But Islamic Iran is only part of the story. The Jewish community of Iran is one of the oldest of the diaspora. Its modern representatives claim a direct link with the Jews released from their Babylonian captors by Kurosh - the Achaemenid King Cyrus - in 539 BC. Purim itself commemorates the events described in the book of Esther, the story of the Persian Queen - herself a Jew - who persuaded her husband, Ahasuerus not to carry out his minister Haman’s plan to have the Jewish population of the empire murdered.
This is ancient history of course, but Jews have played their part in Iranian society for many centuries and to some extent still do. Outside the country, particularly in the US and Israel, Iranian Jews form a distinct and vocal group. Here’s something you might not have realised: the president of Israel between 2000 and 2007 was Iranian-born.
Christianity has a shorter but equally fascinating history in Iran, where it is most strongly associated with the Armenian ethnic minority. In the 17th century, displaced by Iran’s wars against the Ottomans, thousands of Armenians settled in Isfahan, where their descendants still live. The magnificent Vank cathedral, which has a mosque-like dome decorated with paintings of cherubs and angels, is a striking and unexpected testament to their faith. Isfahan was also a focus for Iran’s small Anglican community for much of the 20th century, led from by 1961 the Iranian Bishop Hassan Dehqani-Tafti. Seen as closely allied to British and American interests, however, it did not survive the revolution. The Bishop, who was shot at and whose son was murdered, left the country soon afterwards and spent the rest of his life in England.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_shariatmadari/2008/03/irans_forgotten_religions.html