Iran Vocab

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

won presidential election of June 2005, conservative. won again in 2009 due to falsification in order to stop reformists

Assembly of Experts

a body of 88 members, all men and Islamic scholars, who are popularly elected for eight-year terms

Ayatollah

a Shiite religious leader in Iran

bonyads

parastatal foundations, wanted to help the disadvantaged (war vets and the poor)

Constitutional Revolution

1906, religious leaders, intellectuals, and members of the merchant class protested in favor of limitation on the powers of the Qajar monarchy

Expediency Council

appointed council that mediates between the Majlis and the Guardian Council over legislative disputes

Guardian Council

Appointed body that vets candidates for office and can overturn legislation

Mohammad Khatami

President of Iran from 1997-2005

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

First supreme leader of Iran, from 1980 to his death in 1989

Majlis

legislature of Iran

Mohammad Mosaddeq

Prime minister of Iran; deposed in 1953 by Operation Ajax

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Monarch of Iran from 1941 to 1979

Reza Shah Pahlavi

Monarch of Iran from 1925 to 1941

Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

President of Iran from 1989 to 1997

Hassan Rouhani

President of Iran since 2013

SAVAK

Secret police of prerevolutionary Iran

Sharia

System of Islamic law

Shiism

minority sect of Islam that differs from Sunnism over the rightful heir and proper descendants of the prophet Muhammad

Supreme leader

chief spiritual and political leader of Iran

velayat-e faqih

rule by Islamic jurists; also, Islamic Republic's political system, which places power in the hands of clerics

charisma

charm?

Fundamentalism

a view of religion as absolute and inerrant and that it should be legally enforced by making faith the sovereign authority

Image of the enemy

Psychological concept that focuses on stereotyping one's adversary.

Jihad

A holy struggle or striving by a Muslim for a moral or spiritual or political goal. "struggle in the way of God"

Islamicists

Muslims who are convinced that their faith should dominate politically. Extremists

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Westoxication

getting western ideas in 3rd world countries; Iranians saw it as corruption to their beliefs.

Chador/Hijab/Burka

Coverings

Rentier State

A country that obtains much of its revenue from the export of oil or other natural resources.