1.
Mehdi Bazargan
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Mehdi Bazargan was an Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Irans interim government, making him Irans first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He resigned his position as minister in November 1979, in protest of the US Embassy takeover. He was the head of the first engineering department of University of Tehran, Bazargan was born into an Azeri family in Tehran on 1 September 1907. His father, Hajj Abbasqoli Tabrizi was a merchant and a religious activist in Bazaar guilds. Bazargan was sent by the government to France to receive university education as a scholar of the Reza Shah scholarship fund and he studied thermodynamics and engineering at the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. After his graduation, Bazargan voluntarily joined the French army and fought against Nazi Germany, Bazargan then came back from France and became the head of the first engineering department at Tehran University in the late 1940s. He was a deputy minister under Premier Mohammad Mossadeq in the 1950s, Bazargan served as the first Iranian head of the National Iranian Oil Company under the administration of Prime Minister Mossadegh. Bazargan co-founded the Liberation Movement of Iran in 1961, a party similar in its program to Mossadeghs National Front, although he accepted the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the legitimate head of state, he was jailed several times on political grounds. On 4 February 1979, Bazargan was appointed minister of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini. Although pious, Bazargan initially disputed the name Islamic Republic, wanting an Islamic Democratic Republic, in March 1979, he submitted his resignation due to his governments lack of power to Ayatollah Khomeini. However, Khomeini did not accept his resignation, in April 1979, he and the members of cabinet escaped an assassination attempt. Bazargan resigned along with his cabinet on 4 November 1979 following the US Embassy takeover, Bazargan continued in Iranian politics as a member of the first Parliament of the newly formed Islamic Republic. He openly opposed Irans cultural revolution and continued to advocate civil rule, in November 1982, he expressed his frustration with the direction the Islamic Revolution had taken in an open letter to the then speaker of parliament Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The government has created an atmosphere of terror, fear, revenge and his term as a member of parliament lasted until 1984. During his term, he served as a lawmaker of the Iran Freedom Movement, in 1985, the Council of Guardians denied Bazargans petition to run for president. He opposed the continuation of the Iran–Iraq War and the involvement of clerics in all aspects of politics, economy, consequently, he faced harassment from militants and young revolutionaries within Iran. Bazargan believes that there is a link and relation between politics and religion but not hokumat, during the Pahlavi era, Bazargans house in Tehran was bombed on 8 April 1978. The underground committee for revenge, an organization, proclaimed the responsibility of the bombing
2.
Sadeq Tabatabaei
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Sadeq Tabatabaei was an Iranian writer, journalist, TV host, university professor at the University of Tehran and politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1979 to 1980. He was also Deputy Minister of the Interior and oversaw the referendum on establishing an Islamic Republic in March 1979 and he was Irans Ambassador to West Germany from 1982 until 1986. Tabatabaei was born on 12 December 1943 in the city of Qom and he was the son of Ayatollah Mohammad-Bagher Tabatabaei and nephew of Musa al-Sadr. His sister, Fatemeh was married to Ahmad Khomeini, son of Ruhollah Khomeini, after completing his elementary education, he moved to Germany along with his uncle, Musa al-Sadr and began studying in chemistry at Ruhr University Bochum. After graduating, he became a professor at the university and also a member of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, in 1961, Sadegh Tabatabai went to Aachen to study biochemistry and later received his doctorate from the University of Bochum. While in Aachen, he organized a student group that campaigned against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1967, he handled Ulrike Meinhof material about Iran, which was used in a famous column in Konkret magazine opposing the Shahs visit to West Germany that year. During studying, he met with Mehdi Bazargan and joined his party and he became a supporter of Ruhollah Khomeini and published many articles about him and his movement in German newspapers. He had served many coordination meetings with Khomeini at Paris, after that, he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister by Mehdi Bazargan just hours before his resignation. He was also spokesman of the government and held the post until Mohammad-Ali Rajai became new prime minister. He was also a candidate in the 1980 presidential election, placing fifth among one hundred, by his own admission Tabatabai had been one of eight people in Europe and America, who had prepared revolution abroad and kept in contact with Khomeini. From 1979 to 1982, Tabatabai worked in government offices, first as deputy interior minister. From November 1979 to September 1980 he served as Secretary of State in the Prime Ministers office, on 21 March 1980, Tabatabai met Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, to discuss a possible ending of the hostage crisis in Tehran in Bonn in 1980. The conversation remained without concrete results, Tabatabai remained in touch with the German government and informed German authorities of the state of discussions in government and in parliament. This took place on 26 October 1980 in a conversation between Tabatabai and Foreign Minister Genscher, in which Tabatabai informed about the debate in Parliament. On 16 and 18 September 1980 Tabatabai met Foreign Minister Genscher, subsequently he was responsible for the procurement of arms and travelled abroad as a special envoy of the Iranian Government. In this regard, he was involved in arms trade scandals and his status as a special envoy was confirmed in 1983 by the Iranian government. He was also a candidate for 2009 election which he withdrew in favor of Mohsen Rezaee and later became one of his advisers. He was also his deputy manager of campaign in 2013 election, on 21 February 2015, he died in Düsseldorf, Germany, where he had resided for the last six months
3.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
4.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
5.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
6.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
7.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
8.
Tehran
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Tehran is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area, in the Classical era, part of the present-day city of Tehran was occupied by a Median city that in the Avesta occurs as Rhaga. It was destroyed by the Mongols in the early 13th century, the capital has been moved several times throughout the history, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran. The city was the seat of the Qajars and Pahlavis, the two last imperial dynasties of Iran. It is home to historical collections, such as the royal complexes of Golestan, Sadabad. Large scale demolition and rebuilding began in the 1920s, and Tehran has been a destination for the migrations from all over Iran since the 20th century. Tabiat Bridge, which was completed in 2014, is considered the third symbol of the city. There have been plans to relocate Irans capital from Tehran to another area, due mainly to air pollution, to date, no definitive plans have been approved. A2016 survey of 230 cities by consultant Mercer ranked Tehran 203rd for quality of living, according to the Global Destinations Cities Index in 2016, Tehran is among the top ten fastest growing destinations. The origin of the name Tehran is uncertain, the settlement of Tehran dates back over 7,000 years. The present-day city of Tehran was a suburb of an important Median city that was known as Rhaga in Old Persian, in the Avestas Videvdat, Rhaga is mentioned as the twelfth sacred place created by the Ohrmazd. In Old Persian inscriptions, Rhaga appears as a province and it was a major area for the Iranian tribes of Medes and Achaemenids. From Rhaga, Darius the Great sent reinforcements to his father Hystaspes, in some Middle Persian texts, Rhaga is given as the birthplace of Zoroaster, although modern historians generally place the birth of Zoroaster in Khorasan. Derived into Modern Persian as Rey, it now as a city located towards the southern end of the modern-day city of Tehran. Mount Damavand, the highest peak of Iran, which is located near Tehran, is an important location in Ferdowsis Shahname, the long Iranian epic poem that is based on the ancient epics of Iran. It appears in the epics as the birthplace of Manuchehr, the residence of Keyumars, the place where Freydun binds the dragon fiend Aži Dahāka, during the Sassanid era, in 641, Yazdgerd III issued his last appeal to the nation from Rey, before fleeing to Khorasan. Rey was dominated by the Parthian Mihran family, and Siyavakhsh—the son of Mihran the son of Bahram Chobin—who resisted the Muslim Invasion, because of this resistance, when the Arabs captured Rey, they ordered the town to be destroyed and ordered Farrukhzad to rebuild the town anew. In the 9th century, Tehran was a well known village, but less known than the city of Rey, the medieval writer Najm od Din Razi declared the population of Rey about 500,000 before the Mongol Invasion
9.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
10.
Freedom Movement of Iran
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It believes in the separation of church and state, while that political activity should be guided by religious values. Despite being outlawed by the regime in Iran, the group continues to exist. The organization accepts to comply with the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran despite its rejection for Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist and it has been described as a semi-opposition or loyal opposition party. The organizations members have ties to the Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists of Iran. The groups origins go back to the early 1950s right after the 1953 coup détat against the government of Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq and that coup brought down Mossadegh and his colleagues from power and reinstalled the Shah as the dominant force in Iranian politics. The newly installed regime quickly rounded up Mossadeghs closest supporters, outlawing freedom of expression, Mossadegh himself was placed before a military court and sentenced to three years in prison. Under these unfavorable conditions, a group of low-ranking leaders from the Mossadegh era quickly formed an organization calling itself the National Resistance Movement. However, in 1961, Mehdi Bazargan, Mahmud Taleghani, Yadollah Sahabi broke away to form a more religious counterpart to the National Front, but, after a brief period of reform under Prime Minister Ali Amini, the regime cracked down on dissent. Faced with this, the regime sent in the infantry and tanks to crush the riots. Because the FMI had supported the uprising, their group was singled out for harassment, by 1965, all legal forms of dissidence had been done away with, leaving armed violence as the only means of inflicting some sort of damage on the regime. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the FMI operated mostly outside in the country, mainly in the United States, the seemingly omnipresent nature of SAVAK and the stifling police state atmosphere discouraged any sort of major activity inside Iran proper. Until the mid-1970s, those Iranians who had opposed the Shah had been mainly of left-wing or liberal background. But beginning in that decade, thanks partly to the FMI, in January 1978, the pro-regime newspaper Ettelaat published an article accusing Khomeini of being, among other things, a reactionary and British agent. This led to an uprising in the city of Qom. By the end of 1978, the regime of the Shah had all but collapsed under the weight of massive uprisings, in response to the Shahs appointment of Shapour Bakhtiar as prime minister, Khomeini appointed Mehdi Bazargan as head of the provisional government. On Feb.111979, the fell and what became known as the Islamic Republic of Iran took its place. The Islamic Republic of Iran was proclaimed on 1 April 1979 after the results of a referendum in which more than 98% voted for this system. The PG was composed mainly of elements from the FMI, and this period expressed the height of the LMIs influence over Iranian politics, but it was not to last
11.
National Front of Iran
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The National Front of Iran is an opposition political organization in Iran, founded by Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1949. It is the oldest and arguably the largest pro-democracy group operating inside Iran despite the fact that it never was able to recover its prominence in the early 1950s. In 1951, the front formed a government which was deposed by the 1953 Iranian coup détat. Members attempted to revive the front in 1960,1965 and 1977 and it was banned in July 1981 and although officially remains illegal and under constant surveillance, is still active inside Iran. The Shah eventually gave in and promised fair and honest elections, after the sit-in the leaders of the protest formed the National Front and elected Mossadegh to be its chairman. The most important groups in the Front were the Iran Party, the Toilers Party, the National Party, by the mid-1950s, Irans oil assets were owned by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, whose predecessor company bought the concession from William Knox DArcy. DArcy had negotiated the concession in 1901 with Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar, the Shah of Persia, for most of the first half of the twentieth century, Irans oil was the British governments single largest overseas investment,51 percent of the company was owned by the British government. Although AIOC was highly profitable, its Iranian workers were poorly paid, the goal of the National Front was to nationalize Irans oil resources and to counteract British dominance of Irans internal affairs by initiating direct relations with the United States. The National Front became the coalition when it took office in April 1951 with Mosaddegh elected Prime Minister. Mosaddeghs minister of foreign affairs Hosseyn Fâtemi enforced the Oil Nationalization Act, passed by the Majlis in March, the act, reluctantly signed by the shah, called for nationalization of the assets held by AIOC, from which the government of Iran then only received minimal compensation. This led to British counter-moves and the loss of all income during the Abadan Crisis. Following Britains request, U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to overthrow the Mossadegh government in an event known as the 1953 Iranian coup détat. In an atmosphere of repression, several former members of the National Front established an underground network called the National Resistance Movement. This group included future prime ministers Mehdi Bazargan and Shapour Bakhtiar and its aim was to reestablish democracy by campaigning for free and its activities were largely restricted to peacefully distributing flyers and attempting to regulate the 1954 Majlis elections. Under pressure from the state, it fell apart and its aim was to return Mohammad Mossadegh to the premiership and to reestablish the constitutional monarchy. Initially, it seemed as if this organization was gaining in strength, another issue arose over the appointment in April 1961 of Dr. Ali Amini to the premiership. But political turmoil grew worse and in 1962, Amini stepped down from the due to his dispute with the Shah over the formers plans to reduce the military budget. The following year in June 1963, a religious uprising occurred in the cities of Tehran, Qum, Mashad, Shiraz and Varamin
12.
Persian language
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Persian, also known by its endonym Farsi, is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan and it is mostly written in the Persian alphabet, a modified variant of the Arabic script. Its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages, Persian gets its name from its origin at the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persis, hence the name Persian. A Persian-speaking person may be referred to as Persophone, there are approximately 110 million Persian speakers worldwide, with the language holding official status in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. For centuries, Persian has also been a cultural language in other regions of Western Asia, Central Asia. It also exerted influence on Arabic, particularly Bahrani Arabic. Persian is one of the Western Iranian languages within the Indo-European family, other Western Iranian languages are the Kurdish languages, Gilaki, Mazanderani, Talysh, and Balochi. Persian is classified as a member of the Southwestern subgroup within Western Iranian along with Lari, Kumzari, in Persian, the language is known by several names, Western Persian, Parsi or Farsi has been the name used by all native speakers until the 20th century. Since the latter decades of the 20th century, for reasons, in English. Tajiki is the variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan by the Tajiks, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term Persian as a language name is first attested in English in the mid-16th century. Native Iranian Persian speakers call it Fārsi, Farsi is the Arabicized form of Pārsi, subsequent to Muslim conquest of Persia, due to a lack of the phoneme /p/ in Standard Arabic. The origin of the name Farsi and the place of origin of the language which is Fars Province is the Arabicized form of Pārs, in English, this language has historically been known as Persian, though Farsi has also gained some currency. Farsi is encountered in some literature as a name for the language. In modern English the word Farsi refers to the language while Parsi describes Zoroastrians, some Persian language scholars such as Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, and University of Arizona professor Kamran Talattof, have also rejected the usage of Farsi in their articles. The international language-encoding standard ISO 639-1 uses the code fa, as its system is mostly based on the local names. The more detailed standard ISO 639-3 uses the name Persian for the dialect continuum spoken across Iran and Afghanistan and this consists of the individual languages Dari and Iranian Persian. Currently, Voice of America, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty also includes a Tajik service and an Afghan service. This is also the case for the American Association of Teachers of Persian, The Centre for Promotion of Persian Language and Literature, Persian is an Iranian language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages
13.
Interim Government of Iran
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The Interim Government of Iran, was the first government established in Iran after the Iranian Revolution. The government was headed by Mehdi Bazargan, one of the members of the Freedom Movement of Iran, from 4 February to 11 February, Bazargan and Shapour Bakhtiar, the Shahs last Prime Minister, both claimed to be the legitimate prime minister, Bakhtiar fled on 11 February. Mehdi Bazargan was the minister of the interim government and introduced a seven-member cabinet on 14 February 1979. Ebrahim Yazdi was elected as the Foreign Minister, the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran was adopted by referendum on 24 October 1979. The Council of the Islamic Revolution then served as the government until the formation of the first Islamic Consultative Assembly on 12 August 1980. Bazargan was elected to the first Islamic Consultative Assembly representing Tehran, when Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, came back to Iran after his 15-year exile, he appointed Mehdi Bazargan as the head of the interim government. On 4 February 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini issued a decree appointing Bazargan as the minister of The Provisional Islamic Revolutionary Government. It is necessary that you appoint and introduce the members of the government as soon as possible in concordance with the conditions I have clarified. I pray to God for the success of you and your government in this sensitive juncture of our nations history. ’’ — Ruhollah Al-Musavi al-Khomeini. Elaborating further on his decree, Khomeini made it clear that Iranians were commanded to obey Bazargan and that this was a religious duty. As a man who, though the guardianship that I have from the holy lawgiver, I hereby pronounce Bazargan as the Ruler and this is not an ordinary government. It is a government based on the sharia, opposing this government means opposing the sharia of Islam. Revolt against Gods government is a revolt against God, Khomeinis announcement came days before the armys official statement announcing the armys neutrality in conflicts between Khomeinis and Bakhtiars supporters. Bakhtiar fled on the day,11 February, the day that is officially named as Islamic Revolutions Victory Day. The PRG is often described as subordinate to the Revolutionary Council, the cabinet was made up of two main factions, moderates and radicals. Bazargan reshuffled his cabinet several times because of resignation of ministers that were unable to cope with parallel sources of power, in several cases a ministry was supervised by an acting minister or Bazargan himself. In his letter to Khomeini, Bazargan stated that. repeated interferences, inconveniences, objections and disputes have made my colleagues, power then passed into the hands of the Revolutionary Council. Khomeini later described his appointment of Bazargan as a mistake, Bazargan, on the other hand, described the government as a knife without blade
14.
Theocracy
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Theocracy is a form of government in which a deity is the source from which all authority derives. The Oxford English Dictionary has this definition,1, a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god. The commonwealth of Israel from the time of Moses until the election of Saul as King, an ecclesiocracy is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state, but do not claim that they are instruments of divine revelation. For example, the prince-bishops of the European Middle Ages, where the bishop was also the temporal ruler, religiously endorsed monarchies fall between theocracy and ecclesiocracy, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs. Most forms of theocracy are oligarchic in nature, involving rule of the many by the few, some of whom so anointed under claim of divine commission. In some religions, the ruler, usually a king, was regarded as the favorite of God who could not be questioned, sometimes even being the descendant of. Today, there is also a form of government where clerics have the power, taken literally or strictly, theocracy means rule by God or gods and refers primarily to an internal rule of the heart, especially in its biblical application. The common, generic use of the term, as defined above in terms of rule by a church or analogous religious leadership, in a pure theocracy, the civil leader is believed to have a personal connection with the civilizations religion or belief. For example, Moses led the Israelites, and Muhammad led the early Muslims, there is a fine line between the tendency of appointing religious characters to run the state and having a religious-based government. According to the Holy Books, Prophet Joseph was offered an essential governmental role just because he was trustworthy, wise and knowledgeable. As a result of the Prophet Josephs knowledge and also due to his ethical and genuine efforts during a critical economic situation, when religions have a holy book, it is used as a direct message from God. Law proclaimed by the ruler is also considered a divine revelation, as to the Prophet Muhammad ruling, The first thirteen of the Prophets twenty-three year career went on totally apolitical and non-violent. Yet, interestingly, the Prophet did not establish a theocracy in Medina, instead of a polity defined solely by Islam, he founded a territorial polity based on religious pluralism. This is evident in a document called the ’Charter of Medina’, according to the Quran, Prophets were not after power or material resources. ”While, in theocracy many aspects of the holy book are overshadowed by material powers. Due to be considered divine, the regime entitles itself to interpret verses to its own benefit and abuse them out of the context for its political aims. An ecclesiocracy, on the hand, is a situation where the religious leaders assume a leading role in the state. For example, the prince-bishops of the European Middle Ages, where the bishop was also the temporal ruler, religiously endorsed monarchies fall between these two poles, according to the relative strengths of the religious and political organs. Theocracy is distinguished from other, secular forms of government that have a religion, or are influenced by theological or moral concepts
15.
University of Tehran
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The University of Tehran, also known as Tehran University and UT, is Irans oldest modern university. It is also Irans most prestigious university and it is almost always ranked as the best university in Iran in national and international rankings. It is also the premier knowledge producing institute among all OIC countries, the university offers 111 bachelors degree programs,177 masters degree programs, and 156 Ph. D. programs. Many of the departments were absorbed into the University of Tehran from the Dar al-Funun established in 1851, the main campus of the University is located in the central part of the city. The main gate of the University with its design and modern architecture is the logo of the University and in a more general sense. The University is one of the attractions, hosting many international and cultural events attracting academia. The major festive of Friday Prayers of the capital is held at the University’s main campus every Friday, Tehran University consistently makes the number one choice of qualifying applicants among all other universities of Iran. Sadiq considered the letter an invitation to outline a comprehensive scheme for the establishment of a University, in January 1933, during the cabinet meeting, the subject was brought up. It is a pity that this city lags far behind other countries of the world. His words had a impact on everyone in the meeting, resulting in the acceptance of the proposal. By the orders of Rezā Shāh, the compound of Jalaliyeh garden was selected, Jalaliyeh garden was located in the north of the then Tehran between Amirabad village and the northern trench of Tehran. This beautiful garden, full of orchards was founded in the early 1900s during the years of Nasir ad- Din Shah. The influences of early 20th century modernist architecture are today readily visible on the campus grounds of the University. The University of Tehran officially inaugurated in 1934, the Amir-abad campus was added in 1945 after American troops left the property as World War II was coming to an end. The university admitted women as students for the first time in 1937, in 1935, the formerly males-only university opened its doors to women as part of the countrys sweeping universal education policy. With over 13,000 current students, TUMS remains the best medical school in Iran, at present, UT comprises 40 faculties, institutes, as well as centers of research and education. The university consists of seven campuses, The Central Pardis Campus, amir Abad Campus is where most of the dormitories are located. The University of Tehran hosts many cultural and academic activities on the national and international levels, UT enjoys the cooperation of foreign countries in holding international conferences, seminars and workshops
16.
University of California, Berkeley
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The University of California, Berkeley, is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. In 1960s, UC Berkeley was particularly noted for the Free Speech Movement as well as the Anti-Vietnam War Movement led by its students. S, Department of Energy, and is home to many world-renowned research institutes and organizations including Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and Space Sciences Laboratory. Faculty member J. R. Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, Lawrence Livermore Lab also discovered or co-discovered six chemical elements. The Academic Ranking of World Universities also ranks the University of California, Berkeley, third in the world overall, in 1866, the private College of California purchased the land comprising the current Berkeley campus. Ten faculty members and almost 40 students made up the new University of California when it opened in Oakland in 1869, billings was a trustee of the College of California and suggested that the college be named in honor of the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley. In 1870, Henry Durant, the founder of the College of California, with the completion of North and South Halls in 1873, the university relocated to its Berkeley location with 167 male and 22 female students and held its first classes. In 1905, the University Farm was established near Sacramento, ultimately becoming the University of California, by the 1920s, the number of campus buildings had grown substantially, and included twenty structures designed by architect John Galen Howard. Robert Gordon Sproul served as president from 1930 to 1958, by 1942, the American Council on Education ranked UC Berkeley second only to Harvard University in the number of distinguished departments. During World War II, following Glenn Seaborgs then-secret discovery of plutonium, UC Berkeley physics professor J. Robert Oppenheimer was named scientific head of the Manhattan Project in 1942. Along with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley is now a partner in managing two other labs, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, originally, military training was compulsory for male undergraduates, and Berkeley housed an armory for that purpose. In 1917, Berkeleys ROTC program was established, and its School of Military Aeronautics trained future pilots, including Jimmy Doolittle, both Robert McNamara and Frederick C. Weyand graduated from UC Berkeleys ROTC program, earning B. A. degrees in 1937 and 1938, in 1926, future fleet admiral Chester W. Nimitz established the first Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps unit at Berkeley. The Board of Regents ended compulsory military training at Berkeley in 1962, during the McCarthy era in 1949, the Board of Regents adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath. A number of faculty members objected and were dismissed, ten years passed before they were reinstated with back pay, in 1952, the University of California became an entity separate from the Berkeley campus. Each campus was given autonomy and its own Chancellor. Then-president Sproul assumed presidency of the entire University of California system, Berkeley gained a reputation for student activism in the 1960s with the Free Speech Movement of 1964 and opposition to the Vietnam War. In the highly publicized Peoples Park protest in 1969, students and the school conflicted over use of a plot of land, then governor of California Ronald Reagan called the Berkeley campus a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters, and sex deviants. Modern students at Berkeley are less active, with a greater percentage of moderates and conservatives
17.
Mohammad Tavasoli
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Mohammad Tavasoli is an Iranian democracy activist and politician. He is the director of the office of the Freedom Movement. Tavasoli studied at Tehran University in 1956 and was one of the members of Anjoman-e Eslami and he joined the freedom movement soon after it was established. He went to Germany in 1962 to study transportation and traffic, after visiting the United States in 1967, he was returned to Iran and banned from traveling. He was arrested in 1971 because he helped a member of MEK and was jailed for one year, before the Iranian Revolution, he was one the staff responsible for the advertising campaign rally to welcome Ruhollah Khomeini back to Iran after 15 years. After the Iranian Revolution, he was elected as Mayor of Tehran and he was mayor from February 1979 until February 1980. He was jailed with Hashem Sabbaghian in 1983 but was released seven months later and he was jailed again after the 2009-2010 Iranian election protests after participating in a rally in June 2009. He was elected as the new leader of the Nationalist-Religious Coalition on 11 June 2011 after the leader, Ezatollah Sahabi
18.
Iranian Revolution
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Demonstrations against the Shah commenced in October 1977, developing into a campaign of civil resistance that included both secular and religious elements and which intensified in January 1978. Between August and December 1978 strikes and demonstrations paralyzed the country, the Shah left Iran for exile on 16 January 1979, as the last Persian monarch, leaving his duties to a regency council and an opposition-based prime minister. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, the royal reign collapsed shortly after on 11 February when guerrillas and rebel troops overwhelmed troops loyal to the Shah in armed street fighting, bringing Khomeini to official power. It was a relatively non-violent revolution, and helped to redefine the meaning, the Shahs regime became increasingly oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and extravagant. It also suffered from basic functional failures that brought economic bottlenecks, shortages, the Shah was perceived by many as beholden to – if not a puppet of – a non-Muslim Western power whose culture was affecting that of Iran. The Shia clergy had a significant influence on Iranian society, the clergy first showed itself to be a powerful political force in opposition to the monarchy with the 1891 Tobacco Protest. On 20 March 1890, Nasir al-Din Shah granted a concession to Major G. F. Talbot for a monopoly over the production, sale. The boycotts and protests against it were widespread and extensive because of Mirza Hasan Shirazis fatwa, finally Nasir al-Din Shah found himself powerless to stop the popular movement and cancelled the concession. The Tobacco Protest was the first significant Iranians resistance against the Shah and foreign interests, and revealed the power of the people, the growing discontent continued until the Constitutional Revolution. The revolution led to the establishment of a Parliament and approval of the first constitution, although the constitutional revolution was successful in weakening the autocracy of the Qajar regime, it failed to provide a powerful alternative government. Consequently, within the following the establishment of the new parliament. Many of these events can be viewed as a continuation of the struggle between the constitutionalists and the Shahs of Persia, many of whom were backed by foreign powers against the parliament. He established a monarchy, deposing the last of the Qajar shah in 1925 and introduced many social, economic. A number of reforms led to public discontent which provides circumstances for an Iranian revolution. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavis father, Reza Shah, replaced Islamic laws with Western ones, police forcibly removed and tore chadors off women who resisted his ban on the public hijab. In 1935, dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the Goharshad Mosque rebellion, on the other hand, in the early rise of Reza Shah, Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi founded the Qom Seminary and created important changes in seminaries. However, he would avoid entering into political issues, as did other leaders who followed him. Hence, no widespread anti-government attempts were organized by clergy during the Reza Shah Rule, however, the future Ayatollah Khomeini was a student of Sheikh Abdul Karim Ha’eri
19.
Iran hostage crisis
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The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic standoff between Iran and the United States. S. It stands as the longest hostage crisis in recorded history, the crisis was described by the Western media as an entanglement of vengeance and mutual incomprehension. President Jimmy Carter called the victims of terrorism and anarchy and said. After his overthrow in 1979, the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was purportedly admitted to the United States for cancer treatment, Iran demanded that he be returned to stand trial for crimes he was accused of committing during his reign. Specifically, Pahlavi was accused of committing crimes against Iranian citizens with the help of his secret police, Iranians saw the decision to grant him asylum as American complicity in those atrocities. The Americans saw the hostage-taking as a violation of the principles of international law. The crisis reached a climax after diplomatic negotiations failed to win release for the hostages, six American diplomats who had evaded capture were eventually rescued by a Canadian effort on January 27,1980. Shah Pahlavi left the United States in December 1979 and was granted asylum in Egypt. In September 1980, the Iraqi military invaded Iran, beginning the Iran–Iraq War and these events led the Iranian government to enter negotiations with the U. S. with Algeria acting as a mediator. The hostages were released into United States custody the day after the signing of the Algiers Accords, just minutes after the new American president. The crisis is considered an episode in the history of Iran–United States relations. Political analysts cite it as a factor in the downfall of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. In Iran, the crisis strengthened the prestige of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the crisis also led to the United States’ economic sanctions against Iran, further weakening ties between the two countries. In February 1979, less than a year before the crisis, for several decades before that, the United States had allied with and supported the Shah. During World War II, Allied powers Britain and the Soviet Union occupied Iran to force the abdication of first Pahlavi monarch Reza Shah Pahlavi, in favor of his eldest son, Crown Prince Mohammad. Because of its importance in the Allied victory, Iran was subsequently called The Bridge of Victory by Winston Churchill, by the 1950s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was engaged in a power struggle with Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, an immediate descendant of the preceding Qajar dynasty. Mosaddegh led a strike on behalf of impoverished Iranians, demanding a share of the nation’s petroleum revenue from Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. However, he overstepped in trying to get $50 million in damages, in 1953, the British and American spy agencies helped Iranian royalists depose Mosaddegh in a military coup détat codenamed Operation Ajax, allowing the Shah to extend his power
20.
Jan Karski
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Jan Karski was a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later professor at Georgetown University. The same date was used by Karski on some existing pre-war hand-written documents, Jan Karski was named Jan having been born on St Johns Day, following the Polish pre-war custom of naming newborn infants after saints. An error was made in the records of August 8. Karskis date of birth is given as 24 April 1914, based on his baptismal records in Russian. The Diploma for his masters degree and the Certificate from the Artillery Reserve Officer Cadet School both reflect his 24 April birthday and their colleagues at the Polish Senate did the same, according to the office of Bogdan Borusewicz. Some documents handwritten by Jan Karski before WWII list the 24 June date, all US documents list 11 April, including passport and social security card. Polish PWN Encyclopedia recognizes the date as 22 April, another variant is on his diplomatic passport which lists his birthday as 22 March 1912. The error reflected in his war-time documents probably served Karski well in his profession, Karski was raised a Catholic and remained so throughout his life. He grew up in a neighborhood where the majority of the population was then Jewish. He completed his education between 1935 and 1938 in various posts in Romania, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After completing and gaining a First in Grand Diplomatic Practice, on 1 January 1939 he started work in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kozielewski was held prisoner in Kozielszczyna camp. He successfully concealed his rank of 2nd Lieutenant and after a uniform exchange, was identified by the NKVD commander as a Private. He was handed over to the Germans as a born in Łódź. In November 1939 on a train to a POW camp in General Government, Karski managed to escape, there he joined the SZP[Służba żwycięstwu Polski‚ – the first resistance movement in occupied Europe organized by General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski and a predecessor of ZWZ, later the Home Army. About that time he adopted a nom de guerre of Jan Karski, other noms de guerre used by him during World War II included Piasecki, Kwaśniewski, Znamierowski, Kruszewski, Kucharski, and Witold. In January 1940 Karski began to organize courier missions with dispatches from the Polish underground to the Polish Government in Exile, as a courier, Karski made several secret trips between France, Britain and Poland. During one such mission in July 1940 he was arrested by the Gestapo in the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, severely tortured, he was finally transported to a hospital in Nowy Sącz, from which he was smuggled out with vital help of Józef Cyrankiewicz. After a short period of rehabilitation, he returned to service in the Information
21.
Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
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The state of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has been criticized both by Iranians and international human right activists, writers, and NGOs. The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission have condemned prior and ongoing abuses in Iran in published critiques, in October 2012 the United Nations human rights office stated Iranian authorities had engaged in a severe clampdown on journalists and human rights advocates. The topic of womens reform is contentious in Iran, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini saying that equality was one of the biggest mistakes of Western thought. The Islamic revolution is thought to have a significantly worse human rights record than the Pahlavi Dynasty it overthrew, according to political historian Ervand Abrahamian, whereas less than 100 political prisoners had been executed between 1971 and 1979, more than 7900 were executed between 1981 and 1985. The prison system was centralized and drastically expanded, Prison life was drastically worse under the Islamic Republic than under the Pahlavis. One who survived both writes that four months under Ladjevardi took the toll of four years under SAVAK, in the prison literature of the Pahlavi era, the recurring words had been ‘boredom’ and ‘monotony’. In that of the Islamic Republic, they were ‘fear’, ‘death’, ‘terror’, ‘horror’, however, the vast majority of killings of political prisoners occurred in the first decade of the Islamic Republic, after which violent repression lessened. The predominantly reformist parliament drafted several bills allowing increased freedom of speech, gender equality, and these were all dismissed or significantly watered down by the Guardian Council and leading conservative figures in the Iranian government at the time. According to The Economist magazine, The Tehran spring of ten years ago has now given way to a bleak political winter, the new government continues to close down newspapers, silence dissenting voices and ban or censor books and websites. The peaceful demonstrations and protests of the Khatami era are no longer tolerated, in January 2007 security forces attacked striking bus drivers in Tehran, in March police beat hundreds of men and women who had assembled to commemorate International Womens Day. From 1984 to 2001, United Nations Commission on Human Rights passed resolutions about human rights violations against Irans religious minorities especially the Baháís, the resolution has passed in the UN General Assembly every year since. On 13 October 2005, the European Parliament voted to adopt a resolution condemning the Islamic governments disregard of the rights of its citizens. Later that year, Irans government announced it would suspend dialogue with the European Union concerning human rights in Iran, on 9 February 2010, the European Union and United States issued a joint statement condemning continuing human rights violations in Iran. In Syria taxi driver rarely talk politics, the Iranian will talk of nothing else, so freedom of thought and expression is essential to the system, at least within the top circles of religious leadership. Iranian officials have not always agreed on the state of human rights in Iran, in April 2004, reformist president Mohammad Khatami stated we certainly have political prisoners and. People who are in prison for their ideas, two days later, however, he was contradicted by Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, saying we have no political prisoners in Iran because Iranian law does not mention such offenses. The world may consider certain cases, by their nature, political crimes, but because we do not have a law in this regard, these are considered ordinary offenses. Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Irans human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Irans record
22.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
23.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
24.
Questia Online Library
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Questia is an online commercial digital library of books and articles that has an academic orientation, with a particular emphasis on books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. The great majority of items are under copyright, for which Questia has paid a fee to the copyright owners, all the text in all the Questia books and articles is available to subscribers, the site also includes integrated research tools. Questia, based in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in 1998 and purchased by Gale, part of Cengage Learning, the books have been selected by academic librarians as credible, authoritative works in their respective areas. The librarians have also compiled about 7000 reference bibliographies on frequently researched topics, the library is strongest in books and journal articles in the social sciences and humanities, with many older historical texts. The Questia service also features tools to create citations and bibliographies. A limitation to the Questia library is that new additions are available in a version only. Unlike Questias earlier publications, these prevent users from copying text directly from the website, a charge is made for printing a range of pages. Questia launched their Q&A blog on September 21,2011, Q&A is divided into Education news, Student resources and Subjects categories. Subjects is further broken down so readers can find content based on their academic needs. Questia released an app in 2011, which was extended to the iPad the following year. Then in January 2013 Questia launched tutorials, including videos and quizzes, Questia was criticized in 2005 by librarian Steven J. Bell for referring to itself as an academic library, when it concentrates on the liberal arts and treats users as customers rather than students. Moreover, Bell argues, Questia does not employ academic librarians or faculty, although some of its employees have advanced library degrees, they do not work or collaborate with faculty to develop collections that serve distinctive student populations. List of digital library projects Official Website
25.
Ebrahim Yazdi
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From 1995 to 2011, he headed the Freedom Movement of Iran, which is considered an illegal party by factions within the Iranian government. Yazdi was born in Qazvin in 1931 and he studied pharmacology at the University of Tehran. Then he received a degree in philosophy again from the University of Tehran. This organization opposed to the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Yazdi traveled to the United States in 1961 to continue his education and in the US, continued his involvement in political activities against the Shah. He was cofounder of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Abroad, along with Mostafa Chamran, Ali Shariati and they were all part of the radical external wing of the group. Chamran was chosen as its head before returning to the US. In 1966, Yazdi moved headquarters of SAMA to Beirut, in 1967, he enrolled at Baylor University and received a PhD in biochemistry. In 1975, Yazdi was tried in absentia in an Iranian military court and condemned to ten years imprisonment, because of his activities, he was unable to return to Iran and remained in the United States until July 1977. He became a naturalized US citizen in Houston in 1971, when Ayatollah Khomenei moved to Neauphle-le-Château an Parisian suburb from Iraq in 1978, Yazdi also went to Neauphle-le-Château and began to serve as an advisor to the Ayatollah. He was also his spokesperson in Paris, Yazdi worked as a research assistant of pathology and research instructor of pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston until 1977. He also worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston, in 1978, he joined Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris where the latter had been in exile and became one of his advisors. He translated the reports of Khomeini into English in a conference on 3 February 1979 in Tehran. He was the deputy minister and minister of foreign affairs in the interim government of Mehdi Bazargan. Yazdi proposed to celebrate Jerusalem Day and his suggestion was endorsed by Khomeini in August 1979, in May 1980, he was appointed by Khomenei as head of the Kayhan newspaper. As before, Yazdi was asked to go to the embassy, the entire cabinet of the interim government, including Yazdi and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan, resigned in protest the next day. They stated that they opposed the takeover as “contrary to the national interest of Iran”. Among the areas of conflict between the two factions was the behavior of the Revolutionary Courts and the Revolutionary Committees, Yazdi and Bazargan supported a general amnesty for all members of the Shah’s regime, provided that they cease to act against the revolution. They publicly opposed the secret trials and the executions carried out by the Revolutionary Courts
