executed because they believed that virgins are sent straight to heaven. And because these women or girls had broken some rule...

theoretically, that's why they were brought in, however arbitrary the rule may have been. The belief was that they didn't deserve heaven, so they would rape them. And I read many books on the 1979 revolution, and this came up so many times, I just felt like I couldn't. I couldn't leave it out So that's a heavy, heavy part of the revolution. So we can see here that the 1979 revolution led to the transfer of power from one authoritarian to another, just a different brand. Universities closed.

Western influences were purged from academia. Thousands of students and faculty were expelled, weakening Iran's intellectual and economic capacity. And again,

many people were trying to get out of Iran. And in the middle of all of this upheaval and change came September of 1980, when the next door neighbor, Iraq, bombs. Iranian airfields. And this started the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted for the next eight years, 1980 to 1988.

Now, Saddam Hussein was the ruler of Iraq at the time, and he was not a fan of Ayatollah Khomeini. No one is quite sure why Iraq bombed Iran. Everything is pretty speculative, but here are some of the different theories. One theory is that Saddam was concerned So Elton Daniel writes, quote,

from Iran, throughout the world, was enshrined in the preamble to the Iranian constitution. And Saddam Hussein was genuinely concerned that Iran would export its revolution by stirring up trouble among the Iraqi Shia population. End of quote.

There's also a theory that there were land disputes. Iraq claimed that Iran had violated a provision about the borders. These disputes were longstanding. They've been going on a long time. It's a possibility. There had also been issues with Saddam Hussein's military. worried about a coup to take him out. So starting a war with Iran would keep his military busy.

Some of it may have been just revenge against Iran. Iran and Iraq had not been friends for a long time at this point. And Iran had just been through a revolution and had destroyed its relationship with the United States and with the West because of the hostage. crisis. And it also had internal strife. So Iran was a fragile state at the moment, which is typically a good time for a war from Saddam Hussein's perspective.

Whatever the motives, an eight-year war ensued, which led to even more Iranians fleeing the country. In fact, most of the Iranians I know or have read about left Iran during the revolution or during the Iran-Iraq war. So it's estimated that somewhere between one to two million Iranians

left in the post-revolution era and were mostly religious minorities intellectuals students former elites anyone who feared the new regime and had the money to get out or had the money to get out because of the war The many that have left Iran cannot go back or they go back infrequently. For example, there are roughly 1.9 million Iranian Americans living in the U.S. today, and about half of them actually live in greater Los Angeles, southern California.

California has the highest amount of folks with Iranian heritage outside of Iran. And Beverly Hills is said to be somewhere around 15% Iranian American. So fun fact. They're some of the most well-educated of all immigrants, at least in the United States, and the majority of them have college educations and are seen very positively in their communities throughout the world.

But I digress. Back to Iran. The war became the focus of Iranian life for the next eight years. And from what I've read by Iranian authors like Reza Khalili, Khomeini was an expert at using emergencies to his advantage, and he saw the Iran-Iraq War as a reason to unify his nation. So those who fought in the Iran-Iraq War were...

you know, they died, they were called martyrs for the religious cause. And they were viewed as, you know, really really popular and iranians began sheltering in place bombings became a regular occurrence in many areas of the country and toward the middle of the war khomeini started talking about how the war was to get rid of saddam conquer iraq all Muslims against Israel in a bigger, holier war. Iraq really hit Iran hard with attacks on its oil.

which significantly weakened Iran. And this war is especially known for Iraq's use of chemical weapons like mustard gas and deadly... nerve agents to attack Iranian soldiers and civilians, which caused severe burns, breathing problems, long-term issues for Iranians, especially in the oil-rich areas. Also during this war in 1982, Iran started supporting Hezbollah, which is a terrorist group originating in Lebanon. And they did this because Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982.

And Iran saw Israel as their enemy. back then and now. And since then, Iran has continued to fund Hezbollah with billions of dollars, weapons, and training. And Iran has also established itself as very anti-Israel, as we talked about in part two already, and has helped to

fund resistance against Israel. So again, that started to happen. The funding of Hezbollah started to happen in the early 1980s. And if you want to learn more about the history of that, you can listen to my Palestinian-Israeli conflict 101 series. Now, the Iran-Iraq war... ended in a stalemate. It was brokered by the UN in 1988, but both sides...

endured a ton of damage and the leftovers from this war are still with Iran. Again, Shirin Ebadi writes, quote, in most Iranian cities, there is at least one artificial limb shop for the country has second. highest number of landmines in the world studded into its soil. An estimated 16 million mines are left over from the war with Iraq, waiting to explode beneath an unsuspecting farmer or child.

The government has not done nearly enough to address the landmine problem and to cover up this neglect. It also censors news coverage of landmine deaths and mutilations. As a result, most Iranians who live outside the worst afflicted regions have little idea. End of quote. To this day, there are still activists working on removing the landmines in Iran.

But during the 1980s, we basically saw Iran just barely surviving economically during the war, billions lost in damages and oil revenue with heavy rationing and centralized economic planning and price controls. the 1980s in Iran was a war economy, and this was a very difficult time to live in Iran, with many being pushed into unimaginable and traumatic situations.

But in 1989, right after the Iran-Iraq war officially ended, Ayatollah Khomeini dies. And he is succeeded by Ali Khamenei. I know that's kind of confusing. Khomeini was the first Ayatollah and Khamenei is the second Ayatollah. He is still the supreme leader. He is 86 years old. in June of 2025. So he's the new Ayatollah. And in 1989, a man named Rafsanjani is elected president.

And he begins focusing on post-war reconstruction and economic stability, which, again, Iran did not have. And Iran began focusing on its nuclear program. Iran had had a nuclear program in the 60s and 70s under the Shah. You'll remember that the Shah wanted to make Iran powerful and modern. And one of his beliefs was that one day Iran would run out of oil. So nuclear power to generate electricity...

would be important. And he signed a deal with Germany to build a nuclear power plant and the U.S. supported Iran's peaceful nuclear ambitions. And in 1968, they signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that promised to not build nuclear weapons. This was just going to be for peaceful civilian use. But then the revolution happened, 79. And then the Iran-Iraq war happened, 80 to 88.

And Iran's policies changed. They became more anti-Western, and Western support for nuclear power was completely cut off. Nuclear scientists fled the country. Most projects were abandoned. But after the war, when Iran began rebuilding itself, it wanted to bring back its nuclear... program. This time, it decided to work with Russia, and they began building secret facilities such as Natanz,

which is a uranium enrichment site, which works to make uranium more powerful. And Arak, which is a heavy water reactor that can be used to make plutonium, which could be used to make a bomb. Side note. Uranium needs to be enriched to about 3% to 5% for civilian energy, but to make bombs, it needs to be enriched to about 90%, okay? So again, these sites were secret.

They weren't building a bomb necessarily, but they were building the knowledge and machines that they would need if they ever decided to go for a bomb. Iran said this was peaceful. that most of this was just to meet a growing electricity demand, to diversify its energy sources, and to provide oil and gas reserves.

Likely true that those things were happening, but the secrecy is what looks suspicious, especially because during the early 1990s, there was growing optimism around the world about a Palestinian-Israeli peace talk that was going on. But Supreme Leader Khomeini saw these peace talks as a Western-backed betrayal of Palestinian resistance and opposed them.

And it began ramping up support for anti-Israel proxy groups like Hezbollah and began to focus even more on becoming fully independent, especially with its nuclear ambitions. So its nuclear capabilities seem... to be multifaceted. Yes, for energy, also a deterrent to regional threats, as well as regional defiance against the West.

When Johann Rall received the letter on Christmas Day 1776, he put it away to read later. Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside. But what it actually was, was a warning, delivered to the Hessian Colonel, letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces.

The next day, when Raw lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two Colonial Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found, unopened, in his vest pocket. As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson there. Oh well, this is The Constant, a history of getting things wrong. I'm Mark Chrysler. Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents that misshaped our world. Find us at constantpodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Every Thursday, I tell the tale behind a new odd discovery, like how researchers found two mysterious structures surrounding Earth's core, or how it's actually possible to stop hiccups using a rectal massage. Yes. There's a story behind that, no pun intended. And I tell the story because storytelling is the perfect way to learn and remember. The facts are bizarre, the stories are epic, and the laughter is plentiful. So join the flock.

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In 1995, the U.S. imposed its first major sanctions, mostly focused on Iran's oil and gas sector, to punish Iran for supporting terrorism, its human rights abuses and early concerns about nuclear activity. And in 1997, a reformist named Mohammed Khatami won the presidency in Iran with wide youth and urban support. And he governed more moderately, focusing more on women's rights. one of his vice presidents be a woman.

He relaxed government control on print media and even spoke out on behalf of previously oppressed minorities like the Kurds. He was willing to play ball with the West, especially the United States. So things loosened up a little bit in the late 1990s. 90s and into the 2000s. For example, Iran was more sympathetic to the U.S. after 9-11 than many other Middle Eastern countries were. They were a little bit more liberalized under Katami and were more open-minded.

than maybe their other Middle Eastern counterparts. They held like candlelight vigils in solidarity with the U.S. after the attack, for example. Katami won re-election in 2001 with 77% of the vote, but religious conservative forces continued to limit and block many of his reforms, which led to many student protests.

Also in the 1990s, Iran started backing the Houthis. Now the Houthis are a Shia Muslim rebel group based in Yemen, and they have been fighting for control of Yemen, and they still are today. And Iran has backed them. since the 90s, especially in 2014, starting in 2014. So again. We have Iran supporting Hezbollah since the 80s. Now they're adding the Houthis. Economically speaking, the 90s were focused on reconstruction, education, energy, and some privatization of the economy began to happen.

but it was limited. There was some foreign investment in Iran, especially from Asia and Europe during the 90s. Oil prices stayed low, but inflation was still pretty high. All right, let's look at the 2000s now. So in 2002, Iranian informants revealed the secret nuclear facilities that we talked about. And alarm bells started ringing. Why were these sites hidden if Iran's program was peaceful? That was the idea.

Now, there is an agency specially dedicated to inspecting nuclear sites, and it's called the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA. And they got involved. And when Iran started delaying inspections, the world became even more suspicious. Like, what's really going on here? Then President George W. Bush made a speech after 9-11, a couple of months after 9-11, where he lumped Iran with Iraq and North Korea.

and called them the axis of evil. Now, many Iranians felt quite snubbed by this and became much less cooperative with the United States. Now, this may sound kind of confusing because it's not like Iran was exactly cooperative at this time. But what I've learned from reading Iranian authors is that...

Iranians are people of paradox, meaning that individual Iranian attitudes toward the United States and the West don't always align with their government, and their feelings are more complex than what the government shows. So some Iranians, yes, they do resent. the US and see it as a great evil and Europe as well. But many ordinary Iranians have held some respect for Europeans and Americans and have wanted to cooperate and be friends. You'll remember that many wanted to get out and to live in

Western countries. So this axis of evil comment was ostracizing for many Iranians.

Then, in 2005, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes the new president of Iran. Interestingly enough, he was the first president without clerical training. which is why many people voted for him. And he returned to more conservative laws, a step away from the previous reforms. Women were again being arrested more frequently by the morality police.

Activists were getting more arrested and there was more and more power given to the Revolutionary Guard. Freedom of speech, freedom to reform was again limited and enforced and tensions with the West escalated again. And as oil prices were higher.

The Iranian GDP grew from selling to other nations, but unfortunately a lot of the windfall from this oil money was not used efficiently, and there were more populist policies like massive cash handouts and subsidies that ended up hurting the economy in the long run. And then on the nuclear front, in 2006, Iran refused to stop its uranium enrichment.

So the UN Security Council imposed its first multilateral sanctions, and the sanctions grew tougher for the next few years, targeting Iran's banking systems. arms purchases, and key parts of the economy like oil exports. And Iran was losing billions in oil revenues from these sanctions. Then in 2009, there was another election and Ahmadinejad was elected again.

And there were huge protests around this because he was not anticipated to have won. Every book that I read talked about how this election was extremely suspicious. The votes were tallied so fast and it had been so unlikely. that he would win. Because remember, he was a hardliner. So there were a lot of protests and upheaval in 2009 over his election. And this is called the Green Movement.

Whether it was rigged or not, thousands of people protested the election results, and this was the biggest protest movement Iran had seen since the revolution. The green movement was stomped out, however, because it was mostly only in the cities. It didn't spread to the whole country. country at large. The rural poor weren't involved as mostly urban youth. But it's estimated that 5 to 15,000 people were detained for involvement with these protests. That's a lot of people.

And the violence against the Green Movement was so strong that it was unsuccessful at creating the change that protesters wanted. Not to mention that the state television and radio... So the Iranian ran stuff, the stuff run by the government, didn't cover it at all or covered it in a very distorted way.

Iranians figured this out, and so they began to turn to satellite TV networks to get their news. And activist Shireen Ebadi writes, quote, Iranians had always watched networks like BBC Persia or Voice of America's Persian. But the viewership figures for both networks had jumped after 2009.

angering the Iranian regime and prompting it to scramble the network satellite signals more aggressively than in the past, end of quote. So basically, they were very interested in stopping Iranians from hearing the news from other sources than themselves. From the Green Movement and its aftermath, Ibadi writes, quote, The Islamic Republic learned a lesson. It learned that global public opinion could be mobilized and mounted to apply pressure to its behaviors on the world stage.

It learned that it couldn't freely target global satellites hovering in the sky to enact its censorship. And I suppose it learned, dangerously enough for me, that I could effectively work for and demand accountability for Iranians' rights even from exile. But of course, the Islamic Republic, even when chastened, finds new ways to renew its purpose, cutting its citizens off from outside information.

When it realized it could not hold up an iron curtain shielding Iran from satellite signals, it installed mobile stations throughout the country's cities that did the same thing, only on the ground level. Instead of targeting the satellite waves as they bore down from the sky, these stations intercepted the waves just above Iranians' houses.

Iranians' concerns about the health impact of this interference over the city grew by the day newspapers published anxious pieces, and senior officials, including a vice president and the director of the Department of the Environment, spoke publicly about the medical... risks of terrestrial jamming. This soon became a key issue of public debate and concern. The fact that the state was jeopardizing Iranians' health in order to censor what they could

watch on television. This, too, proved that my work outside the country could still have a great impact on the government and what people inside the country were thinking and talking about. End of quote. So here we have yet another example of a powerful regime restricting the media and going to extreme lengths to do it, much like many other countries that we've studied so far. So again, that's something to watch for with authoritarian governments.

From 2012 to 2015, the U.S. and EU coordinated massive sanctions that crippled Iran's oil exports and cut Iranian banks off from the global financial messaging system. So even more sanctions. And obviously, investment and trade with Iran was heavily restricted. The rial, which is Iran's currency, lost over 60 percent of its value. And hyperinflation and unemployment soared during this time. In 2013, Hassan Rouhani, more of a moderate,

won the presidency. Part of the reason for this was because of sanctions. Sanctions have typically hit middle class and working Iranians the hardest. And while Iran's leaders blamed the West, many Iranians were blaming their own government for the stubborn and lack of transparency. And Rouhani was more willing to work on a deal with the hope of lowering sanctions.

Hopefully you can see by now that Iran has kind of had a teeter-totter. It's gone back and forth between more conservative presidents to more reformist moderate presidents over the years. And when I'm talking about conservatives and moderates, I'm talking about this... from an Iranian viewpoint. Remember that all of these candidates were vetted and approved by the Guardian Council, which means that their values align with

with the theocracy, right? So always keep that in mind, that while the president has power, the supreme leader and unelected bodies still control key policy areas, many areas of foreign policy in the military. So again, it's a complicated political scene. But in 2015, after years of negotiations, a deal was made to limit Iranian nuclear activity. And this was called the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The goal was to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons while lifting international sanctions that were crippling its economy. It was signed by Iran and a group of world powers known as the P5 plus one. That's the United States United. Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany. And the Obama administration is credited as the major negotiator of this deal. The UN also supported it.

The deal has a lot of commitments, which you are welcome to look up, but essentially Iran committed to cut its uranium enrichment so that it cannot be weapons-grade level. And it agreed to change many of its nuclear facilities so they could not create weapons, limit what could be built, and allow the IAEA full access to their sites for surveillance and to regularly report and comply.

In return, sanctions would be lifted in oil exports, banking and finance, shipping, and $100-plus billion in frozen assets would again be accessible. They also could re-enter some international markets. Obviously, that's the short and sweet version, but it was a very controversial deal. In theory, it would prevent a bomb, reduce tensions, and hopefully improve daily life for Iranians. Critics claimed that it had...

too many sunset clauses, which means that some of the deals expired after 10 to 15 years. Critics also argued that it didn't address Iran's missile program. or its support of terrorist groups in the region, and that there were also some loopholes, like they could delay inspections for 24 days. But with the deal signed, oil exports rebounded, and the economy briefly improved for Iran.

Then, in May of 2018, about three years after the deal, the Trump administration fully exited the JCPOA, or the nuclear deal. Donald Trump called it, quote, a horrible one-sided deal that should never have been made, end of quote. Now, their reasons were the sunset clauses, the deal didn't limit Iran's development of ballistic missiles, the support of proxy groups in the area.

Iran's ability to delay inspections, and Trump felt that reimposing steep sanctions could force Iran to negotiate a better deal. The five remaining members of the deal, remember they signed it to oppose the U.S. withdrawal. The U.K., France and Germany tried to salvage the deal. Little luck. Russia and China condemned it.

and deepened their economic and military ties with Iran. By the way, China buys about 90% of Iran's oil, just for reference. The U.S. began imposing all of the sanctions from before and even added some new ones. With the withdrawal of the U.S., Iran began violating the terms of the deal pretty quickly. And by 2023, the EU began gradually reinstating sanctions as well. For Iranians, inflation

and shortages of goods returned. Inflation since 2024, so in the last year or two, has been somewhere between 35 to 40 percent. To give this some context, Inflation in the United States has tended toward 2%, 2 to 3%. And when it rose to 7 or 8% in 2021, people were freaking out. So imagine 35 to 40%. inflation or even higher at some moments. So now we know from studying other nations on this podcast that inflation leads to fuel and power shortages.

like blackouts. More people lose their jobs, which means there's more sitting around, which means more protests over poverty or more involvement. and terrorist groups. And in the case of Iran, there was also more interest over women's rights, which we'll get to in a minute. And in 2019, there were protests over fuel prices that led to the deaths of over 1,500 people. Activists have been put into exile. They live in safe houses. Their family and friends are thrown into prison.

One of the main things I want to make sure we take away here though is that Iran's economy has had a rough time since the 1980s. There have been pockets of relief, but really not that much when you're looking at the bigger picture. And then in 2021, a more conservative hardliner named Ebrahim Raisi becomes president. Again, the pendulum swings more conservative, and he was known for increasing censorship and state control over civil society. While he was president,

The nation went through a crucial moment with the Masa Amini protests, which I'm going to talk about in a minute when I talk about women's rights. But Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May 2024. Very foggy day. The helicopter crashed into a mountainside. There have been some suspicions of foul play, but no evidence has surfaced. And a snap election was held to replace him.

and a more reformist moderate became president, and he is still president today in June 2025. His name is Masoud Pezeshkin, and he has shown interest in improving ties with the West and opening up nuclear negotiations, though again, Just want to reiterate that the supreme leader and unelected bodies still control many key policy areas, and this man was also vetted by these people before running for president.

So now that we've established kind of the political and economic timeline of Iran through 2024, let's talk about life for Iranians over the last 45 years since the 1980s. What has life looked like? How has it changed over time?

because there are 92 million people living there and we can talk about high-level politics all day. But the truth is that most people in the world are ordinary people just trying to make enough money to live, care for their families, feed their families, live their faith. So let's talk about that for a little bit.

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Just like in many countries, Iran has big cities as well as rural country towns and villages. And urban life in Iran has metro systems, access to the internet, fast food. People typically work in sectors like finance, IT, government, education, health care. some more westernized lifestyle trends are emerging, such as a white marriage trend. Now, a white marriage is when an unmarried couple lives together without getting legally married, and this trend is growing among young people in big cities.

who want more freedom and can't always afford or commit to a traditional marriage. These relationships are illegal under Iranian law, and government leaders strongly oppose them, creating serious social and legal risks for the couples involved. But it is a thing. For women, the headscarf or the hijab is mandatory in public, regardless of your religion. And this includes religious minorities like Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians.

these women must wear the hijab or risk problems with the morality police. Urban youth tend to push the boundaries a little bit more, like they'll wear their hijabs looser. The government uses tools like cameras, drones, even phone apps to monitor dress, and people can get text warnings or fines if they don't follow the rules.

In contrast, rural areas are much more conservative. Women are more likely to wear a full body covering like the cheddar. And local police or community leaders strongly enforce traditional dress codes. Even small rule breaking can lead to public shaming. or even arrest.

Now, these differences exist because cities tend to be younger and more influenced by global fashion and media, while rural areas stick more closely to older customs and more traditional religious values. Rural areas have more limited access to the amenities. of the cities typically with older homes, people working in farming, livestock, small-scale trades. However, Iran has seen some drought and water scarcity in the last few decades which has led to more people migrating to the cities.

Iran's literacy rate is pretty high. Around 89% of Iranians can read and write. And in the cities, this number is even higher. Both women and men are encouraged to go to school. And Iran has one of the highest female literacy rates in the region. of the population lives below the poverty line. And this is believed to be due to rampant inflation. Again, that has varied throughout the years, but it's really squeezed the Iranians.

people's lifestyle options. And prices for staples like cooking oil and rice and vegetables have all sharply increased in the last year and the years before that too, since food inflation in Iran is the second highest globally. which has made life really difficult for Iranians. In 2020, an Iran Wire report recounted how the price of a simple omelet, which is like a breakfast staple, has become a real burden for many families.

A humble meal now feels like a luxury. Bread prices have also doubled in recent years.

Let's talk about minority groups for a second. Iran officially accepts four religious minorities, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and Sunni Muslims. But today Iran is... not really known for its tolerance, like it once was when we talked about in part one, Persian Empire used to be known for its tolerance. No more. There are roughly 300,000 Christians in Iran, usually Armenian and Assyrian churches.

Though there's unofficial numbers that Christianity is growing in Iran, Christians are reserved one seat in parliament out of the 290. People who are born Christian receive less persecution than the people who convert to Christianity, who are at higher risk of surveillance and arrest. And Christian services are not to be in Persian, but they can be held in other languages.

is also a small Jewish population in Iran now, and state protections do exist, though public anti-Semitic rhetoric is popular in Iran. One religious group, the Baha'is, is especially poorly treated in Iran and is not recognized. even though the largest group of Baha'is live in Iran, and the religion originated there hundreds of years ago. They are considered heretics by the state, and the state prevents Baha'i people from holding government jobs, denies them licenses for business,

It's very difficult for a Baha'i to get a lawyer in Iran. Also, being gay or lesbian is illegal in Iran, and sexual activity between same-sex partners is a crime under Sharia law. For men, the punishment is the death penalty. For women, it is... is flogging. Arrests and torture are very common and there are no laws protecting LGBTQ plus people in Iran and authorities have used dating apps to catch people, according to Iranians that have leaked that information.

One of the most contentious social debates in Iran over the last 46 years is over the status of women. And as we talked about earlier, Sharia law, as it is interpreted in Iran, is the law of the land. M-A-H-R-A-M is a close relative that a woman cannot marry. So like a father, a brother, a son, an uncle, right? A non-maram.

is a man that's not closely related, like a coworker, a stranger, a neighbor. And as it is interpreted in Iran, a non-Mahram, again, that's unrelated, cannot be alone in private, touch, dress immodestly, or flirt outside of marriage. So what does this look like in practice? Starting in 1980, women were segregated in many schools and required to wear Islamic standard dresses. Today, this is still true through high school. Boys and girls typically attend separate schools.

or are taught separately, even if on the same campus. They also have gender differentiated textbooks. where boys learn math and science and girls learn more of the humanities. This socialization of boys and girls separately has caused many students to push back, organizing protests within the last few years. Some urban youth even risk hanging out together publicly.

Gender separation is not just in schools. It's also in public. Buses are divided into two parts, typically, where men get on and off through the front door and women are let on and off and sit in the back. Women are to be fully covered while on the bus, and in some areas, they're not allowed to ride on buses with men at all. In 2021, Tehran announced female-only buses in 2021.

Beaches are also segregated by gender in Iran and often have a roped off or curtained area for women only. If you want to buy bread in Iran, there are separate lines for men and women that will prevent touching or looking of non-models. It is also a problem for the opposite sex to shake hands. For example, in 2023, a famous Iranian wrestler shook hands with a non-Mahram and the scene was censored on national TV channels.

So the intensity of the enforcement of these rules seems to ebb and flow based on the president. Some presidents have been a little looser. Some have been a little more strict. Under Sharia law, adultery is punishable by death. In the early days of the revolution in the 80s, people, most often women, were stoned to death. Or in other words, rocks were thrown at them until they died for adultery. In 2002, the formal law got rid of stoning and just put in the death penalty.

Stonings are now very rare, but there have been cases as late as 2022 where a death penalty was given for adultery. At the beginning of the revolution, birth control was also very difficult to come by. However, in the 90s and 2000s, Iran began pushing birth control and contraceptives. A few of the many marriage rules in Iran are... that a man can marry up to four women at one time, and women can only marry one husband.

A woman also needs a male guardian's consent, either her father or paternal grandfather, to marry. And in 1979, the government lowered the age of marriage for women from 18 to 13. In 1982... They lowered it further to age nine. So in 1982, nine years old was the youngest a girl could be married in Iran legally. In 2002, the Majlis raised the age of marriage back to 13 for girls and 15 for boys, which is where we're still today.

Until 2002, a woman could only get a divorce in court with a judge's order, while a man could get divorced by declaring it out loud. And in 2002, the Parliament amended the law to allow a woman to divorce her husband if he were imprisoned, mentally ill, physically ill, abusive or an addict. One part about Iranian law that I find very interesting is it allows for two types of marriage, conventional or permanent.

and temporary. And one of the books that I read, I've been quoting her for some time, was written by Shirin Ebadi, and it's called Until We Are Free. And she was a judge under the Shah. and then was stripped of that title with the New Islamic Republic. And since she was still a lawyer, she began to work pro bono for free.

on human and women's rights cases in Iran. She was threatened constantly, wiretapped, spied on, put into prison, and she's now living in exile. But what I learned from her book was she talked about something called Sige. And she talked about temporary marriage. So I'm going to read a quote from her, quote, under Sige, which is S-I-G-H-E-H. Under Sige, the duration of the marriage is determined in advance. It could be as short as an hour.

or as long as a decade. If a child is born under a sige marriage, he or she is a rightful child, with all legal entitlements from both parents. When the sige expires, the married couple should separate unless the arrangement is mutually extended. The practice has existed in Iran for centuries and is primarily intended to determine

and regulate paternity should a woman become pregnant, but it is shunned by younger and less traditional Iranians who see it as an archaic religious loophole that effectively legalizes prostitution. End quote. So what I'm understanding from this is that basically you can get permission from a cleric to have a temporary marriage in Iran for an hour or longer than that, and then the marriage is disbanded. Huh. Polygamy is legal, but highly unpopular, especially among...

the urban and educated classes, is only common in rural communities and also among clerical families and elite conservative circles and in the older generations. Women's freedom to travel, again, has been limited throughout the decades as well. married woman can apply for and get a passport, travel abroad on her own, but married women need permission from their husband. That is written into Iran's civil code.

Some women negotiate travel rights into their marriage contracts that allow them to bypass this restriction. And in just 2019, Parliament passed a law allowing women to marry foreign men. and request Iranian citizenship for their children under the age of 18.

There's so much that we could talk about all of this. Ways people have worked around the rules. People have worked to enforce the rules. But I think this gives a good taste for just our foundational 101 purposes to see that being a woman in Iran is a different experience.

many other parts of the world. So let's go back to the history for a second. Now that we know that the economy in the last few years in Iran has been especially struggling, shortages, blackouts, joblessness, last five years have been tough. In September of 2022, a girl named Masa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, was arrested by Iran's morality police in Tehran. She was allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.

And witnesses reported that she was beaten in custody and she fell into a coma and died three days later. The government blamed her death on a heart condition, which was kind of hard to believe considering her age. She was 22. It sparked widespread disbelief and outrage, and she quickly became a symbol of resistance.

particularly for women, but also for other groups as well, against Iran's strict laws and broader repression. So 2022 saw the most widespread protest movements in Iran since the revolution. The Green Movement was a big one, and this was bigger. Protesters chanted, women, life, freedom, and called for justice, not only for masa, but for greater personal freedoms and for regime accountability. And the government responded with crackdowns.

They deployed riot police, used live ammunition, detained thousands, dozens were killed in the early days. The Internet was repeatedly shut down to prevent organizing. It's now estimated that 448 protesters were killed and about 18,000. people were arrested during these demonstrations.

It seems that this movement energized Iranians across classes and ethnic groups. And while the regime repressed much of the unrest, it left a lasting impact on Iran's political and social landscape. Then in October of 2023.

The longstanding conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis exploded when Hamas surprise attacked southern Israel. And Iran had been deeply involved in supporting Hamas leading up to this attack. They gave combat training to Hamas fighters as well. weapons, logistical assistance money. It's estimated that Iran has financially backed Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly more.

This isn't news. Iran has been very vocal in its opposition to Israel for a long time. We talked about how it has supported these anti-Israel proxies for a very long time. Israel has also conducted many covert operations over the years against Iran. cyber attacks, airstrikes, assassinations, mostly aimed at Iran's nuclear scientists and trying to take out key military figures. Twice in 2024, Iran launched drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles.

Israel, which Israel retaliated. Iran also started enriching its uranium to 60%, which is much more than is needed for civilian energy. Then, on June 13th, 2025, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, which targeted Iran's nuclear facilities and killed many commanders and nuclear scientists. And Iran responded by sending hundreds of soldiers to Iran.

of ballistic missiles and drones. Over to Israel. Civilian casualties and infrastructure damages are still mounting. On June 21st, the United States got involved by bombing three different nuclear sites. The world is poised to see, will it escalate? Will it de-escalate? I think it's anyone's game at this point, and the situation is...

ongoing. I'm not a commentator on current events. There are many other people who are out there doing that. And again, it's changing hourly, so I'm going to stop there. But what I hope you got out of this Iran series is historical context. The background you need to be able to to have more intelligent nuanced perspectives on what's currently happening and to be able to see it more historically as we look to the future some things i think are wise to keep in mind when iran comes up

are first, since the leader of Iran is also a very important leader in Shia Islam around the world, this means that countries that have a lot of Shia Muslims tend to be allies with Iran. But again, relationships have friction. And sometimes they have good relationships, sometimes they don't. For example, Iraq has a high Shia population.

but has not always had good relationships with Iran. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have historically been rival states with Iran, and many countries in the region are not very friendly with it. So just be aware and careful. not to clump all Middle Eastern countries together because I think that would be a big mistake. The second thing is that Iran again has fought many proxy wars in the Middle East by funding particular groups. For example, they supported

President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war. They even sent Revolutionary Guard forces to help Hezbollah fight with Assad's forces. So it has been a big regional power. And Iran leverages that power. Iran is viewed as a crucial ally in what is called the axis of resistance against Israel and Western influence in the Middle East. Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, the Houthis, and more are all aligned with keeping... Western influence out, and Iran is part of that.

Relations between the US, the UK, and the EU have been tense for a long time, like chanting death to America is not uncommon by regime hardliners in Iran, but its partnerships with Russia and China I think are worth keeping an eye on.

Internally, there is a divide between hardliners of the regime and political moderates and young people, women, city folk are growing more and more assertive as access to the Internet and social media have made for more knowledge of the world. So I think keeping an eye on that is also going to. be something important as we look toward Iran's future.

Okay, I'm going to stop there. I feel like we just completed a marathon and also barely scratched the surface. If you would like to see this entire episode laid out for you in a timeline study guide, just to visually map it out. go to patreon.com slash wiserworldpodcast. And we have one for you. I hope it helps you to visually see what we learned.

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