ABSTRACT
The president is Iran’s chief executive, elected for a four-year term through universal adult suffrage. Iran’s unique attempt to create a theocratic democracy in the late twentieth century that began in 1979 continues to evolve today. Women were dramatically affected by the Iranian Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A radically different type of regime from the Islamic Republic of Iran was found in Baathist Iraq, the nation against which Iran became embroiled in a brutal conflict between 1980 and 1988. Iraq’s government under Saddam grew into something of a modern Leviathan: formidable and menacing enough to counter internal and external threats to hegemony, while actively promoting rapid modernization in all sectors of its economy. The new rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran, now steeped in the messianic fervor of their young regime, were ready to do battle with Saddam.
