ABSTRACT
The Islamic Republic's leadership, its surrogate Friday prayer imams, and its partisan supporters at home and abroad seize every opportunity to boast of the revolution's blessings and bounties. Friday sermons and an abundance of selective data are presented to reflect notable feats in education evidenced by increases in adult literacy, student attendance at all levels of study, published professional papers and winners of scientific Olympiads. The Iranian economy has been stagnant for the past three and a half decades due to the regime's inherent constitutional contradictions, faulty and unrealistic national goals, shifting politico-economic models, considerable bureaucratic incompetence, an anachronistic domestic moral code, and a distorted world view. Iran's post-revolution adversaries-President Saddam Hussain of Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan-were crushed by allied forces, making the clerical regime a regional superpower. A non-partisan evaluation of Iran's post-revolution economic performance may be made in three different ways.
