More Iranians Surf the Web: In 1999, only 500,000 Iranians had access to the Internet. By late 2003, the number was estimated to be over 2 million. This does not include web surfers among the 5 million Iranians who live outside of Iran. For many, the web is the easiest way to make contact with the outside world. In a country full of paradox, the Internet has been one of the biggest Authorities allowed it to expand in the 1990s without any serious controls -- even as they hunted for illegal satellite television dishes and Western movie videos. The huge online appetite has been fed by thousands of Internet cafes, low-cost computers from East Asia and a rush of entrepreneurs offering Internet accounts. Other tightly run nations -- such as Saudi Arabia and China -- keep reins on the Internet. In Iran, almost anything is a click away. Beside blogging, Iranians spend time in chat rooms, download music, read poetry, visit any of the countless Farsi news sites or even surf the erotic offerings. At its present course, Internet usage in Iran is expected to grow sevenfold to 15 million users by 2006, according to studies cited by the Middle East Economic Digest. More than half of Iran's 68 million are under 25 years old and hungry for the Web. Population: 68,278,826 (July 2003 est.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 29.3% (male 10,279,588; female 9,727,668) 15-64 years: 65.9% (male 22,916,431; female 22,095,124) 65 years and over: 4.8% (male 1,625,113; female 1,634,902) (2003 est.) Median age: total: 22.9 years male: 22.7 years female: 23.2 years (2002) Iranian-Americans reported among most highly educated in U.S. Iran Known as Persia until 1935, Iran became an Islamic republic in 1979 after the ruling shah was forced into exile. Conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of government with ultimate political authority vested in a learned religious scholar. A group of Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979 and held it until 20 January 1981. During 1980-88, Iran fought a bloody, indecisive war with Iraq over disputed territory. Over the past decade, popular dissatisfaction with the government, driven by demographic changes, restrictive social policies, and poor economic conditions, has created a powerful and enduring pressure for political reform.