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Iran: 45 years after the Islamic Revolution, Iranians are losing faith in the state religion
In 1979, the Islamic Revolution set itself as its guiding ideology, at both the political and religious levels, an extreme follow-up of Islam, with the desire to make Iran a champion in the Muslim world. But 45 years later, this promise of a theocratic country seems to be called into question by millennia of Persian culture and a society which no longer hides its rejection of a largely repressive regime and the religion which characterizes it.
An Iranian mullah (religious) in the holy Shiite city of Qom, February 17, 2000. AFP - BEHROUZ MEHRI
By: Louise Huet
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In the south of Iran
,
the remains of Persepolis, a vast complex built by King Darius I, symbol of the greatness of the Persian Empire, have been included on the UNESCO world heritage list for 45 years. Emblem of the past monarchy, these ruins nevertheless faced an iconoclastic attempt after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. A cleric and his supporters attempted to raze the site to eradicate this cultural reference, "
in total contradiction with Islam and the values advocated by the regime
,” says Didier Idjadi, Iranian sociologist teaching at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM). Except that faced with the mobilization of residents to oppose its demolition in Shiraz, where these remains are located, the enterprise was quickly abandoned.
There are dozens of examples like Persepolis, where Iranians are resisting the regime's attempts to suppress part of its ancestral culture. “
The Islamic model wanted to impose itself by force by destroying and rejecting the Iranian historical past. But these festivals, these traditions, which are thousands of years old, are anchored in the unconscious of a large majority of the Iranian population and cannot be erased so easily
,” reports Didier Idjadi.
However, this is what the Islamic Republic has strived to do since its founding. With a Shiite majority, Iran has been a theocracy since 1979, based on a model of political
Islam
. If in its beginnings, the Islamic regime drew its strength from the support of a majority of Iranians, “
this popular support has withered
” in the space of only ten years, continues the academic. To make way for two key levers: systematic repression against the population and the accentuation of religious propaganda in all areas of society.
Many “
no longer recognize themselves in the official religion of the regime
”
Mehdi Khalaji, an Iranian theologian exiled in the United States, does not hesitate to describe the Islamic Republic as a “
totalitarian regime
”. For him, the decline in the popularity of the regime and its religiosity can be explained precisely by this ambient climate of terror. “
Even if all these acts of oppression are carried out in the name of Islam, for more and more Iranians, no religious reason can justify the arbitrary regulations and the suffering that they are subjected to: the arrests, the torture, death sentences, imprisonment, threats. Today, this model of Islamization creates a form of disgust in the country
,” explains this son of a cleric who was forcibly propelled by his family into the cogs of the Shiite clergy system during his adolescence.
An observation shared by Didier Idjadi, who notes a “
divorce between those who really believed in the Islamic Revolution when it was conceived, and what it has become
”. Many Iranians are distancing themselves from the regime to practice their religion as they see fit. “
There is still a part of Iranian society which believes in Islam, which goes to places of pilgrimage, which prays, but which does not recognize its religion in that of the government
,” he adds.
If the
Quai d'Orsay estimates
the Muslim population in the country at 99% (Shiite at 89%; Sunni at 10%), the reality is quite different according to Didier Idjadi, who relies on a study carried out remotely by
the Gamaan analysis and measurement institute,
based in the Netherlands. Out of a sample of 40,000 Iranians living in Iran, 78% say they believe in God. However, almost half of those surveyed (47%) say they have abandoned their religion. In detail, only 32% of Iranians say they are Shiite Muslims while 22% do not identify with any of the beliefs mentioned in the survey.
3- While 32% of the population identifies as Shi'ite Muslim, around 9% identify as atheist, 8% as Zoroastrian, 7% as spiritual, 6% as agnostic, and 5% as Sunni Muslim. Others identify with Sufi mysticism, humanism, Christianity, Baha'i, or Judaism, and 22% with none of the above pic.twitter.com/SoQWPMbBFA
— GAMAAN - گَمان (@gamaanresearch) September 10, 2020
An increasingly anticlerical population
An Iranian resident, Babak Ibrahimi still brings a nuance. According to this Middle East specialist, there remains “
a minority of silent supporters loyal to the regime's religion, which remains one of the bulwarks to prevent the regime from falling.
»
But then, if nearly four out of five Iranians believe in God, why do half say they have lost their religion? According to Mehdi Khalaji, this is because a large number of them, even believers, are turning away from clerical institutions - vast bureaucratic organizations central to the Islamic regime, but "
renowned for their corruption and hypocrisy
".
As a result, “
a large part of Iranian society is not becoming anti-religion, but anti-clerical
,” adds the researcher.
She no longer believes in the legitimacy of this order, most of whose members favor money before spirituality, and respond to political interests before truly following a religious doctrine. People realize that they do not need a guide to exercise their beliefs
.”
Also read: Iran: removing the mullahs' turban, another way of protesting
“
In Iran, political Islam has failed
”
With the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, started in September 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, this trend has become even more accentuated. He was even “
the incarnation of a process of secularization in the country
”, analyzes Didier Idjadi. “
The actors of this movement do not define themselves as religious subjects, but as citizens who fight for freedom.
» In addition to this, Iranian society is very active, increasingly open to the world, connected via social networks and in contact with Western culture.
Young Iranian women who refuse to wear their veil, who go out with their hair blowing in the wind, who “
smoke a cigarette freely outside
”… For Babak Ibrahimi, a direct witness to the demonstrations, these images which have been circulating on the internet for more than a year are a reminder the period of “
modernization
” experienced under the Pahlavi era, the last dynasty to reign in Tehran before the Islamic Revolution. “
According to many Iranian intellectuals, during the Shah's era, Islam and the clergy were considered the causes of Iran's backwardness, and on the contrary, secularism represented an attractive alternative, a factor of modernity. But we must not forget that another part of the country was very attached to Islam and its traditions, and still is today
,” he insists.
However, in Iran, “
political Islam has failed as a mobilizing force
,” says theologian Mehdi Khalaji. “
By wanting to elevate himself above God, the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, Khomeini, was the leader of secularization by accident. For many Iranians, by turning a religion into a political ideology, he destroyed the very components and fundamentals of Islam.
» Or how, with its “
totalitarian
” ambition, the Islamic regime has damaged its own credibility.
► Also read:
Islamic Republic of Iran: 45 years of human rights violations
Iran: the main protest movements against the regime since 1979
Iran: the major dates of the Islamic Republic
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