BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Iranian presidential election was a topic of international discussion and dispute this summer. The election garnered worldwide attention, especially after protestors took to the streets of Iran disputing the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Information about the election was limited for international observers. All foreign press was expelled from Iran during the election. While the election proceedings were closed to the rest of the world, Illinois Wesleyan University junior Sara Ghadiri was able to spend the summer in Tehran and witness first-hand the election fervor.
Ghadiri, whose father was born in Iran, claims dual-citizenship and was therefore able to vote in the presidential elections. As a political science major, Ghadiri was excited by the amount of political activism that occurred in Iran during the election. “People of all convictions, all social classes and all beliefs came to the polls. I was so amazed to see the mass turnout, what ended up being over 70 percent of the eligible voting population,” said Ghadiri.
Iranian citizens also became active in the campaign process. “Pre-election, I can tell you that the atmosphere was absolutely electric. There were people in the street every night handing out posters and flyers,” said Ghadiri, “So many people were involved in campaigning that it was impossible to walk down the street in Tehran without seeing someone handing out literature, a newspaper or a green piece of ribbon or cloth.” Green was the color of Mousavi’s campaign advertisements, while Ahmadinejad chose red.
Ghadiri collected many of these campaign materials and brought them back with her to the Illinois Wesleyan campus in order to analyze them. “My research is still in data collection phase now. I have collected, cataloged and translated everything I brought back,” said Ghadiri. Her ability to read and speak Farsi, the official language of Iran, has been helpful in her analysis of campaign materials. “I am now working on a thesis synthesizing my research. I have been working with both Professor Jim Simeone and Professor Kathleen Montgomery on the project, so it’s still evolving,” said Ghadiri.