Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
Countries

Iran

Also Known As Iranian
Asia

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Iran is the historical heartland of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest continuously practiced religions, whose sacred fire temples and small surviving community still exist there alongside a much larger Zoroastrian diaspora. Since the 1979 revolution the country has been governed as an Islamic republic under Shia Twelver clerical rule, with Shia Islam as the state religion and the holy city of Qom serving as a major center of Shia seminary education. The Baha'i Faith, which originated in nineteenth century Iran, is not recognized by the state, and its adherents face documented, systematic legal and social persecution that the atlas records as an ongoing and attributable matter rather than a resolved historical episode. Pre-Islamic Iran also produced influential currents including Manichaeism, and Persian Sufi poetry, most famously that of Rumi and Hafez, remains central to devotional and literary culture across the Persian speaking world.

Facts
Law and State
Establishment Status
Established 3
The constitution establishes Twelver Shia Islam under the Ja'fari school as Iran's state religion, exercised through the doctrine of velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurist), under which a supreme religious jurist holds ultimate authority alongside the elected government. Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian minorities hold reserved seats in parliament, while the Baha'i Faith receives no legal recognition at all and its adherents face systematic persecution.
State Funding Mechanism
Iran funds Shia religious institutions through its bonyads, tax-exempt, state-subsidized foundations that channel public resources to religious and revolutionary causes, most prominently the Astan-e Qods-e Razavi foundation that administers the shrine of Imam Reza at Mashhad, alongside the older Awqaf system of religious endowments that directly funds mosques and religious schools. 4
Apostasy or Blasphemy Law
Apostasy carries no article of its own in Iran's 2013 Islamic Penal Code. Article 220 of the Code instead directs judges to Article 167 of the Constitution, which requires a ruling drawn from authoritative Islamic sources and fatwa wherever the Code is silent. Because most fatwas hold that apostasy is punishable by death, this uncodified route lets a court impose a death sentence for apostasy despite no written statute naming the offense. 5
Registration or Recognition Regime
Article 13 of the constitution recognizes exactly three religious minorities, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, who are free within the limits of the law to perform their own rites and to follow their own canon in personal-status matters, and who hold reserved seats in parliament. Sunni Islam is practiced but is not separately registered as a minority faith alongside Shia Islam, the state religion. The Baha'i Faith holds no constitutional recognition at all; it has no right to legal existence, its institutions are banned, and its adherents face systematic exclusion from education and employment and continued prosecution. Even recognized minorities answer to restrictions unrecognized elsewhere, including a bar on proselytizing Muslims and close state monitoring of converts from Islam. 6
Ban or Official Watchlist
The Baha'i Faith is not legally recognized in Iran, and its adherents face systematic legal, educational and economic restriction; Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian minorities, by contrast, hold reserved seats in parliament. 3
Concordat Basis
Iran has no concordat with the Holy See and no diplomatic relations with it at all. Its constitutional instrument runs the other way: Article 13 of the 1979 Constitution, revised 1989, names Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians the country's only recognized religious minorities, free within the limits of the law to perform their own rites and to follow their own canon in personal-status matters and religious education, with a reserved total of five seats in the Majlis. The recognition is narrow rather than general: Baha'is, Iran's largest non-Muslim minority, fall outside it entirely and are not recognized under the constitution at all. 7
Demographics
Religious Composition
About 90-95% Twelver Shia Muslim; Sunni Muslim minorities among Kurds, Baluchis and Turkmen; small recognized Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian communities (Pew Research Center, Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020). 1
Government
Capital
Tehran 2
Government Type
theocratic republic 2
Sovereignty Status
Sovereign UN member state 2
Established Year
1979 2
1 April 1979 (Islamic Republic of Iran proclaimed); notable earlier dates: ca. 550 B.C. (Achaemenid or Persian Empire established); A.D. 1501 (Iran reunified under the Safavid dynasty); 1794 (beginning of Qajar dynasty); 12 December 1925 (modern Iran established under the PAHLAVI dynasty)
Geography
Latitude
32.4 degrees north 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Longitude
53.7 degrees east 2
Approximate reference point, rounded to one decimal place; a country's extent has no single center, so this coordinate is conventional, not a survey measurement.
Status
Legal Status
Constitution establishes Twelver Shia Islam as state religion under the doctrine of velayat-e faqih; Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian minorities hold reserved parliamentary seats, while the Baha'i Faith is not legally recognized and its adherents face systematic persecution. 3
Location
Location of Iran Afghanistan Albania Algeria Angola Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Guatemala Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Libya Lithuania Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Moldova Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nigeria North Macedonia Norway Oman Pakistan Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
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Religion and History in Iran

Iran is overwhelmingly Shia Muslim, around 90 to 95 percent Twelver Shia per most estimates including Pew Research's Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020, with Sunni Muslim minorities among Kurds, Baluchis and Turkmen, and small recognized Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian communities. Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zoroaster and centered on the god Ahura Mazda, was Persia's dominant religion for over a thousand years under the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian empires before the seventh-century Arab Muslim conquest, and a small Zoroastrian community survives in Iran today, guaranteed reserved parliamentary representation alongside Jewish, Armenian Christian and Assyrian Christian minorities.

Shia Islam became Iran's dominant faith specifically through the Safavid dynasty's imposition of Twelver Shia orthodoxy as state religion from 1501, a pivotal transformation that set Iran apart religiously from the mostly Sunni Ottoman and Central Asian worlds surrounding it. Qom and Mashhad rank among Shia Islam's most important centers of religious scholarship and pilgrimage, the latter holding the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam, and Iranian Shia clergy, organized in a hierarchy of religious scholarship, would later provide the theological and institutional foundation for the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Theocratic Governance Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution

Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution replaced the Pahlavi monarchy with a theocratic republic under the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, guardianship of the Islamic jurist, which vests ultimate religious and political authority in a Supreme Leader, a position held first by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and since 1989 by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, above the elected president and parliament.

The constitution recognizes Shia Islam as the state religion and grants limited protected status to Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian minorities, who hold reserved parliamentary seats, while the Baha'i Faith, founded in nineteenth-century Iran and considered by its adherents a distinct post-Islamic revelation, receives no such recognition and its members face systematic persecution, including exclusion from higher education and public employment and arbitrary detention, since the government regards the Baha'i Faith as a heretical movement rather than an independent religion.

Sunni Muslims, despite comprising Iran's largest religious minority, are barred from building a Sunni mosque in Tehran and report broader restrictions in an overwhelmingly Shia state apparatus. Enforcement of religious law, including mandatory hijab requirements for women, has produced recurring mass protest, most significantly following the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Ancient and Historical Regions

Persia, Regions

Persia corresponds to modern Iran.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

Associated With

This source names Iran directly: "at different times been attributed to Iran, Iraq, Tunisia, Sicily and Spain; a Kairouan, Tunisia origin under Fatimid patronage is the attribution most often repeated in recent scholarship..."

Source Two Folios from the Blue Qur'an, AKM477 (Aga Khan Museum)Aga Khan Museum, catalogue entry

This source names Iran directly: "Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in Iran, edited by Peter J."

Source Chelkowski (ed.), Ta'ziyeh: Ritual and Drama in IranPeter J. Chelkowski (editor)

This source names Iran directly: "and the high priesthood of Zoroastrian Iran, since holding a religious office is the common thread rather than any one tradition."

This source names Iran directly: "Human Dignity Trust's Iran country profile documents Iran's Islamic Penal Code, based on Twelver Ja'fari fiqh, the state's official school: liwat is defined as penetrative anal intercourse between..."

Islam, Religions

About 90 to 95% Twelver Shia Muslim, the historical heartland of Zoroastrianism before Islam.

Source Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020Pew Research Center

This source names Iran directly: "million people, most concentrated in Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq)."

This source names Iran directly: "was built in 1259 in northwestern Iran under the patronage of the Mongol Ilkhanid ruler Hulagu and directed by the Persian polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, who had persuaded Hulagu that his..."

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors

This source names Iran directly: "Keddie was a historian of Iran and the modern Middle East, and this Yale University Press book is her standard scholarly history of modern Iran, covering the roots and consequences of the 1979..."

Source The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd editionP. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.)

This source names Iran directly: "corpse exposure practice in Iran, and argues an ecological explanation grounded in the Himalayan plateau's scarce arable land, frozen ground and scarce fuel, tying the custom to the Tibetan Buddhist..."

This source names Iran directly: "of its ancestors' migration from Iran to Gujarat, composed with no securely recorded year and, by its own internal evidence, written centuries after the migration it describes, likely in the..."

Source Qissa-i SanjanBahman Kaikobad (attributed)

This source names Iran directly: "rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, hosted on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website and read here in its 2025 edition, part of a mandate renewed annually and reporting..."

The empire rose in Fars and ruled Iran until the Arab conquest of the 640s, after which Zoroastrianism became a diminishing minority there.

This source names Iran directly: "Daryaee is a historian of ancient Iran, and this I.B."

This source names Iran directly: "heroic and historical reigns of Iran's kings from creation through the seventh century Arab conquest that ended Sasanian, and with it Zoroastrian, rule in Iran."

Took place in Yazd and its surrounding district in central Iran.

Took place in Tehran and Shiraz under the authority of the Iranian state.

This source names Iran directly: "then part of Persia and in present day Iran: when the young cleric Mulla Husayn came seeking a teacher, the Bab declared himself the bearer of new divine revelation, and Mulla Husayn became his..."

Source The Bab (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Iran directly: "and community organization outside Iran rather than treating diaspora practice as a footnote to ancient Zoroastrianism."

This source names Iran directly: "article on Zoroastrianism in Iran, community-edited."

Source Zoroastrianism In Iran (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

This source names Iran directly: "larger populations of India and Iran."

This source names Iran directly: "among Zoroastrian communities in Iran and India alongside the historical and textual record, following the tradition from ancient Persia through to the living Parsi and Iranian Zoroastrian..."

Conducted

Contains

Originated Here

Persians, Cultures

Spread Events Here

Shiraz was part of Persia in 1844; this event is anchored to Iran, the country that territory belongs to today.

Source The Bab (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors

Anchored to the modern country entity for Iran, matching how this atlas already anchors Zoroastrianism's Sassanid-era and Arab-conquest events to the same entity rather than to the historical region name.

Source Achaemenid Empire (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Religious Composition of the World, 2010-2020
Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 2025View the Source
2. The World Factbook (Central Intelligence Agency)
Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence AgencyView the Source
3. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
United Nations Human Rights Council, 2025View the Source
4. Iranian Para-Governmental Organizations, Bonyads (Middle East Institute)
Middle East Institute staff, Middle East InstituteView the Source
5. Iran Human Rights Documentation Center: Apostasy in the Islamic Republic of Iran (25 September 2014)
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, 2014View the Source
6. International Religious Freedom Report
United States Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, US Department of State, 2023View the Source
7. Iran (Islamic Republic of) 1979 (rev. 1989) Constitution (Constitute Project)
Islamic Republic of Iran, Assembly of Experts for Constitution, Constitute ProjectView the Source
The Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition
Oxford University Press, Oxford University Pressdemonym / adjectival formView the Source
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