Religious Matters team member Pooyan Tamimi Arab has received a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for his project Iran’s Secular Shift: A Mixed Methods Approach to Nonreligion and Atheism in an Islamic Republic.

The project departs from the recognition that in a secular age extending beyond the West, growing numbers of people worldwide distance themselves from religion. Yet, social scientists and humanities scholars continue describing Islamic countries as resistant to secularization. The theocracy established in Iran after the 1979 revolution is often cited as evidence. Iconic events, however, such as women protesting the compulsory hijab, chanting “Woman, Life, Freedom,” point to a tectonic shift within Iranian society.

Religion and politics are separate. Elham Ataeiazar. 2023. https://www.instagram.com/elham.ataeiazar/

Asked about his project, Pooyan said: “I am inspired by the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” which marks an important change in Iranian society. With the Vidi grant I want to investigate the role of secularity in this change.” The Vidi project combines large-scale anonymous online surveys with visual culture and discourse analysis, and will focus on non-religiosity, atheism, and calls for separating mosque and state.