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
Counties of Iran Counties of Iran The counties of Iran, called shahrestan ( ), are administrative divisions of larger provinces ("ostan"). The word "shahrestan" comes from the Persian words ' ("city, town") and ' ("province, state"). "County", therefore, is a near equivalent to "shahrestan". Iranian counties are divided into one or more (), or districts. A typical county includes both cities ( ) and rural agglomerations ( ), which are groupings of adjacent villages. One city within the county serves as the capital of that county. Each county is governed by an office known as "farmandari", which coordinates different public events and agencies