Postage Stamps as witness of Iran history
Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979, when the monarchy was overthrown and clerics assumed political control under Ayatollah Khomeini. The revolution put an end to the rule of the Shah, who had alienated powerful religious, political and popular forces with a programme of modernisation and Westernisation, coupled with heavy repression of dissent.
Iran was one of the greatest empires of the ancient world, and has long maintained a distinct cultural identity by retaining its own language and adhering to the Shia interpretation of Islam.
Some key dates in Iran’s recent history:
- 1794 – Mohammad Khan Qajar seizes power and founds the Qajar dynasty.
- 1921 – Military commander Reza Khan seizes power and is later crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi.
- 1941 – Britain and Russia occupy Iran during World War Two.
- 1953 – Coup engineered by British and US intelligence services overthrows Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
- 1979 – Iranian revolution unseats the Shah.
- 1980-1988 – Iran-Iraq war.
- 1989 – Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader and founder of the Islamic Republic, dies and is replaced by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
- 1997 – Reformist Mohammad Khatami, wins presidential election in a landslide.
- 2004 – US says Iran’s nuclear programme is a growing threat and calls for international sanctions.
- 2005 – Hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected president.
- 2009 – Ahmadinejad is re-elected in a disputed election triggering months of mass protests known as the “Green Movement”.
- 2013 – Moderate Hassan Rouhani elected president.
- 2015 – Iran and major world powers reach agreement over its controversial nuclear activities. Tehran agrees to cut its nuclear programme in return for partial lifting of sanctions.
- 2018 – US withdraws from the 2015 international deal on Iran’s nuclear programme and imposes sanctions on Tehran.
- 2020 – Qasem Soleimani, head of IRGC’s external arm known as the Quds Force and arguably the most powerful figure in Iran after Ayatollah Khamenei, is assassinated by the US in Iraq.
- 2021 – Hardline Ebrahim Raisi is elected as president.
- 2022 – Mass nationwide protests after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini.
