Go offline with the Player FM app!
How Religious Is Iran?
Manage episode 341278172 series 1301282
Last month’s attempt on Salman Rushdie’s life brought the world’s attention back on Iran and the death sentence imposed on the writer by Ayatollah Khomeini more than three decades ago.
More recently, Iran has been in the news with reports of crackdowns on perceived dissidents: women who choose not to wear the hijab and members of other religions especially the Baha'is.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is ruled by a Supreme Leader from the Shia tradition, Ayatollah Khamenei. It is he who ultimately wields the power and imposes limits on the peoples’ rights and freedoms. Given his overruling authority, it is difficult to know what ordinary people believe or how they feel about their system of government.
So is this vast country of 86 million people really an Islamic nation? And if it’s not, how religious is Iran?
Ernie Rea is joined by Professor Ali Ansari, Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Professor Sajjad Rizvi and Khosro Kalbasi, a journalist for BBC Monitoring watching Iran.
Producer: Rebecca Maxted Assistant Producer: Peter Everett Editor: Dan Tierney.
340 episodes
Manage episode 341278172 series 1301282
Last month’s attempt on Salman Rushdie’s life brought the world’s attention back on Iran and the death sentence imposed on the writer by Ayatollah Khomeini more than three decades ago.
More recently, Iran has been in the news with reports of crackdowns on perceived dissidents: women who choose not to wear the hijab and members of other religions especially the Baha'is.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is ruled by a Supreme Leader from the Shia tradition, Ayatollah Khamenei. It is he who ultimately wields the power and imposes limits on the peoples’ rights and freedoms. Given his overruling authority, it is difficult to know what ordinary people believe or how they feel about their system of government.
So is this vast country of 86 million people really an Islamic nation? And if it’s not, how religious is Iran?
Ernie Rea is joined by Professor Ali Ansari, Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Professor Sajjad Rizvi and Khosro Kalbasi, a journalist for BBC Monitoring watching Iran.
Producer: Rebecca Maxted Assistant Producer: Peter Everett Editor: Dan Tierney.
340 episodes
All episodes
×Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.