Religious Seminaries

Two major websites in Persian provide valuable information about the religious seminaries. Hawzah is a general news portal for information on the houzeh; and WHC provides insights into the religious seminaries for women. The data that is presented on Iran Data Portal is mainly taken from these websites.

The pages on the religious seminaries on Iran Data Portal contain lists for the seminaries for men and women divided by province. The lists for women’s religious seminaries are more detailed than those for men.

The lists provided on this website are comprehensive, but cannot be taken to be complete. They reflect the official and public seminaries list that the Management Center for the Seminaries (Markaz-e Modiriyat-e Houze-he ‘Elmiyeh) has published. Private or semi-private seminaries are not captured in the data.

IDP hosts translations of a number of legal documents related to the religious seminaries, but also maps that indicate the total (official) number of seminaries in each province.

IDP has also compiled a list of institutions and organizations related to the seminary system, and their web addresses: Seminary-related institutions.