How socially polarized are Iranians?

irantightclothes.jpgThere is currently a presidential election going on in Iran. The buffoon Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is running against a “reformist,” Mir-Hossein Mousavi. There is some controversy because Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, has been active in the campaign, and held hands with him in public! (and I thought that the principal banned PDA?) It is a quirk, though not too significant, that both candidates are from ethnic minorities. Mousavi is an ethnic Azeri Turk (as is the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) while the buffoon is Talysh (the Talysh language is mutually intelligible with standard Persian). But the bigger story is the social fissures in Iranian society between urban and rural, rich and poor, educated and not educated. The standard narrative is that the elites support reformists who wish to liberalize Iranian society, while the poor back populists like the buffoon who promise more bread and religious revival.
This makes me wonder, how polarized is Iranian society? A few years ago Free Inquiry had a piece up, The Next Secular Revolution?, which played up the undercurrent of anti-clericalism extant within Iran. But I was skeptical, and poking through the World Values Surey makes me even more skeptical. Iranians might be tired of Mullahcracy, but they’re no free thinkers. Rather, they’re moderately conservative people who have lost their taste for religious radicalism. Or have they? One of the issues that Westerners have is that the Iranians who are informants for reporters are no doubt going to be sampled from the educated elites. This might selection-bias the sample.
So I broke down various questions by education in the World Values Survey for Iran. The N’s for each class are on the order of 500. Most of the questions have 4 or 10 categories. I present extreme responses. If the questions have a form such as “Very strongly agree,” then there were four options.

  Highest Education Completed
  Elementary Secondary University
Politics very important 19.3 20.9 19.8
Religion very important 84.1 78 65.6
Not a member of political party 95.2 94.5 85
Most people can be trusted 9.6 8.4 13.6
Great deal of freedom & choice 16 16.5 15.6
Protect environment, even if sacrifice economic growth 47.5 50.7 50.3
Men have more right to jobs than women 74.7 67.4 62.8
Marriage is an outdated institution 12.7 18.5 20.9
Strongly disagree that university is more important for men than women 7.4 17.4 19.4
Income should be more equal 24.3 31.7 22.4
Government ownership of business should be increased 16.1 15.5 10
Competition is good 29.7 41.7 41.7
Great deal of confidence in organized religion 50.8 40.6 33.1
Great deal of confidence in press 8.1 9.1 5.6
Great of confidence in government 19.4 16.3 8
Confidence of political parties 7 6.4 3.2
Confidence in women’s movement 11.3 9.3 4.4
Having strong political leader very good 25.9 19.2 20.2
Having experts making decisions very good 11.6 9.1 9.7
Having democratic system very good 37.5 43.1 46.8
There is no respect for individual rights 9.1 12.9 13.9
Taxing the rich and subsidizing poor essential characteristic of democracy 18 19 19.2
Religious authorities interpreting laws not an essential characteristic of democracy 10.7 14.5 20.3
Prospering economy and essential characteristic of democracy 35 37.3 41.6
Women having same rights as men essential characteristic of democracy 30.1 39 42.5
Democracy absolutely important 29.4 36.7 44.1
Received information from newspaper in last week 36.7 60.4 69.4
Received information from internet in last week 3.5 20.2 40.5
Received information from radio or TV in last week 83.6 88.3 89.6
Never attend religious services 20.9 25.6 29.7
Not a religious person 10.9 17.4 21.5
Organized religion answers moral problems 72 65.4 56.5
Organized religion answers social problems 57.6 50.9 37.6
God is very important in life 79.8 82.2 76.6
Agree strongly that politicians who don’t beliee in God unfit for office 45.3 44.4 36.8
Agree strongly that religious leaders should not influence how people vote 22.6 29.7 30
Agree strongly if people with strong religious beliefs in office 33.8 31 26.1
Agree strongly that religious leaders should not influence government 16.1 17 22
Homosexuality never justifiable 80.8 86.8 82.7
Prostitution never justifiable 82.6 86.6 81.9
Abortion never justifiable 66.4 62 55.8
Divorce never justifiable 52 45.7 37.8
Man beating his wife never justifiable 72.1 78.1 76.1
Very proud of nationality 70.6 66 55.2
Strongly agrees that one is citizen of the world 26.5 28 37.3
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