On Friday, the president of the United States signed an executive order freezing entrance into the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days and suspending all refugee admission for 120 days. The countries banned are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen. This order has caused outcry from human rights organizations, legal scholars, and the international community. This week Her Campus Lasell will feature an informational article on each country whose citizens have been banned from the U.S. in order to increase understanding of the complex nature of these countries and their citizens.
IRAN
Demographics
Iran, the world’s 17th most populous country, is located in western Asia. It is bordered by Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and Iraq. Islam is the predominant religion in Iran, with about 99 percent of the Iranians being Muslims. 90 percent of the population belongs to the Shi’a branch of Islam, the official state religion, and about 9 percent belong to the Sunni branch.  Less than 1 percent of non-Muslim minorities include Christians, Zoroastrians, Jews, Bahá’Ăs, Mandeans, and Yarsan. Over 20 percent of the population in Iran is between ages 20-29. The country boasts a 93 percent literacy rate, with youth literacy rates equal between girls and boys. Iran hosts one of the largest refugee population in the world, with more than one million refugees, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq.
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History
Iran, also known as Persia, has a long and rich history. Human habitation of Iranian land can be dated back to 800,000 BC. In the early 1800s, the Russo-Persian Wars severely shrunk the territory of Iran. The first Constitution and the first parliament were created in 1906, which included the official recognition of Iran’s three religious minorities. During the two world wars, Iran was interchangeably influenced by the great powers of the time. In 1951, a communist-leaning prime minister was elected into power. In 1953 he was overthrown by a coup many claim was orchestrated by the United States. In 1979 the Iranian Revolution began in protest of corruption and a weak economy. This revolution eventually led to the country becoming an Islamic Republic. In 1980 the Iraqi army invaded Iran, which led to an eight year war between the two countries. In 2005 Iran’s nuclear program became an international focus after Iran officials suggested nuclear aggression against the nation of Israel. This led to sanctions against Iran, further isolating them from the rest of the world. These sanctions have just been recently softened due to the Iran Nuclear Deal.
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Government
The Iranian government consists of three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. These branches are overseen by the appointed Supreme Leader of Iran. The next most powerful man in the country is the president, who is elected by universal suffrage every four years. According to the Iranian Constitution, the government is required to provide every citizen of the country with access to social security that covers retirement, unemployment, old age, disability, accidents, calamities, health and medical treatment and care services.This is covered by tax revenues and income derived from public contributions
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Human Rights
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been criticized by Iranians, human rights groups, and the international community for its history of human rights violations. Most prominent is the inclusion and application of the death penalty in the constitution. In 2011, estimates were that two people a day were being executed by their government for crimes such as homosexuality, drug use, and drinking alcohol. They also have very limited freedom of press, assembly, speech, and religion. Iran is universally criticized by Western countries for their treatment of women, both in and outside of the law.
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Iran Nuclear Deal
The Iran Nuclear Deal has received much press attention, and it considered by some to be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama administration. Others have harshly criticized it for being too lenient on the Iranians. It is a complex deal, so what follows is only a brief simplification of its most important elements. The agreement was negotiated between the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, China, Germany, and the European Union, and Iran. Iran agreed to redesign, convert, and reduce its nuclear facilities in exchange for the other involved countries lifting nuclear-related economical sanctions. These sanctions will not be lifted until Iran complies with all of the stipulations outlined in the agreement.
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Terrorism
The last documentable Iranian act of terrorism against the U.S. occurred in 1979 with the Iranian hostage crisis. Over 500 Iranian citizens took hold of the American Embassy in Iran and demanded that Iranian assets be unfroze, and that the former Shah of Iran (who was provided with political refuge in the U.S.) be arrested and returned to Iran. Â The hostages were eventually released without violence. However, the Iranian government has been accused by the international community of providing weapons and funds to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.
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US-Iran Relations
Since the Iran Hostage Crisis, the US and Iran have not had formal diplomatic relations. From 1995-2015 the United States had a trade embargo on Iran. However, after negotiations of the Iran Nuclear Deal, the embargo was lifted. Due to the U.S. support of Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War, as well as many other complex issues, the popularity of the U.S. government is low in Iran. After the president’s decree to ban all travel from Iran, the Iranian government responded with a reciprocal halt of visa distribution to U.S. citizens. However, unlike the U.S., Iran’s ban is not retroactive, and will not affect those who already have visas or green cards.
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Citations:
“Iran Country Profile”. BBC NEWS. Retrieved 8 August 2012., Jump up to:a b “Iran”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012., “Afghanistan-Iran: Iran says it will deport over one million Afghans”. Irinnews.org. 4 March 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2013., 2011 General Cencus Selected Results (PDF), Statistical Center of Iran, 2012, p. 26, ISBN 978-964-365-827-4, Jump up^ Walter Martin (1 October 2003). Kingdom of the Cults, The. Baker Books. p. 421. ISBN 978-0-7642-2821-6. Retrieved 24 June 2013. Ninety-five percent of Iran’s Muslims are Shi’ites., Jump up^ Bhabani Sen Gupta (1987). The Persian Gulf and South Asia: prospects and problems of inter-regional cooperation. South Asian Publishers. p. 158. ISBN 978-81-7003-077-5., Schmitt, RĂĽdiger (1987), “Aryans”, Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 2, New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 684–687, Persia, Encyclopædia Britannica,, “National Museum of Iran”. Pbase.com. Retrieved 21 June 2013., Fisher et al. 1991, pp. 329–330, Louise Fawcett, “Revisiting the Iranian Crisis of 1946: How Much More Do We Know?.” Iranian Studies 47#3 (2014): 379-399.,Gary R. Hess, “the Iranian Crisis of 1945-46 and the Cold War.” Political Science Quarterly 89#1 (1974): 117-146. Online, Stephen Kinzer (1 June 2011). All the Shah’s Men. John Wiley & Sons. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-118-14440-4. Retrieved 21 June 2013., Hiro, Dilip (1991). The Longest War: The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict. New York: Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 9780415904063. OCLC 22347651., Abrahamian, Ervand (2008). A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 171–175, 212. ISBN 9780521528917. OCLC 171111098.,  Kutsch, Tom. (July 14, 2015) “Iran, world powers strike historic nuclear deal”. Aljazeera America. Retrieved 15 July 2015. Aljazeera America website, “Iran Social Security System” (PDF). World Bank. 2003. Retrieved November 30, 2015., Aurelio MejĂa (2013). “Is tax funding of health care more likely to be regressive than systems based on social insurance in low and middle-income countries?”. Universidad de Antioquia. Retrieved November 30, 2015., “Leadership in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran”. Leader.ir. Retrieved 21 June 2013., “Iran The Presidency”. Photius.com. Retrieved 18 June 2011., “Outline of Iran Nuclear Deal Sounds Different From Each Side”. The New York Times. 5 April 2015., Iran rejects UN report on ‘rights abuses’ Archived 25 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine. aljazeera.net 20 October 2011., Ehsan Zarrokh (,Ehsan and Gaeini, M. Rahman). “Iranian Legal System and Human Rights Protection” The Islamic Law and Law of the Muslim World e-journal, New York law school 3.2 (2009)., “Outline of Iran Nuclear Deal Sounds Different From Each Side”. The New York Times. 5 April 2015.
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