For a majority of Iranians, the March 1 election was a referendum on the future of the Islamic Republic. In the 12 rounds of parliamentary elections that Iran has held since 1979, the turnout was highest when voters believed that their votes actually mattered. The 2024 election was neither free nor fair, and that is why Iranians opted to ignore Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s call to vote, with only around 41% of those eligible coming out to cast their ballot. Frustration among younger Iranians, who feel the government’s priorities do not reflect their own, was especially pronounced. The real question now is what comes next.
To discuss why voters stayed away and the factors that are important to average Iranians, the Middle East Institute (MEI) will host an expert panel to analyze the results of a recent opinion poll conducted by Stasis Consulting. What are the key policy concerns among various Iranian demographic groups? How do young Iranians in particular feel about the political situation and their future prospects? And what do the survey findings and election results tell us about where the country might be headed?
MEI is pleased to invite you to join a virtual panel discussion to address these and other questions about the future of Iran.
Speakers
Arash Ghafouri
CEO, Stasis Consulting
Mehrzad Boroujerdi
Vice Provost and Dean of College of Arts, Sciences, and Education, Professor of Political Science, Department of History and Political Science, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Alex Vatanka
Senior Fellow and Director, Iran Program, Middle East Institute
Marjan Keypour (moderator)
Non-Resident Scholar, Iran Program, Middle East Institute
Detailed Speaker Bios
Arash Ghafouri is the founder and CEO of Stasis Consulting and the pollster behind surveycenter.io. Arash is a data scientist with more than 20 years of experience in project management and data analytics. Arash earned his MBA from Carleton University in Canada and he is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP). He also holds a master’s degree in political management (campaign management) from George Washington University. Prior to founding Stasis, Arash served as the CEO of the polling firm IPOS.
Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi is Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education and Professor of Political Science with the Department of History and Political Science at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Previously he was a Professor of Government and International Affairs and Director of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech (2019-2022) and before that Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University (1992-2019). He is the author and editor of a number of books on Iran and has served as the president of the Association for Iranian Studies, a fellow of the American Council on Education, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, a visiting scholar at UCLA, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, and a Co-PI of the Iran Data Portal.
Alex Vatanka is the founding director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute. He specializes in Middle Eastern regional security affairs with a particular focus on Iran. He was formerly a senior analyst at Jane’s Information Group in London. Alex is also a senior fellow in Middle East Studies at the U.S. Air Force Special Operations School (USAFSOS) at Hurlburt Field and teaches as an Adjunct Professor at DISAS at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and lectured widely for both governmental and commercial audiences, including the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, U.S. intelligence agencies, and a list of international corporations.
Marjan Keypour (Greenblatt) is a human rights activist and advocate for women and minorities in Iran. She is the Founder and Director of the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities (ARAM), an international network of activists which promotes equal rights for all citizens in Iran; and StopFemicideIran, an advocacy campaign which monitors and documents acts of femicide, and memorializes their victims. Marjan is the co-chair of Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Task Force on Middle East Minorities and an advisory board member of the Atlantic Council's Iran Strategy Project and New Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI).
Photo by HOSSEIN BERIS/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images