Iran evokes acquainted photographs. A Shahed 136 drone, traversing in a lethal arc throughout the sky. Uranium enrichment centrifuges buzzing behind thick partitions at Natanz and Fordow (cities the place Iran’s nuclear amenities are situated), buried beneath a mountain. This is usually the solely image that emerges when one speaks of science and technology in Iran. Occasionally, a unique reminiscence surfaces, Maryam Mirzakhani, the mathematician who, in 2014, turned the first girl to obtain the prestigious Fields Medal for her work.
Yet, past this well-worn script, one other story stays hidden. One that not often makes it previous the gatekeepers of international media. And when it does, it seems in fragments, scattered, understated, simple to overlook except one reads between the strains. A shock awaits those that dare to look.
The Global Innovation Index 2025 locations the nation seventieth amongst 139 economies, and in innovation outputs, the tangible fruits of analysis, Iran sits at forty sixth globally. Iran is fourth to fifth worldwide in nanotechnology publications and manufacturing.
Researchers corresponding to Dr Mahmood Barani and Dr Hassan Namazi have contributed to internationally recognised work in nanomedicine and drug supply programs. These should not remoted efforts however half of a broader sample, usually towards the odds.
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In biotechnology, Iran leads the Islamic world. Scientific journals ranking website SCImago’s 2024 numbers place Iran at the prime in the Islamic world, with 1,111 papers revealed in the subject of biotechnology, and fifteenth globally.
When COVID-19 swept the globe, Iran confronted a double blow. International sanctions sophisticated vaccine imports, including layers of problem to an already dire scenario. The response got here from inside. Swiftly, Iran developed and produced a number of home vaccines, together with COVIran Barekat, an inactivated virus vaccine. PastoCoVac, a recombinant protein vaccine, was developed collectively with Cuba and one other vaccine, Fakhra Vaccine, was additionally developed.
Institutions corresponding to the Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology have gained worldwide recognition, significantly in stem cell analysis and regenerative medication. CAR T-cell gene remedy, an rising, high-potential therapy for cancers, has seen Iranian researchers efficiently deal with a affected person with blood most cancers, leukaemia. Similarly, work in genetic engineering and medical biotechnology continues to develop, usually with restricted laboratory assets.
Institutions corresponding to the Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology have gained worldwide recognition, significantly in stem cell analysis and regenerative medication. Representational picture. iStock
Hasti-Sadat Hosseini, an Iranian girl inventor, not too long ago hit worldwide headlines. Her stem cell-based remedy for controlling Human papillomavirus (HPV) promotes cervical wound therapeutic by way of stem cell grafts. The invention claimed the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) prize at the fiftieth International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, 2025. In one other occasion, scientist Heydar Heydari Khoyi developed a laboratory mannequin of a human embryo utilizing induced pluripotent stem cells (cells that may self-renew by dividing and can kind into the three major germ cell layers of an embryo), enabling large-scale research of early improvement with out utilizing precise embryos.
The Zuljanah Satellite Launch Vehicle, with its two solid-fuel phases paired with a supplementary liquid-fuel stage, is an indigenous improvement. It has a modest payload capability of 220 kilograms and a most altitude of 500 kilometres. Its improvement by Iranian scientists with out outdoors help stunned the world. Alongside this, indigenous drone & missile applied sciences proceed to develop.
The Sina Robotic Surgery System, developed by Iranian S&T, permits distant surgical procedures. Such programs place Iran amongst a small group of nations succesful of producing and exporting surgical robotics.
Iran’s place in international science is just not merely anecdotal. Ranked thirtieth in the Nature Index (2025), its analysis establishments, corresponding to the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and the University of Tehran, anchor a rising information base in Iran.
In pharmacology, toxicology, radiology, and nuclear medication, Iran tops the area. In the bodily sciences, it’s positioned second, in line with the Nature Index. Aerospace engineering, nuclear technology, and associated engineering fields are notable for satellite tv for pc launches, drone technology, and indigenous aerospace capabilities, all of that are advancing regardless of restrictions. Iran has proven robust efficiency in specialised areas corresponding to bio-fuels, good supplies and synthetic intelligence (particularly {hardware} accelerators).
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Research and Development funding stays restricted, sometimes 0.5 to 0.7 per cent of GDP, as per UNESCO science indicators. Economic pressures haven’t relented. And but, the researcher density tells a unique story. The nation studies roughly 2,240 researchers per million individuals (2021), a determine nicely above the international common (1,420 per million) and considerably greater than India’s (201 per million). Even when put next with China (1,849 to 2,000+ per million), the numbers are important. They level to sustained funding in greater training and analysis establishments which have endured regardless of challenges posed by mind drain. State-funded universities and targeted analysis institutes are the spine of the science and technology ecosystem in Iran.
The UNCTAD Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Review of Iran (2016) traced three waves in the constructing of the science and technology ecosystem in the nation — greater training improvement in the Nineteen Nineties, analysis and rising applied sciences infrastructure in the 2000s, and transition to an innovation and information economic system in the 2010s. The report additionally factors out that paradoxically, worldwide sanctions spurred home science and technology improvement, resulting in an indigenous innovation method.
An equally notable side lies in girls’s participation. Women’s literacy amongst younger individuals is almost 99 per cent, and girls represent round 58–62 per cent of college college students, in line with UNESCO science indicators. In PhD and doctoral programmes, girls college students are roughly 58 per cent. In a number of disciplines, significantly the life sciences, girls make up the majority.
In PhD and doctoral programmes, girls college students are roughly 58 per cent. In a number of disciplines, significantly the life sciences, girls make up the majority. Representational picture. iStock
In STEM tertiary training, girls represent 25 per cent of the pupil inhabitants, manner forward of the United States (12.7 per cent in 2021). In life and medical sciences, biology and chemistry, girls dominate, usually accounting for 50 to 60 per cent or extra. Engineering, physics, and core tech fields inform a unique story, although; sometimes, 20 to 30 per cent are feminine college students, present the UNESCO indicators.
Women’s participation elevated post-1979 insurance policies. Free tuition, a cultural emphasis on training, liberal scholarships, in explicit to girls candidates, led to the promotion of large-scale participation by girls in training. Further, girls usually outperform males in many entrance exams and dominate sure colleges. UNESCO’s adjusted gender-parity index for STEM training ranks Iran above the United States and a number of European nations.
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The prowess of Iran, or that of the area which at present varieties the nation, in the fields of science and technology is just not current. It has been a cradle of information manufacturing since antiquity. The Zagros Mountains in western Iran, as an example, noticed the domestication of wheat, barley, lentils, and peas. Pistachio, almond and walnut have deep ecological roots in Iranian soil. Then got here the Persian wheel, the saqiya in Arabic, the rahat in North India: a gear-driven, animal-powered water-lifting system that unfold throughout West Asia and the Indian subcontinent between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Small backyard plots gave manner, in many locations, to field-level irrigation, making potential the rising of crops corresponding to sugarcane and, in some areas, rice. Alongside, mechanical information circulated: gears, movement and mill applied sciences discovering new makes use of in completely different landscapes throughout Eurasia.
Between the ninth and twelfth centuries, students from Persia (the area now often called Iran) formed the course of international science. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi systematised linear and quadratic equations, laying the foundations of fashionable algebra; his work with Hindu numerals so influential that “algorithm” and “algebra” derive from his title and title. Omar Khayyam, poet, mathematician, astronomer, reformed the calendar at the request of Sultan Malik-Shah, producing the Jalali calendar in 1079 CE, one of the most correct photo voltaic calendars of its time. In medication, Ibn Sina (Avicenna)’s Canon introduced collectively Greek, Persian and Indian traditions right into a textual content that travelled extensively throughout Eurasia, shaping studying for generations.
In modern-day Iran, nevertheless, fatwas from the ‘Supreme Leader’ draw clear boundaries in Iran. According to a Fatwa issued manner again in the Nineteen Nineties, analysis on the improvement, manufacturing, stockpiling, or use of nuclear weapons is religiously forbidden, haram. Reproductive cloning, that’s, the creation of a full cloned human being, is explicitly prohibited. Generating embryos particularly for analysis, moderately than utilizing surplus IVF embryos, is forbidden beneath Iran’s bioethics guidelines. Any genetic analysis whose major intention is eugenics, enhancing the human gene pool, deciding on superior traits, or non-therapeutic enhancement can also be prohibited.
Nonetheless, therapeutic cloning, somatic cell nuclear switch for stem-cell analysis, is permitted. Researchers from Iran are famous for his or her work in these areas.
And then comes the shock. Teaching and analysis on Darwinian evolution, each in normal biology and human evolution, should not prohibited. It varieties half of the college curriculum and textbooks. It stays an energetic space of educating and analysis. Iranian establishments conduct and publish analysis on historical DNA, genetic make-up in the Iranian inhabitants, human genome research, and inhabitants genetics.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s 2018 assertion on evolution drew on Rumi’s notion of evolution as a religious and teleological course of, a longing to return to God. It distinguished the materialistic, Darwinian view from an Islamic philosophical notion of religious evolution. Hence, scientific analysis or educating of organic evolution is just not thought-about opposite to Islam. Darwinian evolution, pure choice, adaptation, and speciation discover their place in official high-school biology textbooks, half of the nationwide curriculum for many years, with none type of censorship.
In this regard, Iran sits in stark distinction with its neighbours. Turkey (since 2017), Syria (after regime change), Iraq (after the regime change), Afghanistan (beneath Taliban), Pakistan (partially), and Saudi Arabia have banned or severely restricted educating and analysis in evolution. Like Iran, it have to be famous that Malaysia and Indonesia haven’t any such bans.
Despite a long time of sanctions and entry restrictions, Iran’s scientific output has not merely endured; it has expanded in the previous few a long time.