Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract The most common theory in religious studies regarding official and popular religion considers the former as the view of the official religious institution, and the latter as the beliefs and practices prevalent among the masses. Given the lack of official religious organizations in Islamic societies, a different formulation has been proposed that considers official religion as the normative opinions of religious scholars. In the case of Kurdistan, we are faced with a different form of Islam called Sufi Islam, which poses different problems in applying the former mentioned theory. Accordingly, we have attempted to use a different analytical framework that defines the distinction between popular and official based on the form of religious experiences. To this end, we have first examined the historical processes that influenced the formation of Sufi Islam, and finally we undertook a theoretical analysis of a new formulation of the distinction between popular and official Islams
 

Abstract Visibility is a new topic that is linked to the issue of minorities in today's societies. Minority groups attempt to enhance visibility and make the other groups recognize them in their own societies. This research tries to study Zoroastrians visibility as a religious minority in Tehran. The main question is that how is the visibility of Zoroastrian minority as one of the three legal religious minorities in the public space of Tehran city? For this purpose, we applied different research techniques, including observation, Participant observation, in-depth interviews and documentary studies methods. The research results showed that according to four indicators as place, rites, media, and coverage, Zoroastrians are barely visible in the public space of Tehran. Consequently, unlike the religious minorities in other countries, such as European societies, Zoroastrians do not want to improve the visibility of their religious minority in the public space of Tehran.