Iran officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use in the Western world in 1935, before which the country was widely known as Persia. Both Persia and Iran are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, Iran is the name used officially in political contexts. The name Iran is a cognate of Aryan, and means "Land of the Aryans".       

Dozens of pre-historic sites across the Iranian plateau point to the existence of ancient cultures and urban settlements in the fourth millennium BCE, centuries before the earliest civilizations arose in nearby Mesopotamia. Proto-Iranians first emerged following the separation of Indo-Iranians, and are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Aryan, (Proto-Iranian) tribes arrived in the Iranian plateau in the third and second millennium BCE, probably in more than one wave of emigration, and settled as nomads.    

The political system of the Islamic Republic is based on the 1979 Constitution. Absolute majority, 98.2 percent, of the Iranians voted positively for the Islamic Republic in a referendum held on April 1, 1979 after their victorious revolution under the leadership of Imam Khomeini. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Leader, or Vali-e Faqih, is in the head of state.

Iran's economy is a mixture of central planning, state ownership of oil and other large enterprises, village agriculture, and small-scale private trading and service ventures. Iran, with a population of 71 million people, is now preparing the required technical and scientific substructures and developing the expertise and efficient manpower in order to develop more and integrate into the world economy.

One of the characteristics of the Iranian society is the existence of different cultures and ethnic groups. Some Iranologists and tourists believe that this cultural diversity has made Iran more attractive. Northern, southern, central, eastern and western parts of Iran have their own specific subcultures due to Iran's vastness. Climatic features influence these cultures to a great extant. Each part of Iran has its specific subculture and because of recent communications between people, some subcultures have been influenced by others.

The Culture of Iran is a mix of ancient pre-Islamic culture and Islamic culture. Iranian culture probably originated in Central Asia and the Andronovo culture is strongly suggested as the predecessor of Iranian culture ca. 2000 BC. Iranian culture has long been a predominant culture of the Middle East and Central Asia, with Persian considered the language of intellectuals during much of the 2nd millennium, and the language of religion and the populace before that.