An Analysis of Four Decades of Education Serving the Ideology of the Religious Government

Forty years ago, for the leaders of the religious government who were experiencing political power for the first time, education was the most important ideological tool for raising a 'Islamic' generation of youth with religious values and norms that were to become the foundation of the new post-revolutionary culture. It was no coincidence that alongside the formation of the Revolutionary Guards, the construction of a new political structure, and the judicial system, the 'Islamization' of the educational system was considered one of the main 'revolutionary' programs of the Islamic Republic. Some of the main leaders of the newly founded religious government had direct connections with the educational system of the Shah's era and the experience of religious schools before the revolution, which played a significant role in training young Islamist cadres, created the belief among them that it was possible to raise the entire youth generation with this religious and revolutionary spirit. With the Cultural Revolution of 1979, the project of Islamizing schools and universities gained momentum. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, assured the members of the Cultural Revolution Council during their first meeting that by Islamizing schools and universities, Islamic culture would replace Western culture, and Iran would rapidly move towards severing its dependency on the West and achieving self-sufficiency. Thus, for the officials who prepared the roadmap for the Islamization of the educational system and universities, everything seemed easy and clear. They, intoxicated by political victory and relying on the religious and revolutionary legitimacy they attributed to themselves and the Islamic government, imposed a deep ideological surgery from above and in an authoritarian manner on the schools and universities of Iran. In the main educational law of Iran (the 1987 law) and also in the document of fundamental changes in the educational system of 2012, the priority of purification over education is clearly mentioned, as well as the multiple religious and political objectives in educating the youth. Textbooks and curricula were repeatedly transformed, the weight of religious content in curricula significantly increased, strict measures were applied in the selection and training of teachers, various institutions were established within the educational system for religious propaganda and ideological oversight over educational and research activities, a discourse based on clear discrimination against women found its place in the curricula, and students were forced to participate in numerous propaganda programs outside the classroom. With the Cultural Revolution of 1979, the project of Islamizing schools and universities gained further momentum. Thus, Iran quickly became home to one of the most religious and closed educational systems in the world. Islamic content and ideological propaganda are not limited to religious education books; other textbooks such as Persian, social education, and history are filled with political propaganda and religious content. While internationally, on average, about eight percent of educational time is dedicated to religious issues, in Iran, this figure is close to 16 percent in official (religious classes) and about 25 percent in reality (religious and political content in the curriculum and outside the classroom). The Islamic Republic faced the silent resistance of the youth. It took several years for officials to gradually realize this fundamental reality: that the youth generation, despite a strong ideological education and brainwashing within and outside educational environments, does not align with the official state culture and resists the religious values desired by the government. The main symbol of this silent resistance is the emergence of a semi-hidden culture among the youth, especially girls, which challenges the governmental culture and its value system. The output of the educational system showed the stakeholders that the path to ideologically and authoritatively educating the youth generation is not as smooth and easy as imagined, and adolescents and young people do not turn into the ideological and intellectual slaves of the religious system. The deep gap between the ideological goals of the religious government and the realities of the educational environment and their outputs gradually became a topic of discussion in Iranian society and academic environments from the 1990s. The fundamental question was why a large portion of the youth, despite years of ideological and religious education in schools and universities, do not accept the state religious culture and resist it? Why does the 'Islamization' of the educational system, bringing clerics into schools, building prayer rooms and Quranic schools, and the activities of institutions like educational affairs and the Basij not lead to the younger generations embracing Islamic culture wholeheartedly and turning their backs on 'Western culture' or non-religious culture? Why, despite the prevailing patriarchal discourse in the curriculum that emphasizes women's roles as mothers and wives, do they increasingly distance themselves from this traditional model and challenge the patriarchal society through educational, scientific, professional, and cultural successes? For independent academic research that approached this important question with an academic perspective, the answers were more or less clear and unambiguous. The fundamental problem does not lie with the youth and their cultural resistance or the conspiracies of foreign enemies, but rather with the officials' misunderstanding of education and learning. However, the results of these studies, alongside the realities of the lives and worlds of young people, have not been able to lead a large portion of officials to rethink their beliefs about educating the youth generation. It seems that religious ideology acts like a thick curtain that makes it impossible to see the realities of society and makes questioning, doubting, and challenging beliefs difficult. Perhaps this is why they, instead of critically rethinking the philosophy of what they call the Islamization of schools and universities, believe that schools or universities are not Islamic enough. The original sins of the Islamic Republic stem from the officials' misunderstanding and traditional view of education, which primarily means education and the role and position of the learner in school and university. For many of them, education is a one-way action and a passive transfer of knowledge from teacher to young learner. While the learner (student) actively participates in their learning processes, their knowledge is shaped by the experiences, understanding, and meaning they give to the lesson, school, and learning. Young people learn not only in school but also in family and society, through life experiences and interactions with the outside world, information technology, and media, and they question what is taught to them in school and university. Ignoring the independent mental activity and subjectivity of the student leads to the reduction of education to a simple transfer of knowledge and values, and this is the same error that all ideological systems in the world commit, wanting to turn education into a brainwashing machine and to train obedient youth. Another major mistake of the officials is their instrumental view of religion and spirituality. Such a reading of religion and spirituality effectively empties religious education and spirituality of its meaning because young people are deprived of the right to choose their own religion and spirituality, and the school and officials decide for them what reading of religion and what moral system is legitimate. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, assured the members of the Cultural Revolution Council during their first meeting that by Islamizing schools and universities, Islamic culture would replace Western culture, and Iran would rapidly move towards severing its dependency on the West and achieving self-sufficiency. Religion and spirituality cannot be imposed on a generation through lessons, homework, and punishment; the relationship with religion and spirituality is a way of living in this world and a type of relationship with oneself, others, and the world. For this reason, awareness and choice in selecting religion and spirituality are of central importance. In Iran, the right to choose religion and the style of religious practice (or non-religion) is denied to the youth, and part of their resistance is a response to the authoritarian behavior and religious coercion of the educational system. The third major error of the officials is the use of authoritarian methods and unbearable ideological strictness in educational environments, especially regarding girls. The strictness, prohibitions, and various forms of imposition are manifestations of various forms of direct and symbolic violence against teachers, children, adolescents, and their families. Schools in Iran have become an empire of prohibitions compared to other countries. Dual violence against minorities. In an educational system that ties its identity to a specific religion, followers of other religions, especially unrecognized religions like Bahá'ís, and young people who are non-religious or have a different relationship with religion are the biggest victims of religious discrimination. Although followers of recognized religions (Sunnis, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians) have their own religious education, Shiite propaganda and activities go far beyond religious classes and encompass a significant portion of educational activities. The direct result of discrimination and the imposition of a specific religion is the pressures and sufferings that young people struggle with from their earliest years of life. Among them, young people whose religious or cultural beliefs are ignored or even distorted and insulted experience additional suffering. The consequence of these ideological and propagandistic policies in Iranian schools is the formation of a pathological relationship between students and religion, spirituality, and ethics. They learn more to pretend, to be hypocritical, and to practice 'taqiya' than to have a healthy relationship with religion and spirituality. Education in the service of democracy and an open society. Many officials, when talking about education, refer to its quantitative achievements and the increase in the number of students. Quantitative advances in education are a global phenomenon and exist to some extent in all countries. The fundamental question within a religious government returns to the content, message, and quality of this education. For 40 years, the education and upbringing of the youth generation in Iran have been hostage to the policies of state religion that have turned the educational system into a place for propaganda and imposition of its religious ideology. For them, education is private property and an exclusive domain of the state, and it is the state that decides what education is good and desirable, how to prepare the new generation for the future, what should be learned, and what should not be taught. In this paternalistic view, the main actors in the educational system, from teachers, mothers, and fathers to experts and researchers in various educational fields, have no right to intervene in the content and methods of education, and the state is the exclusive decision-maker regarding the orientations of education and curriculum content. With such a perspective, the Islamic Republic has continued for all 40 years to pursue policymaking behind closed doors instead of inviting civil and scientific participation in an open and critical national dialogue about the numerous crises and harms of the educational system. Education for an open and human society in the 21st century must serve to expand freedom of thought, freedom of conscience and religious beliefs, and to educate questioning, creative, free-thinking, and critical citizens. Education that opposes fanaticism, closed-mindedness, hostility towards different others, and blind obedience, and promotes a culture of coexistence of diverse identities and cultures among the youth. Creating such education is possible with the participation of civil society, independent and free media, scientific environments, and educational system actors. For this reason, after four decades of anti-educational and destructive policies, removing the monopoly of education from the hands of the state and other governmental institutions must become part of the struggle for an open society and democracy in Iran.