Political Science

It has been for long perceived by very many people that women rights are an issue only in typical religious countries where religion is law. Other still, to make it worse perceive women rights as not being a major issue. However, going contrary to theses beliefs, women rights are a very important issue in the contemporary world used as a measure of the comprehension of the global well being of mankind. Gardam (1998), states that human rights reports indicate how womens rights have not been observed. In some countries, though women rights policies may be present, they are changed in such a way that at the final end they are still violated. Religion and traditional beliefs has been a major barrier to the implementation of womens rights. Some governments though they have implemented women rights policies, are not honoring their promises. In other countries, these rights are greatly upheld (Gardam, 1998). The United States is a very good example of the countries that have upheld the womens rights. Though womens rights policies are being established in every corner of the world, they are still faced by a major challenge of violation.

Violation of women rights
According to Gardam (1998), women in the past and also the modern world have been faced by a lot of circumstances that violate their rights. Some of these include being denied a chance to participate in decision making for matters that directly affect them, lack of fair political representation, denied ownership of property, poor working conditions and wages, domestic violence, and restricted provision of basic amenities

Violation of womens rights at the work place
Women have in the past constituted the highest percentage of the most hardworking people. The type of work done by women ranges from simple office work to the very difficult household chores. A lot of agricultural products in the world market are produced by women, yet they have been receiving little if any credit for this. The world has adopted a trend of giving women jobs that are of low status as compared to men. The types of jobs that have been in the past assigned to women are more precarious with few social benefits and little security. As a result, a lot of women end up being underpaid (Pickup, Williams, and Sweetman, 2001).

Violation of womens rights in property ownership
According to Benschop (2004), women have not only been earning less as compared to men but also have owned few assets. Financial house hold constraints and little salaries have both contributed to lack of capital to invest by women. Traditions have been the major hindering block for ownership of properties by women. Many traditions do not allow inheritance of properties by women. In some communities, if a woman owned something before she was married, that property automatically becomes her husbands property the moment they get married. This greatly violates the rights of women to own property (Benschop, 2004).

Gender discrimination
According to Pickup, Williams, and Sweetman (2001), gender discrimination in some communities starts even before a child is born. Some of these communities have greater preference for boys than girls. As a result, they end up killing girls before they are born. Others still do not educate their daughters. During adolescence, the girl child in some community experiences a lot of violence. These range from female genital mutilation, premature marriage, sexual abuse and trafficking. During their old age, women suffer in the hands of abusive men and governments that at times do not look at their plight. Poverty, a major human disaster is mostly experienced by women (Pickup, Williams, and Sweetman, 2001).

Womens rights
The basic human rights of women are addressed in the treaty for the rights of women. They are aimed at reducing brutality and prejudice against the girl child. They do this by ensuring the girl child has equal access to all basic requirements in life as the boy child. These requirements include proper health provision, quality education and security from any form of abuse. Women rights have been a major tool for use by women in the world in the process of fighting against violence and discrimination. Some of the womens rights include reproductive rights, gender equality, right to choose to stay at home, right to security,
Reproductive rights

According to Gandhi (2003), it is the rights of women to be allowed to participate in matters of family planning, healthcare and other reproductive health related matters. The government should make sure this right is upheld by providing more health facilities that will attend to womens matters pertaining reproductive health. David (2004), states that the Government should also develop policies that do not hinder improvement of women health and family planning.  In a family setting, a woman should be given a chance to contribute in family planning. This will play a very great role in minimizing poverty mostly brought about by a large number of children. Allowing women to access to information on reproduction will enable them make concrete decisions in family planning. This will greatly help the government in controlling population growth. The freedom of women to control their reproduction according to Gandhi (2003) is a great contributor to socioeconomic success of not only the family but also the government. It is the right of women to be accorded security towards sexual and workplace harassment, sexual assault and matrimonial harassment. Women have the right to choose their partner. In case of an unplanned pregnancy, a woman has the right to decline and refuse any coercion to have an abortion from her partner or any other person (Gandhi, 2003).

Gender equality
Women have in the past faced discrimination and disempowerment in all aspects of their life. Considering the fact they play the major part in child rearing, this disempowerment have negatively affected the well being of children and the whole community. Observance of gender equality has great benefits to both women and children, these benefits later trickle to the community. Families should empower women in order to overcome poverty and increase general productivity of the family. Empowering women will give children a chance to live to their potential. Development of productive families will in turn lead to growth and development of the nation (Gandhi, 2003).

There are three major sectors of life where gender equality is a major issue. These are household, work place, and political sectors. According to David (2004), universal declaration of human rights affirms that women should be given equal chances to take part in economic, social, and political development. Women should also be given an equal share of the developments of the world. It is the right of women to have equal access to employment as well as equal salary for the same job. The presence of women in the work place should not be generally regarded as gender equality. Gender equality requires that women be given the same jobs as men if they have the qualifications required. Promotion of gender equality and empowering women will play a major role in the attainment of other development goals like alleviation of hunger, reduction of childrens death, improvement of maternal health, tackling of HIVAIDS pandemic, and safeguarding the environment (Pickup, Williams, and Sweetman, 2001).

Right for women to choose to stay home
Women have achieved a lot in their fight to integrate the labor force. However, this does not mean that all women should be forced to work against their wish. Women have the right to choose whether to join the labor force and provide for the family or not. If a woman chooses to stay at home, it does not give her partner the mandate to mistreat her or take her work for granted. Even if the household work is not paid for, she has the right to this lifestyle as long as it is fulfilling to her (Gardam, 1998).

Political rights for women
Davis and Go (2009), states that women have the right to stand for election and to vote. The issue of gender equality has been politicized so much by men who see women as a threat to their political gains. This makes gender equality a very sensitive political matter. It has been proposed that in order to have equal representation of women in the political arena, some seats should be reserved for them. However, this has raised a major debate as to whether seats should be reserved for them or let them battle it out with men in the field. Some argue that if women are for gender equality, then why accept reservation of some positions (Davis and Go, 2009).

Governments mandate to fight against discrimination towards women
The governments around the globe have undertaken the responsibility of ensuring that women human rights are upheld and all forms of gender discrimination are abolished. The government makes sure that it supports the implementation of the exciting human rights frameworks in order to ensure that the rights are impacted and realized. It is the mandate of the government to take special consideration on vulnerable groups particularly the poor women. The government has the mandate of ensuring that all frameworks that respond to cases of violation of womens human rights are working. It is the duty of the government to make and respect policies that uphold gender equality (David, 2004).

Conclusion
It is high time people stopped perceiving womens human rights as an issue only in typical religious countries and realize how important the matter is in our day to day life. Human rights policies though they have been implemented by numerous countries, much need to be done to ensure these policies are followed to the latter. Some governments and countries like the United States though have done a commendable job concerning womens rights. Womens rights have suffered violation at work place, at home, in property ownership and gender discrimination. Much has been done in order to reclaim the lost glory of womens rights in terms of fighting for gender equality, reproductive rights political freedom and rights to make their own decision. The government has not been left behind in the process of implementing womens human rights. The government has implemented policies that make sure women are not discriminated by men in whatever circle of life.

Elections have been considered as a democratic practice, a system of establishing a government that is supposed to reflect the interests of the people.  However, the  degree of the effectiveness of representation has been subject to discussion this is to say that although elections are a means to provide channels that determine the prevailing essence of governance that will be established according to the expressed interest of the majority, how this translates into substantial policy representation elicits further discourse.

This paper evaluates three articles that address the issue of policy representation.  In an article by Dalton (1985), the author discussed the emergence of the party system as what seems like an effective electoral selection as a system applied by many Western democracies, the party system has become a venue of representation especially as these parties --- in an ideal scenario --- function on behalf of the interests of its supporters.  However, Dalton pointed out that when it comes to the actual performance of these parties once installed in the government, there are certain issues in which the gap between the policymakers and the public is more apparent.  The second article is Huber and Powells (1994) discussion on the congruence of the vision on liberal democracy between the policy-maker and the citizens.  This is a critical factor because the latter, albeit their representations based on principles, still have to function within the spectrum of politics, and cooperation with the other representatives from different parties are also considered to be crucial.  Last but not the least, McDonald, et al. (2004) highlight the median mandate, especially in terms of how citizens express their preferences of governance and how elections reflect the combination of emphasis on the issues that need to be addressed in the particular society.

Dalton Political Parties and Representation
Daltons articles lies in the theory that parties serve as the political linkages between the public and the political elite.  The differences in the opinion between the masses and the elite in the pressing issues need to be balanced by the parties, and it is the presence of the political legislator or the delegate that further secures this linkage.  In the article, Dalton examines these dynamics through the data resulting from the elections of the European Parliament however, the author stressed that the study was not interested in the Europarliament elections per se... (but to) compare the beliefs of top-level party elites and the party voters in cross-national terms (Dalton, 1985, 272).  In any case, the core of this article is how affective the citizen-elite agreement is, and how these differences determine the degree of representation, especially as the delegate usually comes from the political elite.

The measure of difference between mass public attitudes and the perceptions of the elite highlights how the social spectrum is made up of citizens with varying degrees of interests.  How the delegate or representative positions himself or herself in these dynamics do echo the level of political sophistication which combines with the ability to relate to the general public.  Overall, the article has a strong working concept that mostly serves as the fundamental element of the study this is to say that Dalton managed to present effectively and sufficiently the theories behind the dynamics of the public and the elite, and how these influence the level of representation in governance.  The author has established the importance of the agreement between the views of the citizens and the elite, thus providing a significant insight on how parties try to find the middle ground that will determine their ideological leanings and performance as representatives.

However, in application of this theoretical platform versus the actual sampling of the study (the data from the Europarliament elections), what would have made this study more effective is how Dalton would have actually compared the evaluation of these data from the elections and the results of actual party representation.  The strong suit of the article is that it weighs heavily more on establishing the role of the linkages, but the paper could have taken the study more and examined the years of governance resulting from that elections.  Given that the importance of measure is based on the agreement from an actual data, these theoretical foundations would make greater sense if the author had taken the study further and compare the relationship with the actual performance.  What the article mostly did was point out which issues the mass public and the elite had significant differences, but how these translates into representation was lacking in the discussion of the paper. Thus, it is easy to discuss the ideological leanings of the public, the elite and the representatives, but for such article and given the opportunity that the election resulted to some years of performance of the Europarliament resulting from that election, the study would have made greater impact if it just stepped beyond the concept of representation and actually looked at the linkages that was forged after that exercise of democracy.

Huber and Powell Congruence and Liberal Democracy
Huber and Powell focuses on liberal democracy and how congruence is a characteristic of democratic exercise.  This time, the authors highlight the difference between what potential conflicts in the idea of representation the publics preferences and how these preferences are actually represented by the policy-makers.  The authors thereby mentioned the visions of democracy the Majority Control vision and the Proportionate Influence Vision.  The former is a simplification of a general understanding of a working democracy, and that is to make sure what the majority wants will be implemented.  The latter, on one hand, defines democracy by means of finding a consensus that also takes into consideration the interests of the other citizens who do not necessarily belong to the greater majority.  These visions are then evaluated as a model of elections or a venue of congruence.  The authors stated the congruence prediction of the two visions in Majority Control the government is the policymaker and is close to the media voter whereas the Proportionate Influence needs to have a median legislator but average weight of all policymakers will be closer to the median voter (p. 302).  The study resulted to the Proportionate Influence Vision giving better venues of congruence but the authors also mentioned precautions especially as this could lead to the formation of a coalition government.

Overall, Huber and Powells article presents a very well-rounded discussion on congruence and liberal democracy.  The thesis of the paper shows how the authors established a definition of democracy outside its common notions how democracy may be also served without just emphasising the needs of the majority but rather to find a balance between the majoritys preferences and also factoring in the concerns of the minority.  What comes to mind in this argument is how in reality, the concerns of the popular vote may not necessarily serve the best interest of the nation.  This explains why the authors pointed out that democracy is not just singular in dimension.  Furthermore, in order to integrate objectivity in the study, Huber and Powell also discussed the pros and cons of the resulting vision of congruence according to the tenets of a working liberal democracy in the context of representation (the Proportionate Influence Vision).  The article also concluded by mentioning how the results of the study could possibly be different should the political environment the study examined was different.  The authors admitted the shortcomings of the study and identified the factors that could make the study contrastive.

On the other hand Huber and Powells article could be further strengthened by citing examples in which the balance of citizen preference and policymaking could be contested.  As the article is mostly founded on a strong theoretical framework, the ideas could be further expounded by identifying certain policy issues that could use an application of the authors theoretical recommendations.  As the article mentioned the results of the study was general, and admittedly the authors found the shortcomings in the research design.  This shows how studies that are mostly founded on theory and concepts would gain more mileage through application, and the authors could easily find an conflicting issue in policy and governance, and present how the theoretical discussions of the study can actually lead to a set of possible solutions.

McDonald, et al. and the Median Mandate
McDonald, Mendes and Budge (2004) presents an interesting point in relation to Huber and Powells article how the popular mandate has been more influential to policymaking albeit the formation of a proportional representation system such as a coalition government.  This time, McDonald, et al. highlights the median mandate which lies in the median party in the parliament.    Thus, the authors proposed a specific set of roles of the median party which are basically instrumental to the definition of the legislative majority.  The authors then supported its thesis through collected data from 254 elections and 471 governments... (from) the first constitutionally authorised election after 1949 to the formation of any government in 1995 (p. 5).  Hence, to prove that the proposed median mandate would work, the authors relied on these data.  The framework of the median is based on the scale of votes according to the dynamics of the left and right.

The main strength of this article is the research design basically, as the authors had to prove the critical role of the median in a government consisted of polar opposites and other forms of opposition, the proposition of the median mandate already puts the centrists as the most valid choice in the elections.  By means of using actual election results, the authors showed how policies and policymaking are actually influenced by biases and distortions, in addition to the conflicts in the distribution of representation whether there is a pronounced majority or there are to parties that are neck-in-neck in control, the authors found that the median mandate functions in contemporary democracies.

However, what can be deemed problematic in the idea of the median mandate is that it already puts the centrist positioning as the most reasonable choice.  Although it seems that the median serves to balance conflicts, it does not necessarily mean that the interest of the people and the nation in general will be well served.  Hence, what can be criticised in this article, albeit the strengths in the research design, is the ideological element.  The authors proposed that in order to apply the median mandate the important step is to change the concept of the elections.  Such proposition can be considered problematic mostly because it somehow takes away the core element of democracy, and that is acknowledging the voice of the citizens.  The median tendencies of these contemporary societies can be mostly due to bargaining and politics, but nonetheless the median mandate is not a working solution for societies that need to implement change.

Conclusion
Based on the three reviewed articles, it can be gathered that the essentials of policymaking is based on how representation actually works.  These three articles present premises that aim to elucidate on how representation works and how representation can actually work for the interests of the society.  Overall, these articles present three distinctive facets on the discussion parties are representation, congruence and democracy, and the median mandate.  Interestingly, these three articles have their prevailing themes and the divergence can be found in the lenses that are used to examine the most workable policy representation.

Among the three Daltons article presents the more traditional lens the article is mostly academic or the article serves as a good reference when it comes to literature on parties and representation.  The lack assessment as to how theory was applied through the Europarliaments performance is the shortcoming to the article, and can definitely add more to the study, if not, present certain contradictions that can context the authors thesis.  Huber and Powells discussion on congruence can be regarded to have the most sensible explanation on the ideological practice of democracy, elections and policy-making yet the lack of example and application that would present their thesis as a working solution is the downside of the article.  Last but not the least, albeit having the strongest research design, McDonald, et als. work do not have substantial ideological explanation despite the presence of significant data.  As a result, their article ends up having a problematic proposition especially as the recommended actions are more conceptual in nature and not as solid as the methodology.

Developed in the 1970s by the Central Intelligence Agency, the ACH or Analysis of Competing Hypotheses is a reliable unbiased methodology for assessing multiple competing (or contradictory) for observed data. In general, this method helps the analyst overcome or at least minimize some of the cognitive constraints inherent in any intelligence analysis. According to Heuer and Richards (1999), there are five processes involved in ACH. Here are as follows

Hypothesis. Hypothesis is defined as constructive guess based on preliminary observed data.

Evidence. This step involves listing or classifying evidences and arguments for and against each of the considered hypothesis

Diagnostics. This step is also called elimination. The analyst, with the help of a complex matrix, applies evidence against each hypothesis in an attempt to refute as many considerations as possible.

Refinement. The analyst evaluates the findings. A thorough identification of gaps and overestimate is done to eliminate as many of the remaining hypotheses as possible.

Inconsistency. Inconsistency is defined as the over-duration of expected value against actual value. The analyst draws tentative conclusions about the likelihood of each hypothesis.

Sensitivity. This step involves general testing of conclusion. With sensitivity analysis, each hypothesis is weighted  key evidences are introduced to test the stability of the hypotheses.

Evaluation. The last step involves a general assessment of alternatives. A list of the rejected hypotheses is prepared to provide a detailed description of the process.

ACH reduces biases in the research process by 1) removing hypotheses which do not meet assumptions, 2) utilizing non-variable matrices, and 3) providing venue for group analysis. By removing faulty hypotheses, the analyst will likely to choose reliable and valid hypotheses (which follow from preliminary findings). Utilizing non-variable matrices allows the analyst to view each hypothesis in different contexts (this prevents the analyst from making faulty assumptions). Individual analysis is often vulnerable to measurement error. Group analysis allows the research process to be both valid and suited to preexisting conditions.

Bias reduction is not sufficient though to meet the requirements of a good intelligence analysis (Jones, 1998). Validity and reliability are the other requisites. Reducing bias directly translates to increased validity (as conclusion follows from factsassumptions). The question is are the factsdetails reliable In the diagnostic process (elimination), data are screened based on their authentic applicability. Evidence is weighed against contradicting evidences to measure the likelihood. If the evidence is likely to be true then it is reliable.

Thus, in the whole process, bias is reduced while validity and reliable are optimized.

In his Spheres of Justice, Walzer largely focuses on the definition and dynamics of inclusion which make one to be either admitted into a new society or rejected. Owing to the fact that they are highly mobile, people oftentimes leave their communities to join other communities with the aim of changing their economic, political, educational, or environmental conditions. When such movements occur, the migrants find themselves in new communities and in new territories where the host communities may admit or reject them. Admission makes them members of their new communities while those who are rejected but who insist on staying with the new community become stateless, and thus have limited access to the resources available for the community members. Rejection may take the form of formal measures such as immigration policies and other admission-related policies, and other informal measures which are used by different communities.

People are wont to move from place to place, community to another. Apart from the proportion of people moving from one place to the other for leisure, the rest move not because they love to move but because they have goals to achieve (Walzer, 38). More often than not, people are more likely to live with their communities unless the conditions there are so uunbearable that they have no choice or unless the shift to another community promises very good opportunities. The move to a new community is not always easy as the members of the host communities tend to view the newcomers as being out to take shares of their resources, and who should thus be excluded. This is best manifest when there arises a shortage of resources available to the community. During such crises, hostilities against new-comers are common (a case best seen in South Africa recently when South African youths attacked immigrants from Zimbabwe and other Afrian countries, accusing them of taking all employment opportunities and leaving them jobless). Such attacks go to show that law alone may not give one full membership to a community.

While laws may give one an identity through citizenship to a country, Waltzer observes that giving one citizenship to a new community must be accompanied by the process of naturalization. Without naturalization, though one becomes a legal member of a community, the membership is incomplete. Naturalization helps the newcomer to gain an identity in the new community. Countries put in place laws and structures which help them regulate the number of people entering their national borders. While some are allowed into the foreign countries, many are rejected or barred from entering the foreign countries. Of those who are admitted, most become resident aliens in the new countries while only a few are naturalized or allowed to become full citizenship. Political and economic considerations play an important role in deciding who is admitted into the country or community and who is rejected. Territorial admission is therefore more important than many people realize (Walzer, 52).

The author offers a deep and well-argued case into the dynamics membership to a community. While it appreciates the role played by legal, social and cultural structures in the determination of possibility of one becoming or remaining a member of a community, the case raises the question over the best order of ranking of these structures. The importance of this ranking becomes apparent among people who have been part of the same community but who find themselves separated by artificial borders, that is, when a national border crosses through a community confining a part of the community in one country and the other part in a different country. The issue becomes critical if the two countries develop acrimonious relationship with each other. In such a case, a member of the community in the one country may regard himself as a member of the community across the border, but is unable to claim that membership legally.

What is Power
The idea of power revolves around the capacity of one particular actor to affect its decisions and actions over particular issue. In here, careful consideration is given in the ability to exert influence and interplay of intentions and objectives among people, organizations, and states. Thus, power becomes clearly manifested with the efforts to induce ones interests over the other without the other party seeking to do so otherwise (Roskin, 2007).

How can some types of power be unusable
The concept of power being unusable stems from the idea concerning its application and relevant situations happening between two parties. In here, it involves the inability to achieve its original intention of pursuing its objectives to the other regardless to the nature and application of power used accordingly (Roskin, 2007). Seeing this, the idea of power being unusable becomes viable during periods of inability to meet the expectations that the imposing state seeks to set on the other.

What is an International System
The idea of international system circumvents from the idea concerning the distribution of powers (in its different forms) among a particular area in a given period of time (Roskin, 2007). In here, different distribution patterns are created depending on the capacity of one state to exercise its control and legitimacy in the manner they portray their actions towards a state or a number of states.

This paper aims at exploring the issues of migration and immigration in relation to Iran. It will also look into how such aspects have affected religion, women, and other minority groups in the country.

Traditionally, there has been very minimal immigration to Iran safe for the Shia Muslims that checked in from Iraq. On the converse, there has been widespread emigration to the west especially Europe and the United States of America. This was in particular to people that sought to further their studies during the revolutionary time of 1979. Approximately, 1000, 000 Kurds were transferred to Iraq as the suppression of the Kurds rebellion took its toll. The period between 1980 and 1990 saw the fleeing of Shia Muslims into Iran from Iraq due to the atrocities of the gulf wars. At the termination of the war, about 1, 250, 000 people had taken refuge in the Iran. This serves to allude to the fact that Iran has been an epicenter of immigration and migration in the recent past. However, the Iranian government perceives the immigration level as disturbing while finding the migration level satisfactory (Adelkhah, 2000).

The inflow and outflow of people within a country presents a major challenge to any state. To begin with, it affects the countrys economic conditions, it induces new elements into a country, and an outflow of individuals may lead to brain drain. In a nutshell, the positives and the negatives of the immigration and migration aspects are far reaching and need to be explored.

Religion and its impact
Christianity remains a minority religion in Iran, though its history can be traced back to the early days of the faith. The major state religions include Shia Shia Islam Islam, Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism. In the older churches there also exist divisions in the sense that different ethnic groups identify with different and distinct denominations. This presents a divisive aspect. During the revolutionary times, there was outright persecution directed towards members of the Christian churches. Due to this and other more pressures that were believed to have been occasioned by the revolution, a good number of Christians were forced to opt out of the country in search for a save haven and  this prompted unprecedented emigration to the USA, Canada, and Western Europe. It is also pointed that the Muslim community was also emigrating due to issues associated with the revolution (Adelkhah, 2000).

While the government of Iran made efforts in providing for the basic rights of Christians like parliament representation, production and sale rights, complaints relating to expropriation, forced closure, persecution among other issues have been directed towards the Christian community. This was however rampant in the formative years. Recently, the jailing of Hamid Pourmand Hamid Pourmand, a pastor, and the murder of Ghorban Tourani Ghorban Tourani, another pastor from the evangelical church is a pointer to the complexities of religion in the country (Cheissari, 2006).

The fact that Christian churches are currently growing by spreading their gospel, is a cause for friction. This is because the membership that they seek to enlarge depends on the downsizing of other religions like Islam. Basically, the growth of Christian membership must come at a price because it is the defection of Muslims to the faith that makes it possible. Given this scenario, there is a conflict of interest. The Muslim community does not view it kindly when the Christian faithful attempts to encroach into a zone they unduly consider theirs. From this point, it is clear that the chase for converts is a recipe for confrontation between the two groups (Adelkhah, 2000).

The Christian faith bestows in a woman as much responsibility as it does to men. This aspect of the Christian doctrine is in a clear head on collision with the Muslim code which demands that men presume a superior role to women. In regards to this, a conflict is inherent. The two systems appear to be splitting the society and creating friction in the socio-cultural relations of the population.

Another sticky aspect concerns the dress code. In the muslin world, women are supposed to be covered in veils, a requirement that is not supported by the Christian world. Any woman that appears to contravene this Islam requirement regardless of their faith is likely to be courting trouble as Muslims are unlikely to take it lightly.

Iran ethnic make-up
As an approximation, 70 percent of Iranians speak native languages. The main groups occupying this category include Kurd Kurds, Persian people Persians, Gilaki Gilakis, Pashtuns Pashtuns, Mazandarani Mazandaranis,  Lurs Lurs, etc. The other main group speaks Turkic. Small communities include Brahui and Georgian (Adelkhah, 2000).
 
The Persians are the dominant group representing about 35 million people. They differ both linguistically and religiously. They form different strata that reflect the different divisions in the Islamic religion. The Azeries who are Turks form the second largest group. They are bilingual and they practice Shiism. This is an Islamic differential though its effects can not be laid in the open because the ethnic group is tied in one approach to religion. The Lurs and Bakhtiaris are Persian-speaking Shiites. They maintain identities that separate them from Persians on the basis of their historically tribal ways of life. The Kurds population presents a clearly segmented ethnic group. 90 percent of them identify with the Shia religion while the remaining portion identifies with Christianity and Sunni (Axworthy, 2008).

Members of religious minorities like the religio-ethnic and Bahais groups composed of the Armenians, Jews, and Assyrians were forced to flee at some point during the Pahlavi regime due to persecution trends. The second wave of revolution was to come during the revolution. The revolutionary elements, followed by women, and children were the next to leave (Afary, 1996).From the above revelation, it is clear that the Iranian society embraces Christianity and Islam. It is however noted that the Christian faith forms the minority religion as it enjoys a limited following. Christianity is closely linked to the west. It is a fact that the west and Iran have always remained on cold terms over policy matters and international issues. The Christian faith is hence viewed as a western tool to extend their influence, an issue that jeopardizes the faiths development in the country.

Conclusion
On the basis of this paper, the country of Iran has witnessed a high level of migration and immigration. These two aspects have in turn played a significant role in shaping the relations in the country. The spread of the Christian faith has not been fast though progress has been made. The two aspects have influenced the ethnic make-up, economic conditions, and social relations in the country over the past and will continue shaping the country for some time to come.

It is said by some that a more stable world existed when the United States was balanced by the Soviet Union. Those who support this view argued that the bipolar system prevented both superpowers from formalizing their interests in war-torn regions. The United States blocked Soviet attempts to increase political control over Finland and Greece after the Second World War and over Afghanistan and Iran during the Soviet Afghan War. The Soviet Union also disrupted American neo-colonialism in South East Asia during the critical period of 1963 to 1969. Indeed, both powers were driven by fears of nuclear holocaust rather than the melodrama of political trickery.

A more prominent effect of the West-Soviet Divide is the partial empowerment of Third World Countries. During the 1960s, non-belligerent countries signed a treaty formalizing the prohibition of nuclear arms in their respective territories. An agreement was reached to allow member countries to engage in diplomatichumanitarian missions to countries affected by civil wars and political instability.

The general aim was to lessen the effects of the Cold War or in general to neutralize Soviet-American military influence. This action stabilized the global political arena  a move which protected the interests of countries not included in the Warsaw Agreement or the NATO Pact. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this set-up was not possible. American influence increased rapidly  in Latin America, in Central Africa, South East Asia, and the Middle East. If the Soviet Union did not deteriorate after 1991, it would have, in theory, prevented the United States from launching military assaults against Iraq and Afghanistan (this is not a moral issue). As a power player in global politics, it would be irrational for the Soviet Union to allow the United States to increase its grip in the Middle East.

One is then forced to argue that indeed a more stable world was more prominent during the Cold War than today.