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Iran Media Review content-type in which the post is published

Official Government Poll: 72.9% of Iranians Favor Separation of Religion and State

The February 27 edition of the Iran Media Review highlights a leaked poll showing dramatic changes in Iranians’ opinions on the role of religion in public life.

Ali Alfoneh

Forty-five years after the revolution in Iran and establishment of the Islamic Republic, 10% of Iranians declare themselves “nonreligious” and 24.1% “moderately religious”; 47% of Iranians do not follow a Shia source of emulation; 45% are either “totally opposed” or “opposed” to the mandatory hijab; and 72.9% of Iranians favor the separation of religion and state. Those are some of the results of a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance poll that was recently leaked to BBC Persian. While other polls in Arab states have detected a gradual rise in the number of people declaring themselves not religious, the recent polling from Iran is a manifestation of the Islamic Republic’s palpably declining ability to shape society according to its ideology.

  • February 20: While “The Fourth Wave of the National Polling of Values and Views of Iranians” remains classified, BBC Persian released chapter eight of the book, “Religious Views and Practices”:
    • In response to the statement, “All women must wear the hijab,” 10.8% of respondents declared themselves “totally opposed” and 34.4% stated they were “opposed,” while 13% declared themselves “neither in favor nor opposed.” Moreover, 33% “agreed” and 7.9% “completely agreed” with the statement.
    • Answering the question, “How do you deal with women without the hijab?” 38% of respondents stated they don’t have any problem with it, while 46% stated they are opposed to it but do not interfere with women not wearing the hijab. Additionally, 61.9% “totally agreed” or “agreed” that “the employment of individuals at government offices should not be based on their religious beliefs.” In the 2015 poll, only 42.6% of the respondents believed that government employment should not be based on the religious beliefs of job applicants.
    • According to the leaked poll, 47% of respondents said they do not follow a religious leader or source of emulation in religious affairs.
    • Notably, 72.9% of the respondents agreed with the statement, “Religion must be separated from the state.” By comparison, in the 2015 poll, only 30.7% of respondents were either in agreement or total agreement with the separation between religion and state.
Ali Alfoneh

is a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is the author of Political Succession in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Demise of the Clergy and the Rise of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (2020).

The views represented herein are the author’s or speaker’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of AGSIW, its staff, or its board of directors.

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