In an examination of Iran Open Data, a website that publishes statistics about Iran, the number of mosques surpasses the total of public, semi-public, and private hospitals by at least 55 times.
This analysis, based on official statistics from Iran, suggests that access to mosques is more readily available in three Iranian provinces than access to schools, and in two provinces, it even outpaces access to hospitals.
It is important to note that precise and definitive statistics regarding the number of mosques in Iran are unavailable. However, estimates and assessments by religious and propaganda organizations, including the ‘Hedayat Foundation,’ suggest that there are between 55,000 to 79,000 active mosques across the country.
Despite presenting itself as a private institution, the Hedayat Foundation’s board of trustees is headed by the leader of the Islamic Development Organization, a governing body within the institutions supervised by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. This foundation, now responsible for mosque affairs in accordance with the Islamic Development Organization’s new mission, reported in 2021 that there were 54,770 active mosques throughout Iran.
These mosques were categorized into different levels of activity, including 2,766 very active mosques, around 20,000 active mosques, over 16,000 moderately active mosques, nearly 9,000 with low activity, and more than 6,000 inactive mosques. The criteria for rating the activity level of mosques are not precisely defined, but it appears to involve the regular implementation of religious, promotional, and cultural programs.
The Hedayat Foundation’s report reveals that the provinces of Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Kerman, and Fars boast the highest number of mosques in the entire country, each with over three thousand mosques. In contrast, the provinces of Alborz, Qazvin, Zanjan, and Ilam have the fewest mosques, with less than 500 each.
Using this report as a basis for assessing citizens’ access to mosques, the nationwide average and minimum access to mosques stands at 2.65 mosques per 100,000 people. However, the level of access varies across provinces. For instance, South Khorasan province has the highest number of mosques per 100,000 people, at a record-breaking 264. The central province of Yazd and the northwest province of Ardabil follow closely. On the other hand, citizens in Alborz, Tehran, and Qazvin provinces have less access to mosques than those in other parts of the country.
This significant difference in mosque access across Iran becomes particularly noteworthy when compared to the availability of schools and hospitals. The most recent official statistics from the Statistical Centre of Iran indicate that the country has around 114,000 primary, middle, and high schools and just over a thousand private and public hospitals. Meanwhile, the total number of active hospital beds in the country stands at around 141,000.
When we examine the provincial breakdown, we encounter surprising statistics that juxtapose mosque access with school and hospital access. For instance, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province offers slightly more than 188 schools per 100,000 people and slightly over 181 hospital beds per 100,000. However, the rate of mosque access in this province exceeds 104 per 100,000 people.
A closer look at the provinces reveals that in South Khorasan, Yazd, and Central provinces, access to mosques outstrips access to schools, while in South and Central Khorasan, mosque access surpasses access to hospital beds. Simultaneously, reports indicate that many hospitals and schools are dilapidated and lack essential facilities.
Furthermore, Abolqasem Dolabi, the special representative of the regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi, has disclosed that out of the 75,000 mosques in Iran, the doors of 50,000 are closed and not active.
It is essential to highlight that the regime allocates substantial portions of the public budget to over 43 sovereign religious and propaganda institutions. In the current fiscal year, this figure stands at nearly 8 trillion tomans.
