- Main articles: Provinces of Iran, Counties of Iran
Iran is subdivided into thirty one provinces (Persian: استان Ostān), each governed from a local center, usually the largest local city, which is called the capital (Persian: Markaz) of that province. The provinces of Iran further subdivided into counties called shahrestan (Persian: شهرستان shahrestān), an area inside an ostan, and consists of a city center, few bakhsh (Persian: بخش bakhsh) and many villages around them. There are usually a few cities (Persian: شهر shahr) and rural agglomerations (Persian: دهستان dehestān) in each county. Rural agglomerations are a collection of a number of villages. One of the cities of the county is appointed as the capital of the county. The world Shahrestan comes from the Persian words shahr and ostan, which mean city (or town) and province, respectively. The nearest equivalent of Shahrestan in English would be sub-province or county. Each Shahrestan has a governmental office known as Farmandari which coordinates different events and governmental offices. The Farmandar, or the head of Farmandari, is the governor of the Shahrestan which is the highest governmental authority in the division.
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Famous quotes containing the word iran:
“During my administration the most unpleasant and perhaps most dramatic negotiations in which we participated were with the various leaders of Iran after the seizure of American hostages in November 1979. The Algerians were finally chosen as the only intermediaries who were considered trustworthy both by me and the Ayatollah Khomeini. After many aborted efforts, final success was achieved during my last few hours in the White House.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)