A book by a demographer in charge of research at CNRS has just come out: Iran, a world of paradox. It enables us to improve our understanding of Iranian society, and the last thirty years of Mullah power. Over and above the caricatures. Bernard Langlois, Politis, 11 June 2009  Thirty years after the Islamist revolution, Iran (three times as big as France, with just over 70 million inhabitants) has experienced various changes in society: the quasi disappearance of polygamy, a drop in the fertility rate, a massive rural exodus and increasing urbanisation, generalisation of the nuclear family, a demographic rise in the proportion of young people, the strengthening of feminist claims, female...