Su suggerimento di @Philip J. Threepwood.

L’Economist si chiede se l’istituzionalizzazione dello sciismo non stia allontanando gli iraniani dalla religione.
L’Iran è l’unica teocrazia costituzionale del Medio Oriente, fondata dopo la Rivoluzione iraniana islamica del 1979 guidata dall’Ayatollah Khomeini contro lo Scià Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Whereas secular Arab leaders suppressed Islam for decades and thus created a rallying point for political grievances, in Iran the opposite happened.
The transformation of Shia Islam into an ideology undermined both the state and the mosque. The great irony of the Islamic revolution is that inadvertently it did more to secularise the country than the tyrannical shah, who ruled Iran after a coup in 1953 and persecuted clerics. By forcing religion on people it poisoned worship for many. They are sick of being preached at and have stopped listening.