Abstract
The number of Iranians in the US is difficult to determine, with estimates ranging from 400,000 to over one million with half of them living in California. Of the 83 million people living in Iran, over 99% are Muslim. Iranians vary enormously, from highly traditional to highly acculturated, in their reasons for leaving Iran, as well as in the variant characteristics of culture (see Chap. 1) and individuality. The terms Persian and Iranian are used interchangeably in this chapter because some people call themselves Persian for historical and political reasons. In 1935, the country’s name was changed from Persia to Iran to present an image of progress and in an attempt to unify into one nation the enormous diversity of urban dwellers and rural tribes, ethnic groups, and social classes.
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Purnell, L.D., Fenkl, E.A. (2019). People of Iranian Heritage. In: Handbook for Culturally Competent Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21946-8_19
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