17.7.06

Inquérito aos iranianos

While Iran’s nuclear program grabs headlines around the world, a new Reader’s Digest-Zogby International survey reports that Iranians (41%) said reforming their national economy so it operates more efficiently is more important than nuclear capability. A smaller number, 27%, said the country’s top priority should be to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons, and 23% said the top goal for their government should be to expand the freedoms of its citizens.

These and other opinions were documented in a wide-ranging survey of Iranian citizens that revealed a sharp diversity of views consistent with a nation that is undergoing profound changes.###

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Iranians said they believe their country should lead the region “diplomatically and militarily” – 56% supported this view, and only 12% said their country should not be the dominant regional power. Nearly equal percentages of respondents want Iran to become more secular and liberal (31%) as want the country to become more religious and conservative (36%).(...)

When asked if the state of Israel is illegitimate and should not exist, 67% agreed and only 9% disagreed.
Despite tensions between the United States and Iran, most Iranians – nearly two thirds – said they don’t believe that the two countries will go to war in the next decade.(...)

If their country were to develop nuclear weapons, 25% said it would make the Middle East a safer place, but 35% disagreed with that statement.(...)

Younger and older Iranians would favor a more conservative, religious society, while those aged 30–49 said they would favor a more liberal, secular culture. What is striking is that just 15% said Iranian culture should stay just the way it is right now. Women were more likely than men to say they wanted a more liberal, secular society.(...)

Those technologies – Internet access and satellite TV ownership – appeared to influence attitudes among Iranians, as did gender. Iranians with access to the Internet or satellite TV were significantly more likely than their “unconnected” compatriots to identify the United States as the country they admire the most. They were also significantly less likely to pick the U.S. government as the one they admire the least: one in three Iranians without Internet access (34%) chose the United States as least admired, compared with fewer than one in five Iranians with Internet access (18%), the poll shows.