A friend of mine, who was in Iran recently, confirmed what Persians around the world already knew.  During his trip, he visited more than a dozen mosques in several cities over the course of 10 days.  Some of these visits were on one of two Fridays, which is the holy day of Shi’a Islam, when you would expect to find the most people in the mosques.  It is equivalent to Sunday mornings in America.

With the call to prayer sounding over the speakers throughout the cities, my friend witnessed a TOTAL of 2 people worshipping in the mosques!  This is a cumulative total over the course of 10 days (2 of which were Fridays), in several cities, while the call to prayer was sounding!

Does this sound like the Iran you have pictured in your mind?