Through conducting research on my Cultural Project I was able to learn about the Iranian government, Constituion, social structure and history. The Iranian government is based on Islamic law (Sharia law), but much of it is not codified in the constitution itself. This becomes an issue when judges make decisions appealing to aspects of Sharia law but that are inconsistent with the constitution.
The Iranian government took a turn toward becoming an Islamic state after the Revolution of 1979. Although Iran is an Islamic state, its constitution states that no person will be "taken to task" based on their religious beliefs. However, as recently as 2008 there was a motion to codify the death penalty as a punishment for apostacy, or leaving the Islamic faith. Also, although their religious rights are still protected under the Iranian constitution, about 70 Christians were captured around Christmas of 2010. This is because the Iranian government views Christianity as a western ideology and an attempt at destabilizing the religious foundation of the government.
During this project I also learned that technology has a lot to do with the influence of Christianity in Iran. Media sources such as satellite tv, the radio, and internet have greatly increased the number of converts to Christianity, thus causing more fear in the Iranian Government.
The people that are Christian in Iran must hide their faith. It is not socially acceptable to outwardly appear to be anything else other than Muslim. This brings in "baten" and "zaher" (inside and outside identities) that the Iranian culture contains. Essentially it means that Christians are Christians only in the privacy of their own homes or around their good friends, on the outside though, they are Muslim. I also learned that there are social stigma and repercussions attached to people who are not Muslim. An example of this is Mona, a woman in Iran who was refused a job by the Iranian state airline because she had never read the Koran.
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