Women led Iran's protests. What will new elections mean for them?

A year ago, women led historic protests against Iran's Islamist government. The spark for that uprising? The death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had been detained by the Iranian morality police after being arrested for improperly wearing her head scarf, or hijab. The uprising rattled the regime — but it survived, using arrests and executions to enforce its rule. Now Iranian voters are headed to the polls for the country's first parliamentary elections since Amini's death.

That female-led unrest looms over these elections, CNBC said. Many Iranians "have no faith in their country's political institutions" and there have been widespread calls for voters to boycott the polls. The regime, after all, has excluded "any reformist and even many moderately conservative candidates" from running for office. "Providing the political system with overt legitimacy … is just too much," said Chatham House's Sanam Vakil. 

Paradoxically, "a record number of female candidates" — more than 1,700 — are among the contenders for just 290 parliamentary seats, Newsweek said. But those candidates do come with the government's approval, which has proven cause for skepticism. "The Islamic Republic wants women to be present at the parliament as a show of its respect for women," said Fereshteh Sadeghi, an Iranian journalist, "but at the same time it prevents women to seek their real position in the society."

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A 'hijab crackdown'

"Refusing to wear the hijab in public can lead to imprisonment and torture — yet many women do it anyway," said the BBC. Some women wear scarves around their necks to place on their heads if they encounter the morality police. But other women say they are "worn out" by the struggle. Said one: "It's a difficult and exhausting path."

"The hijab has been a prominent issue ahead of the elections," two pseudonymous Iranian journalists said at Foreign Policy. Iran's government has enforced a "strict dress code on women" since it came to power more than 40 years ago, and that code in turn gave rise to last year's protests. But the protests in turn gave way to a "hijab crackdown" that is "legitimizing broader gender discrimination." Women report they cannot "cannot drive, do their jobs, or even have a coffee" without fear of official harassment. And it could get worse: Final approval is being awaited for a bill that would "widen gender segregation" and increase punishments for hijab violations. 

But there are small signs of hope. The crackdown bill has "stalled," said Ali Alfoneh for The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. That "suggests the regime cannot reach a consensus" and that Iranian leaders might even fear "that approving the legislation could provoke a new round of protests." And those same leaders have been trying to entice women to the polls, no matter what they're wearing. "Nobody will prevent an Iranian citizen from voting, regardless of hijab," said one official — though women who vote without covering their heads will be given a "verbal warning."

'Widespread discontent' 

The real question about this weekend's polling is "how many people actually turn out to vote," said The Associated Press. It's not just women's issues that have led to skepticism of the government. There is "widespread discontent" over the economy and continuing tensions with the West, and the expectation is that many Iranians simply won't cast a vote. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, the imprisoned women's rights activist, has called for a boycott. The government, she said, "deserves national sanctions and global disgrace."

This means these elections are a "legitimacy test" for Iran's rulers, Reuters said. Last year's protests revealed that young Iranians are "chafing at political and social restrictions." Boycotting the election may be the strongest signal those voters can send. "This passivity is itself a choice," one young woman told CNN, "and a vote of dissatisfaction with the ruling regime."