By changing the definition of ‘religion’, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 has posed serious challenges not only to Iran’s role in the Middle East and its relations with the ‘West’, but also to many social theories, such as differentiation, modernization and secularization. Indeed, there is no shortage of work on how post-revolutionary Iran has ‘Islamized’ its constitution and institutions. However, there is little work on the impact of the ‘Islamization’ process on people’s ‘religiosity’. This article is a response to this vacuum and takes as its central question: What has been the impact of the Iranian revolution on aspects of students’ ‘religiosity’ under the rule of an Islamist state? This question is tackled by drawing on the theoretical approach of ‘social constructionism’ towards ‘religion’, adopting Glock and Stark’s multi-dimensional model of ‘religious commitment’ and using quantitative research methods to examine the styles of ‘religion’ in 2001–02 among the students of a major national, research university: The University of Tabriz. A careful analysis of ‘religious commitment’ among a sample of 365 students provides evidence of the ‘individualization of religion’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘secularization’ rather than collectivism, ‘shari’a’-orientation and the ren- dition of ‘Islam’ as a political ideology or ‘Islamism’

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