Community School, Tehran

[3] The new campus had been an old Presbyterian missionary hospital during World War II where Iran's last empress, Farah Pahlavi, was born.

In the 1930s the school moved to Tehran due to logistical considerations, located on Qavām os-Saltaneh Street and had over 200 students.

It was commonly called the "American School" because students were taught primarily in English, with French and Persian as secondary languages.

The Presbyterian missionaries had a delicate relationship with the Iranian government, which found it easier to appease irritation in the Islamic establishment by restricting Christian religious activities at the school.

He was deposed and exiled to South Africa in favor of his son in 1941, three months after the launch of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

The American Army's Persian Gulf Command used Iran as a conduit for materiel to the Soviet Union, other routes being far more hazardous.

In 1953 Headmaster Richard Irvine stated that he was going to limit the number of Americans at Community School.

[2] President Truman's Point-Four program put a heavy strain on Community School because it brought many more American students.

It also brought Iran closer to the US politically, and marked the beginning of a period of economic growth; many Iranians were stimulated to seek a western education for their children.

This parting of ways caused many hurt feelings, and many of the people involved bore strong grudges lasting years.

It was located at the end of a dead-end street in a dangerous part of the city where unrest and riots were particularly common during the late 1970s.