Crafting ‘Art of Persia’: Debates on National and Religious Identity in Contemporary Iran

While the statesmen of the Islamic Republic never openly adhered to nationalism in the early years after the revolution, they still continued many of the nationalist policies inherited from the Pahlavi dynasty. This includes the Persian-only education system as well as compulsory national military service. This also includes Iran’s nationalist narrative: the school curriculum for history education continued largely on the same line as before, focused on a continuous Iranian identity throughout history.