Irreligion in Iran

Irreligion in Iran has a long historical background, but is difficult to measure, as those who profess atheism are at risk of arbitrary detention, torture, and the death penalty.^[1] Non-religious citizens are officially unrecognized by the Iranian government. In the official 2011 census, 265,899 persons did not state any religion (0.3% of total population).^[2] Between 2017 and 2022, the World Values Survey found that 1.3% of Iranians identified as atheists, and a further 14.3% as not religious. In the 1999-2004 cycle, the WVS had found 1% identified as atheist and 3% as not religious.^[3]

However, a 2020 social media-based survey by Gamaan found a much larger percentage of Iranians identifying as atheist (8.8%), and a larger fraction (22.2%) identifying as not following any religion.^[4][5] The survey is however questionable as it used self-selecting participants, reached through social media and chain referrals.^[6] For comparison, the same survey put the number of Muslims in Iran at 40.4%, and Zoroastrians at 7.7%.^[4] The Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America put the number of Zoroastrians in Iran at up to 25,271 in 2012,^[7] equivalent to 0.03% of an 87.6 million population.^[8]

Under Iranian law, apostasy from Islam is punishable by death. Non-religious Iranians are officially unrecognized by the government, and one must declare oneself as a member of one of the four recognized faiths in order to avail oneself of many of the rights of citizenship.^[9][10]

Citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran are officially divided into four categories: Muslims, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians. This official division ignores other religious minorities in Iran, notably the agnostics, atheists and Bahá'ís.