It's election day in Iran and the result seems a foregone conclusion; however, the meaning of this election lies in its consequences for the future of the Islamic Republic. In this episode, Dr James Barry is joined on the panel by Dr Elham Naeej, Dr Naser Ghobadzadeh and Dr Ali Mozaffari to discuss their interpretations of what is happening. Will there be a Hemmati upset, as some dubious polls are predicting, will this election affect the future of voting in Iran, and has this election been engineered to “save the nezam”?

In the second half of the show, the panel is joined by Nasim Basiri of Oregon State University, who explains the specific difficulties face by women in rural and regional Iran which are often left out of Tehran-centric research, as well as the ongoing problem of gendered violence.