Iranians still visit shrines like this one in South Tehran, but anti-cleric sentiment is on the rise.

View From the Inside: These days, the clergy are not winning elections. They may be involved in screening candidates, but clerics have shied away from putting their names on the ballot after suffering continual defeats. Representation has dropped to 15 percent in the most recent parliament, down from 52 percent after the revolution.

Fewer clerics are also being appointed to administrative offices, and today only 10 percent of cabinet positions are held by clergy.

“Putting a cleric in charge of a ministry is not going to do any good. You need expertise,” says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a political science professor at Syracuse University who studies the Iranian political system. Boroujerdi says many clerics try to maintain their influence by getting involved in business ventures and organizations that provide funding for city projects.

Popular culture is also reflecting anti-cleric sentiment. The two most popular movies in Iran last year both dealt with the concept of senior clergy who are grossly out of touch with the citizenry. “It was standing room only; you couldn’t get a seat in the theater,” says journalist and scholar Afshin Molavi, a fellow at the New America Foundation.

“Clerics in a sense have not delivered for Iranians,” observes Molavi. “When I’m in Egypt or Jordan, I still hear language like 'Islam mohel' (Islam is the solution); in Iran you don’t have a lot of that language being used because they’ve seen that Islam is not part of the solution.” Many citizens are exploring Sufism, and relaxing traditions such as fasting, says Molavi.

Religious posters hang on an abandoned building during the Ashura festival in Tehran.