Persian Women (Iranian People)

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• published: 30 Jan 2017
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predominant ethnic group of Iran (formerly known as Persia). Although of diverse ancestry, the Persian people are united by their language, Persian (Farsi), which belongs to the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family. (Dari, a variant of the Persian language, is the lingua franca and an official language of Afghanistan and is also spoken in Pakistan.) The name Persia derives from Parsa, the name of the Indo-European nomadic people who migrated into southern Iran—to an area then called Persis—about 1000 bce. The first written reference to the Parsa occurs in the annals of Shalmaneser II, an Assyrian king, who reigned in the 9th century bce. As the Parsa expanded their sphere of political influence, particularly under the Achaemenian dynasty (559–330 bce), the entire Iranian plateau became known to outsiders (such as the ancient Greeks) as Persia; its various peoples were designated (collectively) the Persians. Subsequent rulers—including Alexander the Great, who conquered Persia in 330 bce, and the local Sāsānian dynasty (ruled 226–641 ce)—fostered cultural consolidation. The vast majority of Persians practice Shīʿite Islam. Before the Muslim conquest of Persia in the 7th century ce, most Persians followed Zoroastrianism, based on the teachings of the ancient prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra), who lived during the first half of the 1st millennium bce. In 21st-century Iran there remain a small number of Zoroastrians; larger numbers of Zoroastrians now live in South Asia. In addition to the Zoroastrians, Persian adherents of the Bahāʾī faith (which originated in Iran) constitute a tiny minority of the population, their religion having been strongly discouraged by the Muslim government. The Persian population is engaged in a broad array of occupations, in both urban and rural settings. In urban areas Persian society is stratified by profession; real-estate investors and commercial entrepreneurs occupy the highest position, followed by upper-level administrators, merchants, and clergy. The middle class consists largely of civil servants and assorted white-collar workers. The next group generally comprises labourers of various sorts, while the lowest class includes the unskilled and the unemployed. In rural areas, which are largely agrarian, social stratification is much less marked.