Overview Of Iran: Analytical Essay

The Islamic Republic of Iran, located near the Anatolia region in southeastern Asia, has gone through a series of significant transitions in political development and social structures from the Safavid Dynasty in the 16th century to the modern-day Islamic Republic sovereign rule. Unlike other countries in the Middle East, the Iranian state is viable and well established with a long history of dynasty rule from foreign conquerors and series of cultural diffusion that shapes its’ diverse landscape for many Iranians. Although Iran shares many religious and cultural features with the rest of the Islamic Middle East, its’ Persian heritage keeps Iranians apart from the rest of the Arab and Turkish world as part of national resurgence. Since 1979, the Islamic Revolution has maintained the use of authoritarianism and theocracy as a tool to restore social and political order for the nation, but the nation’s strict ideology provoke negative images for the world in multiple perspectives. From an economic standpoint, recent economic sanctions from countries, such as the United States, has kept Iran off many international trade negotiations they once used to be part of and now have to go through solving interior problems that hinders long-term economic growth. Despite the fact that the current-day Iranian regime is struggling with retaining the government’s identity and producing a strong economy, Iran can overcome the economic struggle by collaborating with the state leaders and the people to create effective agendas to fuel the following changes: driving away anti-money corruption, increasing foreign investment in Iran, and creating new sustainable jobs for market sectors.

From the recent times, the Iranian government has gone through debates between conservationists and reformers regarding the call to action for creating a transparent economic system in the country. Conservatives argue that Iran should operate economically strictly under the Islamic Sharia Law and other religious guidelines, while reformers stand in favor of the idea for modern free market and globalization to boost economic growth. In response to the failure of meeting the global financial benchmarks set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Majles, or the Iranian parliament, has stood in firm since 1989 with passing a legislation to prevent money laundering done by private bank institutions, but international pressure, under the Rouhani administration, has kept many reformers from reconsidering to stick with the legislative agenda (Isfahani, 2018). When it comes to dealing with sanctions imposed by other countries, one needs to think of international free trade as a privilege rather than a free exercise and the reason that it should be considered in this manner is because a country needs to be willing to make negotiations with other countries through mutual agreements and diplomatic relations for better results. In the long run, a country will gather more foreign investment in its’ borders as long as its government and people can show support for other countries’ perspectives, and going through sanctions for non-compliance of certain agreements definitely prevents an increase in foreign investment within Iran. Since the majority of the key global players follow similar financial benchmarks, adhering to the guidelines set by the FATF and other entities will help Iran cooperate strongly with them to improve economic growth within the next few years or do even better than the current GDP rate, which both the reformers and conservatives should agree to acknowledge.

Apart from dealing with economic sanctions through beneficiary agreements with other nations and compliance of global economic/financial standards, Iran should also focus on its’ ability to expand the nation’s workforce by giving women and young children access to education and vocational training. Similar to other developing countries, it is imperative that Iran should continue to provide educational services for an effective research and workforce management and efficiently compete with the global economy through exports of resources in the years to come (Rasian, 2009). A common lay man would say, “Education is the backbone of a nation,” and there is no doubt about that statement because the more people are educated, the higher chances they will have at succeeding and making progress for the country through employment. In order to make education expansion a reality, local governments in Iran should strive to provide apprenticeship programs and scholarships/financial aid for high-achieving, dedicated students to study in the field of their choice at the country’s major academic institutions, which can provide a great incentive to the nation’s economic ambitions and possibly prevent a greater brain drain. As survey results indicate a positive connotation between higher education and long-term economic growth in Iran, strong hands from women and other trained individuals can be beneficial in constructing school facilities to support young people and get them attracted into accelerated learning as well as collecting knowledge with the right tools, and this means everyone, regardless of gender or social status, has a powerful role in transforming Iran’s education system (Khorasgani, 2008). For certainty, access to higher education is another key indicator when it comes to implementing better economic reforms for Iran.

Certain economic measures needs to be implemented with efficiency across major public and private economic sectors in Iran to get the economy back in shape. As stated by an Atlantic Council monthly report from Chamlou (2019), two main internal policies that focuses on heavy nationalization of private markets and the lack of effective human workforce has led to the overall downfall on Iran’s economy from 1980 and onwards. This is an issue both conservatives and reformers have been consistently debating over and are still losing the common ground on tackling this issue. What is most shocking from the report findings is that Iranian women consist of “over 60% of university graduates and over 70% of students in STEM fields,” but make up 17% of the overall labor force participation rate. In a globalized world, Iran definitely needs to provide reserve duty (part-time) programs for these women to be able to show their expertise in their chosen fields, which can eventually boost economic growth since there would be less chance of seeing them work in jobs they are underqualified for.

Conservatives, especially the religious clerics, can feel that universal access to education and free market principles can steer Iranians away from strictly following the Islamic code of law, thus reversing the fundamental beliefs they fought for in the 1979 Revolution. However, the reality is not too bright as international pressure from the Western world through sanctions and non-negotiation has forced Iran to get sidetracked in the economic market. If Iran chooses to not take effective action against economic sanctions, the nation could suffer even more catastrophic results in the future. Given the fact that they have scarcity of vital human resources, it will be hard for its’ citizens to recover from another decade-long economic recession as well as for the government to catch up with the rest of the world. Providing a comprehensive plan of expanding education, complying with international standards, and implementing other major economic measures outlined in this paper does not require full elimination of Sharia law as the Islamic principles outlined in the Quran are still applicable in the modern society. Rather, Iran should take a holistic approach of applying techniques, such as effective macroeconomic fiscal/monetary policies from other countries, for beneficiary purposes with an open mind. In the end, Iran has a long way to go for sure, but the country’s hard-working citizens have a great potential to change things around in the future with strong ambitions and optimism.