Getting Out the Vote in Iran

"She is known as the mother of two shahids, (martyrs) and is sometimes called "commander" by her "sisters." In a neighborhood close to the bazaar district in southern Tehran, Aghdas Moradi, better known as "the mother of Shahid Mohammad Mehdi Abolghasemi," is scurrying around with her black chador flailing around her, giving orders to the men on the other end of her walkie-talkie.

As an activist of the Islamic Alliance Party, perhaps the most hard-line of Iran's conservative factions, she is hard at work running a weekend of programs commemorating the martyrdom of three of the most venerated figures in Shi'ite Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, his grandson Imam Hassan and the only one of Shi'ism's original twelve imams buried in Iran, Imam Reza.

The speaker at this evening's event is the cleric Hojjatoleslam Gholamreza Mesbahi-

Moghaddam, a candidate of the United Principalists' Coalition (UPC) in Iran's March 14 parliamentary elections. About 700 women, all clad in black chadors, are seated on red carpets in the women's tent, with about the same number of men on the other side.
Everyone is offered tea and dates upon arrival and urged to pick up the UPC's list of 30 candidates for Tehran's share of seats in the Majlis, the national parliament.

Abolghasemi is the leader of 300 basij women, a network of volunteers allied with the Revolutionary Guard and political conservatives. It was the grassroots efforts of groups like hers that helped conservatives take control of the legislature from reformists in 2004, and swept President Ahmadinejad to victory in the 2005 presidential election."

This article shows the United Principalists' Coalition (UPC) preparing for Iran's march 14th parliamentary elections. It is ironic that even though Iran keeps women at a very low social level, a party from the country that is very conservative still has many supporters that are women.

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