Atheism in Iran

I am thinking of doing some research on atheism in Iran. I've been searching for articles in different journals, but very few studies have been done on the subject in Iran, except for some blog posts here and there. It's not surprising as religion is a sensitive issue in the Islamic republic and many facts in Iran are meant to remain hidden. Even atheists are to keep their beliefs within themselves and claim to be a Muslim in public in the fear of being executed. Apostasy in Islamic law has death penalty. 

According the atheist census, Iran has the 9th largest population of atheists in the world. Click here to see the website. Even considering the fact that many countries may not have taken part in the survey and many people may not have seen the survey, it's still a large number for a country with a religious government and extreme censorship in media. Atheism in Iran is the extreme opposite of the goals and wishes of the Islamic republic, and all the religious teachings and education at schools in Iran. I suppose many of the atheists in Iran are the so called "children of revolution", which means those born in the 1980s during wartime, in the first years of the birth of Islamic republic of Iran. The very individuals who were born after the revolution and have grown up with the advertisement of Islam and Islamic culture all through their school years. The generation that have been banned to read anything that challenged Islam and Islamic ideology and provoked questioning what they are told to believe. There are quite many factors why an Islamic regime should lead to atheist people. I am going to mention some of them. 

I think the policy of Iran's government during the past 30 years has been a strong stimulus for the apostasy of young people from Islam. The suppression of any kind of joy and happiness, from the obligatory Hijab to the censorship of internet, condemning technology, male and female separation in all events and lack of freedom of speech and opinion have been putting the young people of the 21st century under an illogical pressure and it is quite easily predictable that there will be a rebel sooner or later. Yet, I cannot say that people would be religious if the pressure of the regime didn't exist. However, the fact that pressure always leads to the opposite result has been proved in history and cannot be denied.

Technology has been sth which was not predicted by the regime to be as influential as it has been. Internet has made communication way easier than the past and people have been able to discuss issues and reach access to different sources like books, articles, websites and blogs despite censorship and filtering. Preventing information, science and knowledge is inevitable in this century and these are the tools that help human beings think and gain power in reasoning. If you ban a book inside, it will be published outside, or even online, and can easily be accessed and thus read by people. That is the miracle of the 21st century!

Open minded Islamic scholars inside Iran also have a role here. Many of them are trusted by people and thus give people the courage to question and have a different and even sometimes controversial view and interpretation of Islam. Gaining the courage to have a different interpretation of Islam can be one of the initial steps for questioning Islam or any religion. Philosophy has the same role, in my opinion.

Finally, I suppose Iranian society is more traditional rather than religious, on the whole. That's why religion is not a big issue in many families. I believe that for many individuals in Iran, school and internal media does the most religious teachings, not the family. Therefore, it might be easier for Iranian youth to question their beliefs than for Arabic countries. This may not be true at all, though. 

I think I wrote more about Iran's situation than atheism in there, but I hope it opens the view of those who don't know what's going on in that mysterious country :)