| |||||||
| Anthem | "Ey Iran" | ||||||
| Capital | Rhages | ||||||
| Largest city | Rhages | ||||||
| Other cities | Estakhr, Shiraz, many others | ||||||
| Language official |
Farsi (national) Other Iranic languages (regional) | ||||||
| others | Arabic, Azerbaijiani | ||||||
| Religion main |
Irreligion, Shi'a Islam | ||||||
| others | Sunni Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism | ||||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
Iranian | ||||||
| others | Turkic, Arabic | ||||||
| Demonym | Aryan, Iranian | ||||||
| Government | Federal parliamentary monarchy, nationalist state | ||||||
| Legislature | Gulshan i Shadagan | ||||||
| Shahanshah | Ardashir IV | ||||||
| royal house: | Rajavi | ||||||
| Grand Vizier | Dariush Aria | ||||||
| Population | 115,400,000 people | ||||||
| Established | January 5, 1941 | ||||||
| Currency | Aryan daric (or Iranian zar) (IRZ) | ||||||
| Time Zone | UTC+3 | ||||||
| summer | yes | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .er | ||||||
| Organizations | UN, NAA | ||||||
The Sublime State of Aryanam (in Farsi Dowlat-e Elliye Aryānām), also referred to as Iran (Ērānshahr) or Persia, is an independent nation located in the Middle East. Aryanam is bordered to the west by Assyria and the Islamic State, to the north by the Eurasian Union and the Caspian Sea, to the east by the Indic Federation and Afghanistan, and to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Ormus. Aryanam has a population of over 100 million, making it the sixth largest state by population in Asia. The capital and largest city of Aryanam is Rhages (usually known to its inhabitants as Tehran).
Iran is heir to one of the world's oldest civilisations (a title hotly contested with China) and the oldest extant dynastic monarchy (albeit with a recent change in dynasty). The Iranian people have led several important empires, such as the Achaemenid and Sassanid empires pre-Islam, as well as several important sultanates and caliphates. Under these empires and once again under dynasties such as the Safavids and the Afsharids Iran was an international superpower, one of the wealthiest and most powerful states in existence at the time. Slow but certain decline ensued after the collapse of these two Islamic dynasties and the rise of the Azeri-descended Qajars, which isolated Iran to foreign influence and saw the state slowly fall behind in international development. Iran became a partial victim of the Russo-British conflict of influence known as the Great Game, until revolution established the strongly nationalistic state recognisable today, which refused to join either bloc during the Cold War out of disdain for both power blocs. Liberalisation since the collapse of the Reagan dictatorship and the end of the Cold War has ensued.
Today, Aryanam is considered a great power and, together with China and Brazil, one of the few major nations that continues to consistently oppose the Western power bloc of Eurasia, the Imperial Federation and the United States that has formed after the 90s. Aryanam is a highly-developed nation with a vibrant economy, albeit its most important exportation is still oil and natural gas, in which it is the second largest exporter of both (only exceeded by Aryanam's traditional rival and enemy, the Islamic State) as well as the single greatest producer of geothermal and solar energy in the world. Aryanam is also a nuclear weapons state.
Aryan politics are based on the 1989 Constitution, which replaced the previous, much more restrictive, 1941 Constitution. Iran is a parliamentary monarchy with high degrees of political participation, albeit a very nationalistic culture that restricts participation with other states; indeed, the only nations to have any sort of friendly relations with Iran are Assyria, Judea, Afghanistan and Kordestan.
Government[]
Administrative Divisions[]
The 1941 constitution created seven autonomous states that have "historically belonged to different sections of the one whole that is the Iranian people", granting them high degrees of autonomy in regards to political and social functions, including the dictation of different official languages and different election commissions. These seven autonomous states are Balochistan, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Media, Persia, and Parthia. An eighth region, Erak, which had been directly administered by the government from 1941 to 1989, was admitted as a State in 1991. Finally, there's the Autonomous Community of Rhages, which is independent from Parthia and acts as its own autonomous city-state as well as the capital of the country.
Politics[]
Composition of the Popular Assembly of Iran by party. From left to right Tudeh, the Green Party, Jebhei, Iran Novin, the White List, Rastakhiz, SUMKA, Mardom
The Iranian government is a parliamentary monarchy, with most of the political power reserved to democratic systems vested in a bicameral Parliament. The Upper house, the Grand Senate, is composed of 150 seats, of which 50 are directly elected, 50 are appointed by the national government, 43 by the seven states, and seven by an assortment of "minorities" (divided into two Azeri seats, one Arab, one Zoroastrian, one Baha'i, one Jewish and one Christian). The Lower house, which has almost the entirety of legislative power, is appointed by popular vote over nine electoral districts based on the eight states and the Autonomous Community of Rhagas.
The Iranian political system is a multiparty one, characterised by a divided left and a relatively united right, but also by extreme nationalism on all but three political parties (the green Green Party, the social democratic New Iran Party, and the neo-liberal White List). The parties are as follows, from left to right:
- The communist Tudeh List, outlawed in all electoral lists except for Rhages and Mazandaran,
- The environmental, social-democratic Green Party, outlawed in Media, Persia and Irak over supposed foreign pressure to support the party (and for its opposition to oil drilling expansion),
- The social democratic, nationalistic and socially conservative Jebhei, one of the three major parties, currently the chief opposition to the Government,
- The social-liberal, socially liberal and globalist Eran Novin Party - an assortment of minority groups interests and pro-democratisation movements that support Iran's opening to the West,
- The neoliberal, also globalist White List,
- The nationalistic and conservative Rastakhiz Party, the party of power in Iran and the current governing party,
- The Boulangist, expansionistic SUMKA, which wishes to return to the 1941 constitution and annex Afghanistan, and
- The Islamic fundamentalist Mardom Party, banned everywhere but Erak and Balochistan.
The most common government in Aryanam is a near-majority by Rastakhiz propped up (but not in coalition) with SUMKA, albeit Jebhei has ruled in the past.
Demographics[]
Race and Language[]
The Aryan electoral roll, which is in charge of conducting the national census, recognises only four major ethnicities:
- Persian (which accounts for 53.7% of the population of Aryanam),
- Other Aryan (which accounts for 25.4% of the population), further subdivided into
- Kurdish,
- Balochi,
- Luri,
- Mazandarani,
- East Iranian, and
- Other Iranian
- and Non-Aryan (which accounts for the other 20.9% of the population).
The ethnic division between "Iranians" and "Non-Iranians" has always been and remains an important and a very sensitive topic within Aryan history and politics, as the nationalistic governments that ruled Iran between 1941 and 1989 (and even continue to rule Iran to a lesser degree) decreed the importance of the Aryan cultural nation and the Aryan space, trying to delete minority languages from existence within the country, as they were considered "foreign influences" and even "contaminants". Aryanam underwent a period of systematic oppression in which non-Iranian language speakers were treated as second-class citizens.
Arab civilians forced from their homes, 1947.
The Azeri language suffered the brunt of this period of oppression, with Azeris being particularly prosecuted by Aryan authorities as "Eurasian spies", the language being prohibited from public use, and with exclusively Persian-language public services. This treatment continues, to a much lesser degree, of course, even after liberalisation, with Iran often jailing Azerbaijani rights activists for "separatism". The Azeri Lives Matter movement, with international support (especially from the Government of Azerbaijan in Eurasia) has recently been founded as a political party which supports Azeri rights, but even then they're oppressed by banning from electoral rolls in the state of Media (where most Azeris live). Arabs have also suffered similar treatment due to Aryanam's enmity with the Islamic State, with even overt ethnic cleansing (similar to that in Assyria in the 1940s which Aryanam has still not apologised for.
Religion[]
According to the latest census, the religious composition of Aryanam is as follows:
- Muslims - 61.4% of the population, further divided into:
- Shi'a Muslims - 53.2% of the population
- Sunni Muslims - 5.2%
- Sufis - 3.0%
- Zoroastrians - 5.3%
- Baha'i Faith - 4.7%
- Jews - 2.6%
- Christians - 2.2%
- Other religions - 1.7%
- Irreligion - 24.1% of the population
Religion has been a major part of the Aryan nationalist push for uniqueness from the rest of the world, through the development of an "Iranian nation" that transcends religious divisions, that used to be so problematic within the Middle East. For this reason, the government of the Iranian state is aggressively secular, with little to any influence by part of most religious heads. The large rise of irreligion has been, at least partially, pushed by the state's (by now mostly successful) attempts to defeat the Ayatollahs and establish a secular state within Iran.
However, it is not fair to assess Aryanam's policies as "laicité", as there is clear preferentialism granted to "uniquely Iranian religions" - most notably the Zoroastrian faith and Baha'i, both created and practiced mostly in Iran throughout their history (though today Zoroastrianism is also practiced in the Indic Federation. The government has often ignored and even encouraged attempts at exerting influence by part of these two religions, which have led to their numbers rapidly growing within the Aryan population. After the 1970s, with the end of Ayatollah influence on secular politics through the disbandment of the Principalist Party, Aryan authorities have also quietly promoted Shi'a Islam, which is also almost exclusive to Iran (and a way to soothe Azeri minorities angry with the oppression of their language).
Sunni Islam, the religion of the Islamic State, has been particularly oppressed, with Sunni authorities heckled and prohibited from expanding their churches, praying at certain times, and sometimes even from publicly professing their faith. The only place where Sunni repression has been in any way restrained is in Balochistan.