Iran International
Former US diplomat John Limbert, a hostage during the 1979 Tehran embassy takeover, told Eye for Iran that Iran's society has radically developed in recent decades even as its ruling system has barely changed.
“Society appears to me changed a lot. Very different,” Limbert said. “If you look at the government, the ruling apparatus, it’s been remarkable, it’s basically stayed the same. The same little men’s club, elite men’s club has run the country.”
“Look at the literacy rate. When we were there, it was about 50 percent. Now it’s well over… ninety five, ninety six.”
Literacy has been one of the biggest structural changes in Iranian life.
In 1976, 48.8 percent of people aged 10 to 49 were literate. By 2021, that figure had reached 97.1 percent. The literacy gap between men and women dropped from 23.4 percent to 6 percent.
Limbert served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and spent 14 months as a hostage after the US Embassy was seized in November 1979. Nine of those months were in solitary confinement.
“There’s a narrative out there that we were treated well, but we were not. Fourteen months I was there; nine months I was in solitary.”
Archival video online shows a striking exchange inside the embassy compound in 1979: Limbert speaking directly with Ali Khamenei who was a senior official in the new government and is now Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Limbert greets Khamenei and makes a wry remark about Iranian hospitality, saying that in Iran “even when a guest insists, he must go, he is told ‘no, no, you must stay.’” It was his polite way of saying he wanted to leave, delivered through the cultural language of taarof, the elaborate politeness that shapes everyday interactions.
'Back of beyond'
Limbert first traveled to Iran in 1962, later returned as a Peace Corps volunteer and as an instructor at Pahlavi University in Shiraz. He speaks Persian and earned all his degrees from Harvard University.
While the ruling structure of the Islamic Republic is still dominated by the same generation that took power in 1979, Iranian society itself, Limbert says, has changed in profound ways.
Limbert said the most dramatic change is visible far from Tehran, in places that once felt remote and forgotten.
“Yasuj was the back of beyond… now there’s a university there. Darab in Fars… it was a dead town. There was nobody there. Now there’s a university there.”
He praised the creative boom that has emerged under pressure.
“Culture is amazing. Look at the films that are coming out of Iran… look at the creativity.”
Recent scenes from inside Iran capture this contrast vividly. A marathon in the Persian Gulf island of Kish took place on Friday with more than 5,000 runners. Footage shows most female runners without hijab — a sight that would have been unthinkable decades ago.
Yet these images exist alongside something darker.
Authorities have executed over 1000 people thus far in 2025, the highest number of yearly executions in Iran according to Amnesty International. This includes political detainees, ethnic minorities and protesters. Human rights groups report intensified repression, mass arrests and new surveillance campaigns.
And while society has modernized, the ruling system has barely moved.
“They took power in ’79, and they’ve held it ever since. They or their followers are still around," said Limbert.
For Limbert, Iran is moving in two directions at once. “It’s going in both directions at the same time.” He does not predict collapse, but he questions endurance.
“I don’t think it can last forever. But I don’t know how long.”
US President Donald Trump attended the ceremony and received the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), world football’s governing body, for promoting global peace and unity.
“This is truly one of the great honors of my life. Beyond awards, we have saved millions and millions of lives," Trump said. "The Congo is an example. India, Pakistan — so many different wars we were able to end, in some cases, a little bit before they started."
Iran will open the tournament against New Zealand on 15 June in Seattle, with further group games in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Several senior Iranian football officials were denied US visas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw in Washington, prompting an initial threat by the Iran Football Federation (FFIRI) to boycott the event.
Out of nine members of the delegation who applied for visas, only four were granted entry, including head coach Ardeshir Amir Ghalenoei, while other senior officials, including federation president Mehdi Taj, were denied.
Despite the visa restrictions, the partial delegation attended the draw ceremony, ensuring Iran’s participation.
The team has now reached its seventh World Cup and its fourth in a row. Their arrival in the US comes against the backdrop of longstanding entry restrictions that continue to shape travel rules for Iranian nationals.
The top two teams and the eight best third-placed sides will advance to the round of 32.
Ali Akbar Velayati's remarks on X were a rare sharp public rebuke to one of Iran's Arab neighbors across the Persian Gulf, with whom Tehran has long feuded but has shifted toward detente in recent years as pressure from the United States and Israel mounted.
The Southern Transitional Council, a separatist force in Yemen which has long been backed by Abu Dhabi, jolted the stalemated conflict in that country this week.
Their surprise march on oil-rich southeastern territory aims to strengthen their bid to revive an independent state of South Yemen.
The armed Houthi movement, a foe of the STC, is not directly challenged by the latest fighting but their patrons in Tehran appear rattled.
"The government of the UAE must be asked: What were you doing in Yemen?" Velayati wrote. "Are you also interested in claiming ownership of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait? Why did you occupy the island of Socotra, and what was its connection to America’s maritime ambitions? Do you also claim ownership over this island and over the Strait of Hormuz?"
Velayati is a veteran stalwart of high level decision-making circles in the Islamic theocracy and his statements are widely viewed to reflect Khamenei's thinking.
The oil-rich Emirates, a tourism and trade hub, sees itself as a rising regional power and has backed allies in conflicts marring Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
It maintains a military presence on the remote Arabian Sea island of Socotra and has economic interests in ports in Djibouti and the breakaway republic of Somaliland.
Joining a regional conflagration pitting Iran's armed allies against Israel, the Houthis in Yemen launched attacks on international shipping for two years until a Gaza ceasefire in October in the Red and Arabian seas connected by the Bab al-Mandab strait.
The United States and its Persian Gulf allies viewed the attacks as a bid to expand Iranian hegemony in the strategic chokepoint leading to the Suez Canal.
Washington, in an annual national security assessment released earlier on Friday, downplayed the threat from Iran after US attacks on its nuclear facilities in June but vowed to keep the Straight of Hormuz open.
Tehran officials have repeatedly vowed to close the waterway, through which much of the world's energy exports from both Iran and the Arabian Peninsula flows, in the event of a conflict.
'Fantastical transnational empire'
Velayati went on to accuse Abu Dhabi of killing Muslims in a bid to build a regional empire in connivance with a Western colonial agenda.
"The blood of tens of thousands of Muslims in Yemen — and now in Sudan — has been spilled as a result of your expansionist policies. It must now be asked: What does the UAE want from Sudan," he said. Will you answer whether you are cooperating with Britain in Sudan or not?
"Why, in the view of many analysts, do your actions raise suspicions of an attempt to build a 'fantastical transnational empire'?" he added.
Tehran and Abu Dhabi have long been at loggerheads over three Persian Gulf islands controlled by Iran since 1971 but claimed by the United Arab Emirates.
Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa islands have been held by Tehran since they were seized by the Shah after the withdrawal of British forces from the region. Voices across the fractured Iranian political spectrum reject UAE claims, which are backed by Europe and the United States.
"Are your repeated empty claims regarding the Iranian islands also part of this cooperation with colonial powers?" Velayati continued. "How can anyone claim ownership of Abu Musa, which belonged to Iran thousands of years before the formation of the United Arab Emirates?"
"The patience of the Iranian people is not unlimited."
