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

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.

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