YACOOB ABBA OMAR: Survey highlights the poser that Iran is amid byzantine US politics
As nuclear talks revive, a study shows the Gulf country is a lot more secular than is commonly believed
To the surprise of many, a recent study showed Iran is a far more secular society than many believe. As talks about Iran’s nuclear programme pick up again, the survey showed what a conundrum Iran is within the imbroglio of Middle East developments and byzantine US politics.
Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ammar Maleki of the Netherlands-based Group for Analysing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (Gamaan), found after analysing 40,000 responses to a 2020 survey that only 40% Iranians self-identified as Muslim, while 20% expressed no particular affiliation and 9% said they were atheists. As for religion in legislation, 68% did not want any of that, and 72% opposed the law requiring women to wear the hijab...
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