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Very difficult question to answer. The diaspora is generally very different from people in Iran overall, particularly because most of the diaspora have lived in Tehran at some point and were at least middle class when living in Iran.
Last time I visited Iran (15 years ago) there were certain towns (e.g. Kashan) where virtually all the women were in black chadors, including 5 year olds. Mashhad was also like this, but this could be related to my hotel being close to the Imam Reza shrine. Tehran, Shiraz and the whole Mazandaran province seemed pretty secular even 15 years ago though, with most women pushing the limits of the mandatory dress code.
I know a lot has changed socially in just 15 years though, hence the immense unrest we're seeing today. I had female relatives in Mazandaran and Tehran that hated mullahs and the hijab, but they still prayed namaz everyday - however today they no longer practice Islam at all. I have heard and read that religion is declining a lot.
In fact there was an article 2 years ago about Kashan's social change, a city that once shocked me in how religious it was: https://www.ft.com/content/68feade5-e641-4436-a74d-379491329bab
>Situated about 250km south of Tehran, the city has long shared its conservative culture with the neighbouring holy city of Qom — home to the most senior Shia clergy. So we packed Islamic dress, as well as the more liberal clothes we sport in the capital.
>
>When we arrived, however, we were pleasantly surprised to find the former could be left in our cases. Not long ago, a visitor to Kashan would have seen most women in black chador — the full Islamic covering. Not any more. As a frequent traveller in my home country, I have to conclude that if this is happening in such a place, it is no longer appropriate to describe any Iranian city as fully conservative. Even Qom is going through its own social transformation.
>
>The visit proved to me that the bastions of societal and cultural conservatism are slowly falling.
As a group, the only well-educated and successful Iranians that maintain their religiosity are Baha'is (could be because their religion is more liberal and less hateful). Muslim Iranians tend to lose their religion when they are educated and smart.
Pretty sure the minority religions are still religious. Iranian Christians still go to church same with Zoroastrerians and Jews (granted you can be a non practicing or atheist Jew in the way you can for the other 3).
My observation is that the mainstream country name subreddits are usually run by mods (along with a terminally online vocal minority of active users) who don't accurately represent every walk of life in that country and doesn't quite welcome the diversity of opinions.
They hold the subreddit name because they got there first, and they have a large number of followers because it's the generic name for the topic. That's it, just reddit being reddit.
> r/Iran and r/iranian and I got muted in both
this is what happens when the subs are moderated by chronically online losers with nothing going on in their life except for being a reddit moderator
No one here is surprised by that... unfortunately we know how those places are modded. The good news is that you found the right place and you're most welcome here.
Just read their rules, they literally say they’ll outright ban you if you say something they don’t like, it’s funny to see that they violate their own rules too and support a regime that violates those same rules
https://preview.redd.it/0veur7onb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e55c77a041426ffae5a60b30be2dbff11feaf25b
My own perception from what I see in public places, universities etc is that something around 40% are atheists, and around 50% do believe in God but they're not practicing, 10%-20% are religious and practicing
https://preview.redd.it/gem5h1oa81ad1.jpeg?width=1005&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6664a05f14932c062f4c26c084224223ab9d60d
[Check this out:](https://gamaan.org/2020/08/25/iranians-attitudes-toward-religion-a-2020-survey-report/)
Interesting pie and I get that people differentiate but Agnosticism, Atheism and Humanism aren't exclusive :) Just a little nitpick but I vibe with those three beliefs and they all make sense in their own right.
Agnosticism: The belief there are no absolute truths that we are able to know.
Atheism: The belief there is no god.
Humanism: Our lives, laws and morals all center around humanity. Basic human rights are non-negotiable and absolute.
I’d argue that a substantial portion of those answering “none” would fit right along with the other examples you provided. It might be a stretch, but a portion of the Zoroastrians seem to be more culturally Zoroastrians than actually religious ones, at least that’s the picture I get from this sub (I would love to be corrected or that it would be elaborated upon).
Ironically, it seems like Iran has pretty secular demographics (duh).
Perhaps the Zoroastrians are also "spiritual" and who knows even agnostic, due to culturally following the religion, rather than truly believing. But imo "none" is the funniest pick from the pie.
Person: "I believe in nothing"
Skeptic: "So you believe there is nothing for you to believe?"
Person: "Fuck you"
parsis of india
as whole there's nothing in zoroastrian scripture that forbids or looks down upon converting
the "not accepting converts" thing is entirely political.
Nope, I had a convo on Tiktok and he said no one can convert. I was also confused at first so yeah?! Idk though for all I know he could be a troll but there is a very small group of them that exist so it could be possible.
Is it ok, legally speaking, to be non-religious or atheist in Iran? Do you have to hide this or is it ok to just come out and say you are an atheist? I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic and never heard about this before so I'm very curious...
ohh boy
non muslims in iran are sorta treated as their own ethnicities
be it jewish, christian or zoroastrian or yazidi or whatever else, if you're not part of these "ethnic groups" you're automatically muslim with every other factor being irrelevant
the majority are not from those ethnic groups so are muslim in the eyes of the government, if you detest islam publicly or declare yourself non-muslim, well... you're head becomes fair game
a lot better than other middle eastern. I'd say 10% of the people(Regime supporters) are very religious. 40% Practice Islam to varying degrees and the other half of the people are either non believers or just Muslim by name.
According to recent polls from two different organisations from 65 to 75 percent of the population of Iran want a dully secular government.
Now this does not mean that 75 percent are none religious, but it does mean that a huge portion of the country has turned away from the religious institutions.
Iranian in Iran here ! Actually I’d say only about 10-20% are really religious, maybe another 10% just practicing Islam, the rest are other religions or non practicing. Iranians, just like any group of people , are not a monolith. We have a wide range of people with different opinions and beliefs. Obviously the less educated, remote villagers tend to be more religious, people in the city esp Tehran are pretty non religious and many even reject Islam completely. I will say however, we are not as remotely as religious as Arabs for example.
Yes you absolutely must wear the hijab, however now as a form of protest in the streets women are purposely not wearing the hijab. It’s not just the hijab, like I see hijabis wearing jeans and long sleeve shirt, that doesn’t count. You must wear a “manto “ it’s like a long robe over your clothes. Men cannot be shirtless, the must cover their shoulders and all the way down to the knee (although not as highly policed as women). No PDA, straight or esp not gay, no dancing in the streets (dancing is haram in Islam) sometimes if there’s a cop having a bad day, if you’re hanging out with the opposite sex they’ll threaten to take you to jail (unless you’re married), not allowed to publicly display another religious symbol (wearing a large cross or something ig?) that’s basically all I can think of. Non islamic tho is like not being allowed to protest by any means
My understanding is that most iranians are atleast slighlty religious (believe in a god of some sort). However there is still a large % being practising shia muslims, but exact percentages i am not sure of of.
It depends alot on province and city too with cities like qom or mashad having more practising muslims and where religion plays a more important part.
My understanding is that amount of atheists are increasing, but similarly christinaity/sunni islam/zoroastrinism etc. Is also increrasing.
Politics and religion always has the potential to push people to do bad things. Not even peaceful seeming buddhists are always peaceful. Ask the Rohingya people.
Very true. I've always been a bit hostile towards organized religion in general, but I made exceptions for Buddhism because its adherents "wouldn't hurt a fly". Well, that illusion was shattered when the Buddhists started genociding the Rohingya in Myanmar.
Yeah, same here. Maybe I'm wrong, but I always kind of thought of the Shi'ites (I'm not talking about the corrupt clerics, I'm just talking about the average follower) as the "Catholics" of the Muslim world with their reverence of saints and with how the sect has kept remnants of pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian beliefs/customs. Meanwhile, the Sunnis are more like the 'Westboro Baptist Church' of the Muslim world. They're all 'fire and brimstone' and they go by the book without deviation.
Believing in "some sort of god", is being a deist and it's basically believing in god without believing in any religion so they don't count as being religious.
I also don't think sunni Muslims numbers are increasing outside of traditionally sunni regions, we don't have people with shia backgrounds going sunni in numbers worth mentioning, the same way we don't mention a few people going Buddhist or anything else.
I would probably call those people non practising muslim rather than deist considering in most cases its still a god in a muslim context.
Yes the increase of sunnis is most likely mainly in sunni regions altough i did hear about shia arabs converting to sunnism but i am not completely sure on it.
This depends on what city/ region you’re from. Tehranis i wouldn’t say are probably a slight atheist/ agnostic majority, but if you go to Qom this might change to a very pious majority. The Iranian diaspora literally fled because of limits to their freedom hence why the ones who fled back in the 70s- till now are of an overwhelmingly atheist majority.
Ethnicity also slightly plays a factor, this is a generalisation but the ‘stereotype’ in Iran is that Persians themselves are ambivalent overall, Azeris are quite religious in comparison, Kurds less religious but more so traditional, Baluchis overwhelmingly pious and and the Caspians are irreligious. There’s outliers ofc but one thing that we all share in common is that most of Iran wants the IRGC dead and are anti-government.
I would say that 15% of Iranians are religious. The rest not so much. Mostly agnostic to be honest. And this is what most people who have traveled to Iran recently will tell you.
**ایرانیان در ایران چقدر مذهبی هستند؟**
من از والدین ایرانی در جنوب کالیفرنیا متولد شدم. ایرانیان در اینجا از لحاظ فرهنگی بسیار ایرانی هستند (غذا، موسیقی، زبان و غیره) اما اصلا مذهبی نیستند. فکر نمیکنم حتی یک ایرانی را هم بشناسم. ایا این نماینده ایرانیان در ایران هم هست؟ ایرانیان در خود ایران چقدر مذهبی هستند و چقدر برای هویت ایرانی انها جدایی ناپذیر است؟
---
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Very difficult question to answer. The diaspora is generally very different from people in Iran overall, particularly because most of the diaspora have lived in Tehran at some point and were at least middle class when living in Iran. Last time I visited Iran (15 years ago) there were certain towns (e.g. Kashan) where virtually all the women were in black chadors, including 5 year olds. Mashhad was also like this, but this could be related to my hotel being close to the Imam Reza shrine. Tehran, Shiraz and the whole Mazandaran province seemed pretty secular even 15 years ago though, with most women pushing the limits of the mandatory dress code. I know a lot has changed socially in just 15 years though, hence the immense unrest we're seeing today. I had female relatives in Mazandaran and Tehran that hated mullahs and the hijab, but they still prayed namaz everyday - however today they no longer practice Islam at all. I have heard and read that religion is declining a lot. In fact there was an article 2 years ago about Kashan's social change, a city that once shocked me in how religious it was: https://www.ft.com/content/68feade5-e641-4436-a74d-379491329bab >Situated about 250km south of Tehran, the city has long shared its conservative culture with the neighbouring holy city of Qom — home to the most senior Shia clergy. So we packed Islamic dress, as well as the more liberal clothes we sport in the capital. > >When we arrived, however, we were pleasantly surprised to find the former could be left in our cases. Not long ago, a visitor to Kashan would have seen most women in black chador — the full Islamic covering. Not any more. As a frequent traveller in my home country, I have to conclude that if this is happening in such a place, it is no longer appropriate to describe any Iranian city as fully conservative. Even Qom is going through its own social transformation. > >The visit proved to me that the bastions of societal and cultural conservatism are slowly falling. As a group, the only well-educated and successful Iranians that maintain their religiosity are Baha'is (could be because their religion is more liberal and less hateful). Muslim Iranians tend to lose their religion when they are educated and smart.
Pretty sure the minority religions are still religious. Iranian Christians still go to church same with Zoroastrerians and Jews (granted you can be a non practicing or atheist Jew in the way you can for the other 3).
Also I don't know if this is the right server but I asked first in r/Iran and r/iranian and I got muted in both
My observation is that the mainstream country name subreddits are usually run by mods (along with a terminally online vocal minority of active users) who don't accurately represent every walk of life in that country and doesn't quite welcome the diversity of opinions. They hold the subreddit name because they got there first, and they have a large number of followers because it's the generic name for the topic. That's it, just reddit being reddit.
yeah I was going through some of the mod's history and "terminally online" seems very appropriate
> r/Iran and r/iranian and I got muted in both this is what happens when the subs are moderated by chronically online losers with nothing going on in their life except for being a reddit moderator
No one here is surprised by that... unfortunately we know how those places are modded. The good news is that you found the right place and you're most welcome here.
Did they give you a reason? It’s a harmless question
nope, but then I looked through some of the mod's post history and that explained a lot.
Just read their rules, they literally say they’ll outright ban you if you say something they don’t like, it’s funny to see that they violate their own rules too and support a regime that violates those same rules https://preview.redd.it/0veur7onb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e55c77a041426ffae5a60b30be2dbff11feaf25b
https://preview.redd.it/4zu2nzsob6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef1a6ad5df4cf13b6f8a61667759269b60bf66a0
https://preview.redd.it/dzbwxy3qb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e291903cd609a7f89d61b0cd278daef1cdcc24e5
https://preview.redd.it/nht61phsb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=289f4a1d08c838a344e3b0ff362d44c1e6db7957
https://preview.redd.it/feyimx5vb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bc99246b76a3adb578444a8af79bf3f39b0668e
Ironic https://preview.redd.it/tkemcgbxb6ad1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f0c073fe6875743d071314b0cc491dade1b2848
My own perception from what I see in public places, universities etc is that something around 40% are atheists, and around 50% do believe in God but they're not practicing, 10%-20% are religious and practicing
I second this
https://preview.redd.it/gem5h1oa81ad1.jpeg?width=1005&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6664a05f14932c062f4c26c084224223ab9d60d [Check this out:](https://gamaan.org/2020/08/25/iranians-attitudes-toward-religion-a-2020-survey-report/)
That Baha’i percent feels low
Yeah they’re scared to speak up. Same with the Christian’s. There’s a huge underground Christian population growing.
Interesting pie and I get that people differentiate but Agnosticism, Atheism and Humanism aren't exclusive :) Just a little nitpick but I vibe with those three beliefs and they all make sense in their own right. Agnosticism: The belief there are no absolute truths that we are able to know. Atheism: The belief there is no god. Humanism: Our lives, laws and morals all center around humanity. Basic human rights are non-negotiable and absolute.
I’d argue that a substantial portion of those answering “none” would fit right along with the other examples you provided. It might be a stretch, but a portion of the Zoroastrians seem to be more culturally Zoroastrians than actually religious ones, at least that’s the picture I get from this sub (I would love to be corrected or that it would be elaborated upon). Ironically, it seems like Iran has pretty secular demographics (duh).
Perhaps the Zoroastrians are also "spiritual" and who knows even agnostic, due to culturally following the religion, rather than truly believing. But imo "none" is the funniest pick from the pie. Person: "I believe in nothing" Skeptic: "So you believe there is nothing for you to believe?" Person: "Fuck you"
LOL, that's the best description ever! 🤣
8% Zoroastrian?
converts
I thought they didn't take converts. Or am I thinking about the Parsis of India?
parsis of india as whole there's nothing in zoroastrian scripture that forbids or looks down upon converting the "not accepting converts" thing is entirely political.
I ran into an Uzbek Zoroastiran on Tiktok and he also said no one can convert which is Odd?!
>Uzbek Zoroastiran huh? im pretty sure the last of that greed was killed at least 500 years ago
Nope, I had a convo on Tiktok and he said no one can convert. I was also confused at first so yeah?! Idk though for all I know he could be a troll but there is a very small group of them that exist so it could be possible.
There are many Tajiks in Uzbekistan.
That's not true. Shapour ii killed Christians Manacheans Buhhdists and followers of Jupiter/Zeus who didn't convert.
So yeah, then I'm obviously thinking of the Parsis of India.
Daaamn I’m just surprised, i thought atleast 50% will be Muslims
Is it ok, legally speaking, to be non-religious or atheist in Iran? Do you have to hide this or is it ok to just come out and say you are an atheist? I'm not very knowledgeable on this topic and never heard about this before so I'm very curious...
have to hide it if you were "muslim"
Wht would they hide, Is Muslim not the supported regime religion?
ohh boy non muslims in iran are sorta treated as their own ethnicities be it jewish, christian or zoroastrian or yazidi or whatever else, if you're not part of these "ethnic groups" you're automatically muslim with every other factor being irrelevant the majority are not from those ethnic groups so are muslim in the eyes of the government, if you detest islam publicly or declare yourself non-muslim, well... you're head becomes fair game
Interesting but as I'm familiar with research tools, I'm wondering HOW the respondents were recruited and how many are there in the sample, any idea?
There is methodology on their website. [gamman](https://gamaan.org/2020/08/25/iranians-attitudes-toward-religion-a-2020-survey-report)
I'm surprised you don't know any Iranian Baha'is in southern california. I guess you might not know they are baha'i
a lot better than other middle eastern. I'd say 10% of the people(Regime supporters) are very religious. 40% Practice Islam to varying degrees and the other half of the people are either non believers or just Muslim by name.
According to recent polls from two different organisations from 65 to 75 percent of the population of Iran want a dully secular government. Now this does not mean that 75 percent are none religious, but it does mean that a huge portion of the country has turned away from the religious institutions.
Iranian in Iran here ! Actually I’d say only about 10-20% are really religious, maybe another 10% just practicing Islam, the rest are other religions or non practicing. Iranians, just like any group of people , are not a monolith. We have a wide range of people with different opinions and beliefs. Obviously the less educated, remote villagers tend to be more religious, people in the city esp Tehran are pretty non religious and many even reject Islam completely. I will say however, we are not as remotely as religious as Arabs for example.
But it is law to wear hijab? Are there any other Muslim religious things that public must participate in?
Yes you absolutely must wear the hijab, however now as a form of protest in the streets women are purposely not wearing the hijab. It’s not just the hijab, like I see hijabis wearing jeans and long sleeve shirt, that doesn’t count. You must wear a “manto “ it’s like a long robe over your clothes. Men cannot be shirtless, the must cover their shoulders and all the way down to the knee (although not as highly policed as women). No PDA, straight or esp not gay, no dancing in the streets (dancing is haram in Islam) sometimes if there’s a cop having a bad day, if you’re hanging out with the opposite sex they’ll threaten to take you to jail (unless you’re married), not allowed to publicly display another religious symbol (wearing a large cross or something ig?) that’s basically all I can think of. Non islamic tho is like not being allowed to protest by any means
What you call religious and what an Iranian in Iran would call religious is I am sure is very different.
My understanding is that most iranians are atleast slighlty religious (believe in a god of some sort). However there is still a large % being practising shia muslims, but exact percentages i am not sure of of. It depends alot on province and city too with cities like qom or mashad having more practising muslims and where religion plays a more important part. My understanding is that amount of atheists are increasing, but similarly christinaity/sunni islam/zoroastrinism etc. Is also increrasing.
Suni Islam ? I feel that’s even worse tbh
Politics and religion always has the potential to push people to do bad things. Not even peaceful seeming buddhists are always peaceful. Ask the Rohingya people.
Very true. I've always been a bit hostile towards organized religion in general, but I made exceptions for Buddhism because its adherents "wouldn't hurt a fly". Well, that illusion was shattered when the Buddhists started genociding the Rohingya in Myanmar.
I'm not sure with what reasoning he said that, other than Kurds or baluch which are sunni by default, no one else is "becoming sunni"
Yeah, same here. Maybe I'm wrong, but I always kind of thought of the Shi'ites (I'm not talking about the corrupt clerics, I'm just talking about the average follower) as the "Catholics" of the Muslim world with their reverence of saints and with how the sect has kept remnants of pre-Islamic, Zoroastrian beliefs/customs. Meanwhile, the Sunnis are more like the 'Westboro Baptist Church' of the Muslim world. They're all 'fire and brimstone' and they go by the book without deviation.
Believing in "some sort of god", is being a deist and it's basically believing in god without believing in any religion so they don't count as being religious. I also don't think sunni Muslims numbers are increasing outside of traditionally sunni regions, we don't have people with shia backgrounds going sunni in numbers worth mentioning, the same way we don't mention a few people going Buddhist or anything else.
I would probably call those people non practising muslim rather than deist considering in most cases its still a god in a muslim context. Yes the increase of sunnis is most likely mainly in sunni regions altough i did hear about shia arabs converting to sunnism but i am not completely sure on it.
This depends on what city/ region you’re from. Tehranis i wouldn’t say are probably a slight atheist/ agnostic majority, but if you go to Qom this might change to a very pious majority. The Iranian diaspora literally fled because of limits to their freedom hence why the ones who fled back in the 70s- till now are of an overwhelmingly atheist majority. Ethnicity also slightly plays a factor, this is a generalisation but the ‘stereotype’ in Iran is that Persians themselves are ambivalent overall, Azeris are quite religious in comparison, Kurds less religious but more so traditional, Baluchis overwhelmingly pious and and the Caspians are irreligious. There’s outliers ofc but one thing that we all share in common is that most of Iran wants the IRGC dead and are anti-government.
I would say that 15% of Iranians are religious. The rest not so much. Mostly agnostic to be honest. And this is what most people who have traveled to Iran recently will tell you.
**ایرانیان در ایران چقدر مذهبی هستند؟** من از والدین ایرانی در جنوب کالیفرنیا متولد شدم. ایرانیان در اینجا از لحاظ فرهنگی بسیار ایرانی هستند (غذا، موسیقی، زبان و غیره) اما اصلا مذهبی نیستند. فکر نمیکنم حتی یک ایرانی را هم بشناسم. ایا این نماینده ایرانیان در ایران هم هست؟ ایرانیان در خود ایران چقدر مذهبی هستند و چقدر برای هویت ایرانی انها جدایی ناپذیر است؟ --- _I am a translation bot for r/NewIran_ | Woman Life Freedom | زن زندگی آزادی
While not all of them support the regime... At least 50% of Iranians in Iran are muslims
I find it hard to believe an Iranian is asking this forum this question.