Asian Social Science; Vol. 12, No. 8; 2016 ISSN 1911-2017 E-ISSN 1911-2025 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 56 Religious Socialization in Iranian Islamic Girls Schools Fakhereh Khatibi Jafari 1 , Steven Eric Krauss 1 & Turiman Suandi 2 1 Institute for Social Science Studies (IPSAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia Correspondence: Fakhereh Khatibi Jafari, No. 11, Sepideh Alley, Dolat Street, Gholhak, 19398-15811, Tehran, Iran. Tel: 98-912-249-9417. E-mail: f.khatibi@gmail.com Received: May 12, 2015 Accepted: January 28, 2016 Online Published: July 7, 2016 doi:10.5539/ass.v12n8p56 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ass.v12n8p56 Abstract Although Iran’s educational system is not secular in character, many Iranian parents prefer to send their children to private Islamic schools. It is widely assumed that such schools are more effective in socializing their students toward the Shiite worldview. To date, no known studies have been conducted to investigate the impacts of the Islamic schools’ formal and informal religious education on Iranian youths’ religious commitments and preferences. In short, this article focuses on how attending private Islamic schools in Iran impacts on the construction of students’ religious beliefs and attitudes. A qualitative, phenomenological methodology was employed with thirty former students of Islamic girl schools, aged 20 to 25 years old. Overall, the findings contrast somewhat with the existing literature by demonstrating that in most of our study participants, attending Islamic schools influenced future religious preferences and commitments by increasing unpleasant feelings and critical attitudes toward religion in general, and the Islamic-Shiite religious worldview specifically. Keywords: religious socialization, religious education, Islamic girls schools, young Iranians, Islamic-Shiite worldview 1. Introduction The Iranian educational system is not secular in character. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, the country’s educational system has become the primary focus of the government’s Islamization project. In its widest sense, Islamization is a process of society’s moving towards Islam. As the most accessible socializing agency, schools provide a unique environment for the religious government of Iran to present their preferred Islamic values to post-revolutionary generations in a systematic manner. In short, the main aim of the Islamization project is the creation of devout Muslims who are faithful to the ideal and cultural values of the established religious order and also committed to the revolutionary values. The Iranian government has explicitly set Islamic education as its objective, which aims to familiarize students with Islamic beliefs, values, and rules. In general, studying religion (from the Islamic perspective), the Quran, and the Arabic language are compulsory in Iranian schools, alongside other subjects (Shorish, 1988; Godazgar, 2001). According to the Iranian educational system, schools are divided into public and private. Private schools were permitted to re-open after the revolution (1979) in 1988 as "non-profit" institutions. Nowadays, there are almost 16,000 non-profit, private schools available in Iran and more than one million students (near 8 percent of the overall number of the students in Iran) have been studying in these schools. Unfortunately, there is no information regarding the exact number of Islamic schools in Iran but it could be stated that the large number of Iranian private schools are Islamic. (Note 1) Iranian Islamic schools are educational private institutions where everything is defined by Islamic identity and religiosity. Islamic schools attempt to socialize their pupils according to the Shiite worldview. The dominant religious climate in these schools is the main parameter that makes them different from normal schools. Islamic schools in Iran provide special extra-curricular activities for students, such as daily collective prayers, reading Quran in morning programs, holding Islamic ceremonies, reading special prayers once or twice a week, organizing extra religious classes or speeches, and travelling to holy places. These activities are mostly compulsory. Since the Islamic revolution, Iranian schools have also been segregated by gender at all levels. Iranian Islamic girl schools, in addition to having Islamic formal and informal education, place an emphasis on observing the Islamic dress code and rules of conduct for women. Generally, wearing the Chador (i.e. a special