Before Islam, Iran was under the rule of Persians Magi king of Sassanid empire. Iran was conquered under the rule of the second Caliph Omar al-Farouq (may Allah be pleased with him). After that, the Iranian folk accepted the comprehensive religion of Islam. There was a very small number of Shias in Iran, in the era of Umayyad and Abbasid caliphate. They were restricted only in four cities of Iran; Kashan, Sabzavar, Qom and Saveh.
Before five centuries in 906 A.H (1500 AD), when Safavid dynasty got the power in Iran, so the Shia community in Iran promoted their activities and imposed their idealogies. Finally, the first Shiite state appeared in the history of Iran.
After it, the king Ismaeel Safavi (founder of the Safavid dynasty) took the rein of power in the Safavid State and adopted Tabriz the capital of his regime. As he declared the Shiah Imamiah faction the official religion of the state in 907 A.H (1501 AD). Then Sunnis in Iran suffered from deterioration and severe isolation, they faced injustice and were tortured, the Sunnis were displaced and massacred brutally.
Since that time till today, the Shiites in Iran have full authority and hold power in all aspects of life, political, economical, social and other fields.
On other side, the Sunni community does not have any authority; they are kept away from the key posts of the country, they can not participate in important decisions, the Sunnis do not have any right in legislative departments and management of the country, rather they are gifted all kinds of injustice and discrimination.
Due to the sensitivity of the matter, no one can carry out an independent ground research on the exact number of minorities who belong to differnet sects and ethnical communities in Iran; it is very difficult to determine the number of the Sunni community’s members.
But despite all that, we can affirm that the number is estimated at more than 18 million people of the total population of Iran that is around 75 million. This number equals to more than 25 percent of the population of Iran. Fifty percent of Sunnis are Kurdish Muslims. Worthy to mention, more than 8 million of the Kurdish people live in Iran and it is known that 98% of the Kurdish people are Muslims and more than 95% of them belong to Ahl-us-Sunna. The Balochi nation is the second largest nation of the Sunnis in Iran.
Geographically, Sunnis in Iran live in the frontier areas, mostely. They live in separate cities and provinces and they are distinct from each other.
The areas of Sunnis in Iran as follow:
1-
Kurdistan province: that is located in western Iran. Its capital city is Sanandaj. The Kurdish people are 100% of the population of the province.
2- Western Azerbaijan province: which is in the northwest of Iran, here, the Kurdish Sunnis are majority of the province.
3- Kermanshah province: that is located in the southeast of Iran, Overthere, also the Kurdish people have the largest proportion of its population and the capital city of this provice is Kermanshah.
4- Turkmen Sahra: which is located in the northern Iran around of the coast of the Caspian Sea to the southern border of Turkmenistan.
5- Khorasan Province: that is located in northern Iran. It shares borders with Afghanistan in eastern Iran. Khorasan has been divided into three provinces.
6- Sistan and Baluchistan province: is located in the southeast of Iran, where Balochis constitute the majority of the population. This region is stretching from South Khorasan to the Sea of Oman in the south and from east to the Pakistan border.
7- Hormozgan province, especially Bandarabbas city, which is the capital city and its suburbs, Qeshm island and other areas on the coasts of the Gulf and Oman Sea.
8- Fars province, especially Laristan and its suburbs and villages, also other areas of the province such as: Tala Dar, Khur, Owz, Kheng, Fishour and some other regions.
9- Bushehr city and its surrounding villages, also thes areas: Bandar Maqam,Tawbandi, Koshkenar and other areas in the southwestern of Iran.
10- The outskirts of Khalkhal city in Ardebil province.
11- Talish and Anbaran those are located in the west of the Caspian Sea in the north of Iran.
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