Public Holidays: The national holiday, Islamic Revolution Day, celebrates the victory of the Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979. Other official holidays are Dawn (the return of Ayatollah Khomeini from 14 years of foreign exile on February 1, 1979), Noruz (Iranian New Year, March 21), Islamic Republic Day (April 1), Thirteenth Day of New Year (April 2), and several Islamic religious holidays that are reckoned in accordance with the lunar calendar and thus do not re-occur on the same dates each year.

Flag: The flag, adopted after the 1978–79 Revolution, features three

horizontal bars, green (on top), white, and red, representing, respectively,

Islam, peace, and courage. The bars are divided by stylized script. The

white bar features a centered, red, abstract representation of the name

Allah in the shape of a tulip.

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This series of profiles of foreign nations is part of the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The profiles offer brief, summarized information on a country’s historical background, geography, society, economy, transportation and telecommunications, government and politics, and national security. In addition to being featured in the front matter of published Country Studies, they are now being prepared as stand-alone reference aides for all countries in the series, as well as for a number of additional countries of interest. The profiles offer reasonably current country information independent of the existence of a recently published Country Study and will be updated annually or more frequently as events warrant.