Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran world. The Islamic Republic of Iran created shortly after the Islamic Revolution. The first major demonstrations with the intent to overthrow the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi began in January 1978, with a new, Islam-based, theocratic Constitution being approved in December 1979, ending the monarchy. The Shah fled Iran in January 1979 after large strikes and demonstrations against him and his regime paralyzed the country. Ayatollah Khomeini would return in February of the same year after a long period of exile, greeted in the capital of Tehran by several million Iranians. The final collapse of the Pahlavi dynasty occurred shortly after
Provinces of Iran Provinces of Iran Iran is subdivided into thirty-one provinces ( "Ostān", plural "Ostānhā"), each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: , "markaz") of that province. The provincial authority is headed by a Governor-General (Persian: "Ostāndār"), who is appointed by the Minister of the Interior subject to approval of the cabinet. Iran has held its modern territory since the Treaty of Paris in 1857. From 1906 until 1950, Iran was divided into twelve provinces: Ardalan, Azerbaijan, Baluchestan, Fars, Gilan, Araq-e Ajam, Khorasan, Khuzestan, Kerman, Larestan, Lorestan, and Mazandaran. In 1950, Iran