My Independent Research project.

1. IRANIAN DIASPORA
By: Arian Azimi

2. DISCLAIMER
This presentation does not
follow any political interests,
and is solely for cultural and
social purposes.

3. GENERAL INFORMATION

4. General Information
Europe
Africa
Asia
Middle
East

5. General Information
Middle East is an area which covers parts of west Asia
and North East Africa

6. General Information
Persian
Gulf
Caspian
Sea

7. General Information
Masoud Akbari-vetman@gmail.com-Nagasaki University
Semi Arid
Mountains
Forests
Arid

8. General Information
Ancient Name:
Perse, Pars, Persia (Until 1935)
Conventional Name:
Iran (After 1935)
Type of Government:
Republic (Islamic Republic)
Conventional Long Full Name:
Islamic Republic of Iran

9. General Information
Iran’s Flag

10. General Information
Iranian Bank Notes

11. General Information
Race Background:
Aria (Arya)
Area: 1.648 million sq km (Slightly Larger than Alaska)
Arable Area: about 10 %
Population: 78,868,711 (July 2012 est.)
Religion: Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish,
Christian, and Baha'i 2%
Literacy (age 15 and over can read and write): more than 80%

12. General Information
Capital: Tehran
Calendar: Persian Calendar
Persian New Year: 21st March
Official Language: Farsi (Persian)

13. TIMELINE OF EVENTS

14. 1935 - Formerly known as Persia, Iran is adopted as the country's official
name.
1941 - Anglo-Russian occupation of Iran and the deposition of the Shah in
favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
1951 April - Parliament votes to nationalize the oil industry, which is
dominated by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Shah flees the
country in August 1953.
1953 August - Mossadegh is overthrown in a coup d’etat engineered by
the British and American intelligence services. The Shah is installed.

15. 1963 January -. The Shah launches the 'White Revolution', a program of
land reform and social and economic modernization. During the late
1960's the Shah became increasingly dependent on the secret police
(SAVAK) in controlling those opposition movements critical of his
reforms.
1978 September - The Shah's policies alienate the clergy and his
authoritarian rule leads to riots, strikes and mass demonstrations.

16. • 1979 January - As the political situation deteriorates, the Shah
and his family are forced into exile.
• 1979 November - Islamic militants take 52 Americans hostage
inside the US embassy in Tehran. They demand the
extradition of the Shah, in the US at the time for medical
treatment, to face trial in Iran.
• 1979 February - The Islamic fundamentalist, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini, returns to Iran following 14 years of exile
in Iraq and France for opposing the regime.
• 1979 April - The Islamic Republic of Iran is proclaimed
following a referendum.
• 1980 July - The exiled Shah dies of cancer in Egypt.

17. US-Iran Relations: A Brief Historical Background
An analysis of US-Iran relations often starts with
some “original sin”:
The events of 1979, according to some American
analysts
The events of 1953, according to many Iranian analysts
Since the events of 1953 led to those of 1979, one should
start with the former.

18. 1953: “Operation AJAX”
In 1953 the CIA staged a coup
d’etat in Iran, overthrowing the
constitutionally elected
government of the Iranian Prime
Minister, Dr. Mossadegh.
Mossadegh at the UN, 1951

19. With the help of British agents, the CIA brought back
the self-exiled Mohamed Reza Shah.

20. What followed was a cozy and symbiotic relationship
between the US and the Shah for a quarter of a
century.

21. For the US, the relationship meant:
Economically, the Shah maintained the interests of
the US corporations, particularly the oil companies,
aerospace industry, and financial institutions. This
included recycling petro-dollars into purchasing
military goods and Eurodollar deposits (by the mid
1970s, the Shah was the largest buyer of US military
goods).

22. It should be noted that in the 1970s, the US told the Shah to
expand Iran’s non-oil energy base by building a number of
nuclear power plants. One such plant, which started to be
built in the mid 1970s is in Bushehr:

23. Politically, the Shah acted as the gangster of the
Persian Gulf, stifling any aspiration for independence
or democracy (e.g., he put down the revolutionary
movement in Dhofar in 1973-76).
“His Majesty” Sultan Qaboos

24. For the Shah, the relationship meant maintaining an
absolute monarchy combined with a theater of the
absurd.

25. For the Iranian populace, the relationship meant:
• An uneven economic development, characterized by
corruption, waste, skewed income distribution, and
ultimately high rates of unemployment and inflation by the
late 1970s.
A dictatorship characterized by:
• Lack of the most basic freedoms, including the
freedom of expression, speech, and organization
• The existence of massive secret police (SAVAK)
trained and maintained mostly by the CIA & Israeli
Mossad
• Jails overflowing with political prisoners
• Disappearances, torture, and executions

26. Note that the US had no
problem with the lack of
basic human rights in Iran.
Even as late as 1978, on
the eve of the Iranian
Revolution, President
Carter, the champion of
“human rights,” traveled to
Iran and said:

27. “Iran is an island of stability in one of the more
troubled areas of the world. This is a great tribute to
you, Your Majesty, and to your leadership and to the
respect, admiration and love which your people give
to you. There is no leader in the world for whom I
feel such deep gratitude and personal friendship as the
Shah.”
The New York Times, January 1, 1978.

28. An “island of stability,” Iran was not!
In 1979, Iran exploded in revolutionary turmoil.
Masses of people, from every segment of society, poured
into the streets to end the rule of the Shah.

29. Shah’s dictatorial rule had managed to eradicate
effectively every organized opposition to his rule except
one—the clergy whose lives were intertwined with the
fabric of the society.

30. Thus, when in 1979 Iran exploded, one organized force
managed to come out on top—the clergy, led by one
exiled grand Ayatollah, Khomeini.

31. In the showdown between the Shah and Khomeini,
the former lost.
He went into exile once again and after traveling about
for a while, he arrived in the US for “medical care.”

32. Shah’s arrival in the US triggered “students following the
line of Imam” to attack the “nest of spies,” the US
Embassy, in November 1979 and take 52 Americans as
hostages in exchange for the Shah.

33. A few days after the takeover of the US embassy, the
Carter Administration invoked the International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to freeze all
Iranian government assets and properties.
This act was initially instituted in 1977 to protect
the interest of US corporations, particularly the
financial institutions, such as the Chase Manhattan
Bank.

34. After many months of negotiations, the US and Iran signed
the Algiers Accord in 1980, setting up the Hague Tribunal
to settle all financial claims between the US and Iran.
Iran agreed to release the hostages and pay reparations to the US
corporations. The US agreed to unfreeze the Iranian assets and not to
interfere in Iran’s affairs again.

35. Iranian Diaspora
Diaspora - "the movement, migration, or
scattering of people away from an
established or ancestral homeland" or
"people dispersed by whatever cause to
more than one location", or "people settled
far from their ancestral homelands”.

36. • In the 1977-1978 academic year, about 100,000 Iranians
were studying abroad, of whom 36,220 were enrolled in US
institutes of higher learning; the rest were mainly in the United
Kingdom, West Germany, France, Austria, and Italy. In the
1978-1979 academic year, the number of Iranian students
enrolled in the United States totaled 45,340, peaking at
51,310 in 1979-1980. According to the Institute of
International Education, more Iranian students studied in the
United States at this time than students from any other
country.
Iranian Diaspora

37. Table 1. Iranian Immigrants Admitted to
the United States, Canada, Germany,
the UK and Sweden: 1961 to 2005

38. Table 2. Iranian Asylum Applications,
1995 to 2004

39. In January 2006, the International Monetary Fund
claimed that Iran ranks highest in brain drain among 91
developing and developed countries, with an estimated
150,000 to 180,000 educated people exiting per year.
According to a 1999 study, the brain drain from Iran to the
United States, measured by migration rates of the
individuals with tertiary education, is the highest in Asia.
Iranian Diaspora

40. In January 2006, the
International Monetary Fund claimed that Iran ranks
highest in brain drain among 91 developing and
developed countries, with an estimated 150,000 to
180,000 educated people exiting per year. According to
a 1999 study, the brain drain from Iran to the United
States, measured by migration rates of the individuals
with tertiary education, is the highest in Asia.

41. The migration story of Iran is not limited
solely to the migrants and refugees
themselves. Rather, through the popularity
of Iranian cinema and the explosion of
virtual communication, Iranians in Iran are
increasingly connected to those in the
diaspora and beyond.

42. One of the most widespread and effective
means of group expression for Iranians has
become the creation of a virtual community
through chat rooms and blog websites.
Estimates suggest that Iran has more than
75,000 bloggers, making Persian the fourth most
widely used language on blogs in the world.
According to a June 2004 report by Reporters
Without Borders, the Internet has grown faster in
Iran than in any other Middle Eastern country
since 2000.

43. With the looming threat of organized
international sanctions ahead, the
government may need to focus on
businesses beyond the petroleum
sector. In all of these efforts and more,
the diaspora will undeniably play a
significant role.
Looking Ahead
In the coming months and years, the
Iranian government will need to
concentrate on effective methods of
encouraging investments and
remittances back into Iran. It will also
need to make more of a concerted
effort in preventing further flight of the
highly skilled.