Foreign individuals can buy shares on the Tehran Stock Ex-changeand, recently, can apply for protection of their investmentunder the Law and Regulation concerning the Attraction and Pro-tectionof Foreign Investment in Iran. This law and its regulationshave been on the statute books for nearly 45 years with littlechange. The law gives the investor protection against expropria-tionand allows the repatriation of capital and dividends. The process is long winded and could take as long as six months tocomplete. The definition of foreign investment under the regulation does not include the purchase of shares of Iranian companies.However, it seems that the Ministry of Finance & Economic Af-fair has extended this protection to purchase of some shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange.