Teenage Rebellion and State Sanctioned Religion: Match made in Hell?
Iranian youth have become less religious in the current day than they were pre-1979 revolution. Comparatively, people were, in fact, much more religious and in favor of religion before the Islamic Republic as a whole. This can be confusing, until one examines the unique circumstances an Islamist theocracy creates, especially when considering the situation the people of Iran were in during the former monarchy
First, one must consider religiousity as a multidimensional concept, containing multiple facets that either have to do with the collective idea of society or one’s personal relationship with religion. In his work, Sacred as Secular: Secularization under Theocracy in Iran, Kazemipur utilizes two data sets on public opinion about religion, one post-revolution and one pre-revolution, and concluded that personal religiosity declined post-Islamic Republic, though collective and state religion and de-secularization have increased (117- 127).
There are some obvious reasons for these shifts. Pre-revolution, religion was a personal relationship one held. Most Iranians were of course Shi’a Muslims, but their varying levels of religiosity and beliefs which were a result of a ground up approach to religion which encouraged personal connection. State-led secularization enforced bans on religious garments while suppressing the large religious class, leaning on western power and ideals as justification. An increasingly secular and unpopular government created higher levels of religiosity as a mode of rebellion against the Shah, especially when the religious class began to speak against him.
Furthermore, the tumultuous experience of living under the Shah’s poorly constructed and hasty systems made the people long for the stability of tradition and the preexisting social order. In this way, we can begin to understand the de-secularization of Iran into the Islamic Republic.
However, it is obvious that this has resulted in an extreme pendulum shift into yet another oppressive system for the Iranian people, particularly the youth. Never has it been so simple to see how others live, and the usage of the internet in Iran not only to spread the word of their oppression but to see how others, under less oppressive systems live, festers resentment. Post-revolution, the top-down approach to a uniform expression of religion corrupts the personal relationships an individual may feel with their faith. Further, the use of religion to justify the brutality and restrictions Iranians face alienates young people, who are too young to remember a time when their religiosity was allowed to be a personal relationship.
Violent force is generally ineffective in impressing actual changes in belief to individuals, regardless of how uniform things may seem on the outside. It is easy to control the physical state, what one can and cannot do. It is very difficult to control how one thinks or feels, especially in our global world. And, this task becomes nearly impossible when you try to impress such things on teens, who are built to be rebellious.
- KC