The tenacity of Iran's Islamic Republic

Mass protests and sustained resistance to the brutality of the Shah's regime resulted in the fall of the Shah's government on 1 February, 1979. On 1 April, 1979, Iranians overwhelmingly voted, in a national referendum, in support of the declaration of the country as the “Islamic Republic of Iran” and the adoption of a largely theocratic constitution, with the revolutionary cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as the Supreme Leader. According to an entry by Janet Afary titled “The Islamic republic” in Britannica.com and accessed on 9 April, 2026, “Throughout most of 1979 the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; also called Revolutionary Guards) – then an informal religious militia [was] formed by Khomeini to forestall another CIA-backed coup as in the days of Mosaddegh.”

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Afary further noted that the new political dispensation included the attempt to blend features of Islam with aspects of liberal democracy. In particular, the Britannica.com entry observed: “Inside Iran in the mid-1990s, Abdolkarim Soroush, a philosopher with both secular and religious training, attracted thousands of followers to his lectures. … Drawing on the works of Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Popper, and Erich Fromm, Soroush called for a reexamination of all tenets of Islam, insisting on the need to maintain the religion's original spirit of social justice and its emphasis on caring for other people.”

With respect to elections, Afary further noted: “The May 1997 election of Mohammad Khatami, a supporter of Soroush, as president was a surprise for conservatives who had backed Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, speaker of Iran's Majles. … [Khatami out of four candidates] campaigned for president on a platform of curbing censorship, fighting religious excess, and allowing for greater tolerance and was embraced by much of the public, receiving more than two-thirds of the vote and enjoying especially strong support among women and young adults.”

In addition, Afary stated: “In the February 1999 elections for roughly 200,000 seats on village, town, and city councils, reformers once again won by an overwhelming margin, and many women were elected to office in rural areas.” It was also noted that with Khatami's election, “in less than a year some 900 new newspapers and journals received authorization to publish and added their voices to earlier reformist journals such as Zanān and Kiyān.”

It is worthy of note here that Western liberal democracy in Iran was able to withstand external manipulation and internal sabotage for only two years. The Shah's Western-backed brutal monarchy has also demonstrated that, sometimes, leaders may prioritise satisfying external interests over citizens' comfort and freedom, and the Shah's government could survive mass resentment for just 26 years. But the Islamic Republic led by the prejudicially-tagged 'Mullahs', in spite of biting sanctions, has withstood Western ploys to bring it down for 47 years during which Iran controlled its own oil and recorded remarkable educational, social and technological achievements.

These achievements account for Iran's impressive Human Development Index. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living. … The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita.”

In the specific case of Iran, the UNDP noted: “Iran (Islamic Republic of)'s Human Development Index value for 2023 is 0.799 – which put the country in the High human development category – positioning it at 75 out of 193 countries and territories.” GlobalEconomy.com has also noted that the average HDI value is 0.710, and the minimum to maximum values range from 0.490 – 0.799, and that “historically, the average for Iran from 1980 to 2023 is 0.71 points. The minimum value, 0.49 points, was reached in 1980 while the maximum of 0.799 points was recorded in 2016.” The year 1980 is a year after the onset of the Islamic revolution and the imposition of sanctions on Iran.

In explicit terms, life expectancy in Iran is estimated to be 78 years. With respect to literacy, a 5 March, 2026 article, by Sammanay Biswas, titled “How did Iran's female literacy rate jump nearly 140% in less than 50 years,” in the India-based newspaper TIMESNOW noted: “The government introduced massive literacy programs after the revolution, including the Literacy Movement Organization founded in 1979. The literacy drive targeted rural areas and adults who were not exposed to formal education in their youth.” In fact, according to a 5 September, 2018 UNESCO report, “'The Consolidated teaching of literacy and ICDL' (International computer driving licence) programme from the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Literacy Movement Organization (LMO), has been awarded one of the five 2018 International Literacy Prizes, the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.” 

 The UNESCO report further stated: “​The project aims to combine basic literacy skills with International Computer Driving License (ICDL) skills, and combines computer skills training, literacy courses, Persian literature, mathematics, Islamic teachings, culture and sciences. In 2017, more than 4,258 girls benefited from the programme …” With initiatives like that of LMO, it is understandable that the literacy level among girls in Iran is put around 99%. Moreover, in Iran, the percentage of student enrollment at the university level who are female is very high, reaching around 60% in some specialisations of medicine and healthcare and engineering, according to a 23 March, 2025 report by California Learning Resource Network. Interestingly, in 2014, Professor Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman and the first Iranian to win the prestigious Fields Medal in Mathematics which is like Math's Nobel Prize.

With respect to salary levels, en.terravisor.com noted: “The average gross salary (before taxes) makes 19 million riyals (455 US$) per month. The indicators, characterizing the level of population provision, also include the motorization rate. Every 1000 of Iranians have 178 cars of different kinds. … By global standards, Iran is a very 'cheap' country with an extremely low level of prices. According to the statistics of the data base Numbeo (2025), the food prices here are 72 % lower than in the USA. The house rent in Iran will be on average 81 % less expensive than the same like house or flat rent in the USA. The price of the basic consumer basket (including food, clothes, transport, mobile and internet connection, utility bills) in Iran is on average 67.6 % lower than in the USA.”

Moreover, regarding population health and the medicine quality, en.terravisor.com noted: “To estimate the medicine condition of the state one can orient on healthcare index. The index comprehensively displays how bad or good it is in the country with medical services. It considers such indicators as hospital facilities and medicines, staff professionalism and treatment cost. As of 2025, the healthcare system of Iran is rated at 52.8 points.” Further outcomes of Iran's investment in education were manifested in the country's development of military technology and war doctrine which have been amply displayed in the 2026 US-Israel war on the country.

Iran's high HDI and the Islamic ideology to which it is anchored have generated the focus, courage and resilience for which the country is reputed. Invaded by all sorts of countries in its over 5000-year-old history and civilisation without losing its sovereign pride, Iran can look at today's war and with Persian disposition, say, “this too shall pass.”