The number of voters in some polling stations in Tehran was small (Al Jazeera)

Tehran

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With the start of voting in the Iranian elections to choose the 12th Parliament and the Leadership Council of Experts in its sixth session, Al Jazeera Net toured 3 electoral headquarters in the capital, Tehran, and interviewed a number of voters about their justifications for participating in the elections, and the conservatives appear to be the most likely to win them, according to opinion polls.

In the first polling station on Shariati Street, where the famous Hosseiniya “Irshad” is located, north of Tehran, long queues formed in front of the ballot boxes, while the attendance of voters at the Al-Jawad Mosque located in “Haft Tir Square” in the center of the capital appeared to be much lower than in the previous elections.

As for the town of Ray, south of Tehran, popular participation was very intense, as the conservative region has done for decades.

In the first stop, Muhammad Reda (40 years old) said that he voted with the white paper for the Leadership Council of Experts after his preferred candidate was removed from the electoral race, and that he chose 15 independent candidates, 11 moderate and reformist candidates, and 4 young female candidates for the next parliament.

A remarkable presence of the elderly at the polling stations (Al Jazeera)

Voting justifications

Regarding his justifications for voting in the electoral process that excluded many of his favorite candidates, Reda - in an interview with Al Jazeera Net - recalled his constitutional right within the framework of relative democracy in his country, stressing that he is convinced that his boycott is sufficient for the continuation of the status quo.

As for Haft Tir Square, the young Iranian woman, Mahsa, told Al Jazeera Net that she came to vote for the female candidates who announced their intention to confront unjust laws against Iranian women, adding that she is voting for the first time in the elections after reaching the age of 18.

Al Jazeera Net moved to the town of Ray and met Hajj Abdullah (78 years old), who accompanied his wife, Thuraya (68 years old), and their two daughters, Masouma (21 years old) and Fatima (23 years old), to the polling station.

Abdullah considered participating in the elections “a legitimate obligation to secure the country and contribute to its construction in a way that suits the challenges of the future that may worry the younger generations.”

Iranian voters at a polling station after casting their votes (Al Jazeera)

Women nominate

As for Soraya, she confirms that her family votes for conservative candidates because she knows their history and their keenness to “ensure national interests,” while the two girls raised the issue of women’s participation in elections and their rights, which have always been the most hot-button issues in the Islamic Republic.

In a remarkable paradox, the current elections are characterized by a widespread demand for Iranian women to run in the parliamentary elections, while competition for seats in the Leadership Council of Experts is limited to male candidates and not women.

Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Ensieh Khazali, revealed on the eve of the vote that 1,700 Iranian women were running for legislative elections, “equivalent to the number of female candidates in 6 past election cycles.”

In turn, the Guardian Council confirmed, through its spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif, that “six female candidates are competing for every parliamentary seat.”

An Iranian soldier casts his vote in the elections (Al Jazeera)

Reasons for demand

The reformist candidate, Afifeh Abedi, attributed the reason for Iranian women’s desire to enter the electoral arena to the developments in the fall and winter of 2022 that followed the death of Mahsa Amini (22 years old) following her arrest by the “moral police” in Tehran, stressing that the escalation of the protest scene in the country urges women to take action. Its duty to bring about legal change and improve political and economic conditions at various levels.

She explained that she is running in the electoral race on behalf of a segment of Iranian society critical of the current conditions, and that she has a written program to follow up on the demands of the protesters, including the right of women to choose how to wear their hijab. She added that she sees no option for the hijab issue other than social and cultural solutions.

When she pointed out that the number of female representatives in the current parliament did not exceed 17, Abedi expected that today’s elections would produce a larger number of women to pursue the rights of Iranian citizens to reject the policy of restricting the Internet and the issue of the hijab, participate in running the country, and monitor the government’s performance.

Iranian elections infographic (Al Jazeera)

Woman's anger

For her part, political researcher and women's activist Parasto Bahrami-Rad believes that the Mahsa protests shed more light on the social demands of Iranian women and the reason for their exclusion from exercising their right to make decisions to run the country, accusing the members of the Women and Family Committee in the 11th Parliament of going along with "masculine policies." And those that contradict women's rights.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Bahrami Rad believes that most of the female candidates for the next parliament contradict their goals for candidacy, between an extremist group that wants to work to deprive women of their most basic rights, and others who are classified in the circle of political moderation and intend to confront the political frustration resulting from the behavior of the first group among them, and the decline of rationality. politics at the country level.

She said that a large segment of Iranian women are angry about some issues in the country and that Iranian society is looking forward to major political and social changes.

She expressed her regret for national policies “that have always turned a blind eye to the rights of women,” who constitute half of society, as she said, and demanded the formation of a strong feminist lobby in the next parliament in line with the aspirations of society.

Young Iranians vote for the first time after turning 18 (Al Jazeera)

Youth participation

In light of the ongoing debate in Iran over the definition of “politician” and the right of women to run for the presidential elections and the Leadership Council of Experts, the official IRNA news agency quoted Hussein Ali Saadi, a cleric, member of the Leadership Council of Experts and candidate in the elections, as saying that “the condition that he be a member” has been abolished. “The Council is a man” in the recent amendment to the internal organization of the Leadership Council of Experts, stressing that there is nothing preventing women from running for the Council.

Returning to Iranian women’s justifications for running in the electoral arena and the determination of a segment of female candidates to follow the demands of the “Mahsa Movement,” which was known for the remarkable presence of Generation Z in its protests, it became clear to Al Jazeera Net, through its tour of a number of polling stations, that this generation had almost completely disappeared from the voting centers. Except for the “Al-Irshad Mosque” center, which is close to “Namaz” Square, south of the capital.

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi had announced that 3 million and 500 thousand Iranian youth have the right to participate for the first time in the elections in early March 2024 if they are over the age of 18.

Al Jazeera polled the opinions of a number of young people who are entitled to vote for the first time after reaching the age of 18 in the town of Rey, where they expressed their joy at the right granted to them by the Iranian constitution to participate in the country’s elections, and to carry out the religious duty of choosing suitable candidates to represent them in official institutions.

Source: Al Jazeera