Heritage
Faiths
The faiths of Iran, each described by its own community.
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Twelver Shi’a Islam
Majority faith since the Safavids; hosseiniyehs abroad
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Sunni Islam
Among Kurds, Baluch, Turkmen and some southern communities
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Sufi orders
Nimatullahi, Gonabadi and Oveyssi orders, with centres abroad
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Zoroastrianism
The ancient faith of Iran; communities in Yazd, Kerman, Tehran, India and North America
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Judaism
Iranian Jews since the Achaemenids; Los Angeles, Great Neck, Israel
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Armenian and Assyrian Christianity
Recognised minorities with large diasporas
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Baha’i Faith
Iran’s largest non-Muslim minority, persecuted since 1979; the underground university BIHE (1987)
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Yarsan
Kurdish and Lak faith of the Kermanshah region
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Mandaeans
Ancient Gnostic faith of Khuzestan
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Secular and non-religious Iranians
A large share of the diaspora
Cite this page
- APA
Iranian Diaspora Cooperation & Development Council. (2026). Faiths. iranians.global. https://iranians.global/heritage/faiths/
- Chicago
Iranian Diaspora Cooperation & Development Council. 2026. “Faiths.” iranians.global. https://iranians.global/heritage/faiths/.
- BibTeX
@misc{idcdc2026_heritage_faiths, author = {{Iranian Diaspora Cooperation \& Development Council}}, year = {2026}, note = {Licence: CC BY 4.0}, title = {Faiths}, url = {https://iranians.global/heritage/faiths/}, howpublished = {https://iranians.global/heritage/faiths/}, }- RIS
TY - ELEC AU - Iranian Diaspora Cooperation & Development Council DA - 2026/// PY - 2026 ID - idcdc2026_heritage_f N1 - Licence: CC BY 4.0 TI - Faiths UR - https://iranians.global/heritage/faiths/ ER -
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Sources
Open scholarly records on this subject, from approved indexes. Listed for reference, not yet reviewed.
- Manfred Hutter (2023). Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iran: An Introduction. Springer eBooks. DOI 10.1007/978-981-19-1633-5_1
- MASSIMILIANO VASSALLI (2026). The Literary History of the Zoroastrians in Iran. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23483679
- Eliz Sanasarian (2000). Religious Minorities in Iran. Cambridge University Press eBooks. DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511492259
- Rezaeipandari H, Morowatisharifabad MA, Mohammadpoorasl A et al. (2026). Predictors of perceived quality of life in zoroastrian minority older adults with chronic diseases: a cross-sectional study in Iran.. BMC Geriatr. DOI 10.1186/s12877-026-07691-5
- APSA MENA Section (2024). Ethno-Religious Minorities and Electoral Politics in Iran. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.11061064
Research and sources
Recent and relevant work on this page’s subject, from approved open scholarly sources. Metadata and links only. Titles stay as published. Not yet reviewed.
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Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iran: An Introduction
Manfred Hutter · 2023 · Springer eBooks
ChapterOpenAlexCrossrefOpenAIRE
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The Literary History of the Zoroastrians in Iran
MASSIMILIANO VASSALLI · 2026 · Zenodo
OtherDataCiteZenodoOpen accessCC0-1.0
-
Eliz Sanasarian · 2000 · Cambridge University Press eBooks
BookOpenAlexCrossrefDOAJOpenAIREOpen accessCC-BY-NC-ND
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Rezaeipandari H, Morowatisharifabad MA, Mohammadpoorasl A et al. · 2026 · BMC Geriatr
ArticleEurope PMCOpen access
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Ethno-Religious Minorities and Electoral Politics in Iran
APSA MENA Section · 2024 · Zenodo
ReportDataCiteOpen accessCC-BY-4.0
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Javad Mousavi Dalini, Arash Yousefi · 2024 · Al-Jami’ah: Journal of Islamic Studies
ArticleDOAJOpen access
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Abdossaied Badiei Khorsand, farhad parvin · 2020 · Iranian Journal of Comparative Education
ArticleDOAJOpenAIREOpen access
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Introduction: Iranian Jews in the Twenty-First Century
2022 · Jews of Iran
ChapterCrossref
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Ashrafian Bonab M, Behnam B, Finn R et al. · 2026 · Preprints.org
PreprintEurope PMC
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Journey and Encounters: The History of the Zoroastrians of Iran and Its Challenges
MASSIMILIANO VASSALLI · 2026 · Zenodo
ArticleDataCiteZenodoOpen accessCC0-1.0
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Managing Religion and Religious Changes in Iran: A Socio-Legal Analysis
Jamsheed K. Choksy · 2026 · American Journal of Islam and Society
ArticleOpenAlexOpen accessCC-BY-NC-ND
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Rezaeipandari H, Morowatisharifabad MA, Shaghaghi A · 2023 · J Relig Health
ArticleEurope PMC
Sources, licences and fetch dates: Crossref (Metadata facts, any use; abstracts may be publisher-owned and are never shown), 2026-10-23; DataCite (CC0 1.0 (DataCite metadata)), 2026-10-23; DOAJ (Metadata CC0 1.0 (DOAJ); articles under their own open licences), 2026-10-23; Europe PMC (Metadata reusable; full text under each article’s licence), 2026-10-23; OpenAIRE (CC BY 4.0 (OpenAIRE Graph)), 2026-10-23; OpenAlex (CC0-1.0 data; metered API (free key)), 2026-10-23; Zenodo (Metadata CC0 1.0; each record under its own licence), 2026-10-23.
