The protests in Iran continue and keep changing the way of thinking of many Iranians. Researchers around the world analyzing the situation in Iran want to get an insight into how the belief of the population is changing. For long classical surveys depicted the secular movement in Iran to be rather small which was doubted by many. In the end, the population in fear of the radical government will not express their true beliefs in any questionnaire. Furthermore, Iran’s isolation from the rest of the world complicates the research process significantly.

Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab is an assistant professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University. He teaches about topics such as political secularism, religious tolerance, and material religion. 

He is co-founder of GAMAAN, the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran, which conducted digital surveys showing that Iran is indeed becoming a more secular society. 

In this lecture, you will learn about the challenges the conductors of the surveys in Iran encounter. Tamimi Arab will explain how the relationship between the secular and religious is unfolding under the current protests using the obtained survey data. In particular, he will explain the role of hijab burning to outline the effects of the protests.