Popular Education in Iran

Although Iranian society is denied for its rights to political socialization, people participate in informal contexts such as family and religious groups as well as hidden youth/student associations and communities of interests, which provide substitute arrangements for a civil society. Within such informal and less documented spheres, especially in urban settings, mentors and organic leaders are being developed to facilitate social change within private spaces of individual's lives. Thus, in studying popular education and non-formal and informal learnings of adults in Iran, these types of social participation, and its various and objective manifestations should be taken into account. Due to enormous domestic social pressure, even among the highest levels of government, civil society is becoming the subject of intense debate and controversy in Iranian public sphere today. Unlike last decade, terms equivalent to concepts indicating civil society and civic participation in Persian language is increasingly developed and popularized. In fact, contrary to common belief, most Iranians participate in communities of their interests within informal settings.