.ایران
.ایران is the IDN ccTLD for Iran. It is managed by the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM).[1]
In Persian language, the string has a meaning and transliteration equivalent to “Iran” in English. The string is expressed using the Arabic script.
The DNS root level is “ایران”. This is represented in ASCII-compatible encoding according to the IDNA specification as “xn--mgba3a4f16a”. The individual Unicode code points that comprise this string are U+0627 U+06CC U+0631 U+0627 U+0646.[2]
Delegation History
On 25 November 2009, IPM applied for selection of the domain to represent Iran through the IDN ccTLD Fast Track process.
On 4 October 2010, review by the IDN Fast Track DNS Stability Panel found that “the applied-for strings ... present none of the threats to the stability or security of the DNS identified in [the IDN Fast Track implementation plan] ... and present an acceptably low risk of user confusion”. The request for the string to represent the Islamic Republic of Iran was subsequently approved.
On 8 July 2013, IPM initiated a request to ICANN for delegation of “ایران” as a country-code top-level domain for the Islamic Republic of Iran.[2] The ICANN Board approved the delegation of the Iran ccTLD to the IPM on 28 September 2013.[3]
Rules and Restrictions
Characters
There are certain differences between Persian and Arabic letters and numerals; these have been taken into account. Arabic versions are automatically converted into Persian when you apply for a domain. In order to help users with non-standard keyboard, protect against abuse, and bolster security, up to five additional domains that can be confusingly similar (homographs) to the requested domains are also automatically assigned to the applicant. These together with the standard domain constitute the "bundle" of up to six variants.
The only allowable characters are those in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3. No other characters are allowed. Thus Latin alphabet, punctuation marks (other than hyphen-minus), pronunciation marks (such as TANVIN and SOKUN), and Unicode control characters (except for zero-width-non-joiner and zero-width-joiner) are not allowed in Persian domains.
A Persian domain should begin and end with a letter (letters are designated along with their type in Table 1). Numbers and other characters can be used inside a domain but not at the extremities. Thus purely numerical domains are not allowed.
As Persian characters are converted into ASCII, and ASCII labels in domain length are limited to 63 characters, a character-length of approximately 30 needs to be observed for Persian domains.
Zero-Width-Joiner (ZWJ) and Zero-Width-Non-Joiner (ZWNJ)
Within a word, some Persian letters are never joined to the next letter, e.g. ALEF "ا" and DAL "د". Some others may or may or may not be joined, such as HEH "ه" in "کلمیها" and "کلمهای", which are two distinct words. In order to type "کلمهای" on a keyboard, the ZWNJ should be used between HEH "ه" and ALEF "ا".
Since white spaces are not allowed as a character in a domain names, ZWNJ maybe usefully employed, instead. Thus "فرهنگستانهنر" may be used for non-allowable "فرهنگستان هنر". One could also use hyphen for demarcation within a domain name.
ZWNJ can be entered in the following ways:
- in standard Iranian keyboard, use [SHIFT + SPACE] or [SHIFT + b]. (The former may not work on same operating systems.)
- in "Farsi" keyboard of Microsoft, use [CTRL + SHIFT + 2].
- on any Microsoft windows, you can use [ALT + 0157] on keypad when Num-Lock is lighted.
Letters KAF "ک” and YEH "ی” in Persian and Arabic
These two letters look somewhat different In Persian and Arabic, and they are represented differently in Unicode as well. Some users may miss this difference, but there is nothing to worry about as the Arabic versions are automatically converted into Persian ones (Look at Table 3.) and the Arabic form of that domain name will also be reserved for the registrant.[4]