I'm in Tehran at the moment; when I walk down the street, I see many statues of animals and humans. For example, here's a photo I took of the inside of a shop in Tehran:
This seems surprising, since (as I've just learned) tasweer (picture-making) is haram.
I've also seen statues in Istanbul and Tashkent. Here are some of my photos:
It seems statues, and three-dimensional depictions of animals and humans are common in Muslim-majority cities.
Question: If statues are haram, why are there statues in Muslim-majority cities?
(Related questions: Is drawing people prohibited in Islam?, Can Muslims make statues for non worship purpose?, Is it haram to use a wallet which has a design like a horse and a deer?)
Motivation: As a revert, I'm bewildered by the enormous number of claims that "X is haram", "Y is haram". There's so many claims, it's impossible to avoid all of them while still functioning in society and retaining some enjoyment in life. As a result, I intend to prioritize avoiding major haram matters.
In this case, I simply don't know if "statues are haram" is regarded as serious, but given that I see Muslim-majority cities from diverse countries having statues on display, I think this is low priority. However, it is possible that I'm simply wrong about this (for some reason I'm unaware of). It's possible different sects have different attitudes; it's possible different countries have different attitudes; I don't know, as I haven't experienced them all. My current impression is that some strict scholars online forbid statues, but Muslims in general don't mind.
Having just learned about tasweer, I'm wondering if I should e.g. change the background image on my phone (it's a cartoon drawing of a punky Asian woman, which I thought looked cool). But it seems strange to do so when Muslims far more educated than me don't seem to care about these things.