How Iran became Iran?

Iran was long known as Persia until the Iranian (or Islamic) revolution in 1979 which officially changed it's name to the Islamic republic of Iran. Iran adopted Islam as state religion and the Ayatollah, an Islamic religious rank, the head of state. The country remained a democracy however and every 4 years a new president is chosen. the president has most power but the ayatollah has some too.
in 2005 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected as president of Iran. he is a conservative Islamic president who continues the trend of cutting off Iran to the outside world, under his governing lots of western things became illegal, such as western music and certain TV shows. anyone who disobeys these laws gets punished harshly. If you for example stole something, now matter how expensive it is, your hand gets chopped off. if a woman cheats on her husband, she gets stoned or hung. many people, including foreigners who for example accidentally crossed the border with Iran, were hung.

Ahmadinejad also ordered the construction of nuclear power facilities to generate electricity for Iran. many people around the world believe that this is also used to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies this but the International Atomic Energy Agency, an international organization that sorts out Nuclear issues world wide, has declared that Iran's plans are not peaceful.

Before the Islamic revolution, Iran had close ties to the west and even to Israel, Iran was the second muslim nation to regognize Israel. During WW2 trade routes in Iran were used by the allied forces to trade with Russia. This all changed after the Islamic revolution. Iran does no longer recognize Israel and has declared it the enemy of Islam. Iran refers to Israel as "the Zionist regime" or "the occupied land". Iran has also worsened relations to Europe and the US. Iran often calls the US "Big devil" and Israel "little devil".

Because of these threats the western world and Israel are very cautious with Iran.