Who the Iranian diaspora is

01Waves

Students before 1979; exiles of the revolution; those who left during the war with Iraq; skilled migrants and students since the 1990s; the activists of 2009; the generation of Woman, Life, Freedom; and those leaving since 2025.

Before 1979

about 100,000 students abroad in 1977 to 1978 (secondary source)

1979 to 1988

revolution, war and political exile

1990s to 2010s

family reunification, students and skilled migration

2017 onward

economic crisis, protest and war

02Older diasporas

Long before 1979: the Parsis of India, the Iranis of Mumbai, the Ajam of the Gulf, Shirazi heritage on the Swahili coast, Iranians in Iraq’s shrine cities and in the Caucasus.

03Faiths

Shi’a and Sunni Muslims, Sufi orders, Zoroastrians, Jews, Armenian and Assyrian Christians, Baha’is, Yarsan, Mandaeans and many secular Iranians.

04Calendar

Nowruz at the spring equinox, Chaharshanbe Suri, Sizdah Bedar, Tirgan, Mehregan, Yalda and Sadeh, alongside religious and remembrance days.

05Languages and scripts