Furthermore, the protests have highlighted the harm inflicted on religion by Iran’s total lack of church-state separation. “There is a sentiment among Iranians to reject everything this government stands for. That includes the Islamic Republic… they reject Islam itself,” Bahari warned, noting a cultural shift towards irreligiosity and Zoroastrian revival among Iranians fed up with the Islamist government. Iran’s increasing reliance on force to suppress dissent can only further damage popular perception of the official Twelver Shi’a religion, which has a rich and still not entirely suppressed history of diverse interpretation by clerics and individual believers.