Sidewalks of Tehran are today the battleground of contending candidates of the presidential elections of 2009 which will take place on 12 June. Urban spaces in the elections of the past 12 years have been witness to the coming together of diverse social forces. The state television and radio’s lackluster coverage of the elections is in part responsible for the sidewalk enthusiasm of the masses.
In the next two weeks Tehran streets and avenues will beam with supporters of the main candidates and their placards. This fervor is not foreign to Tehranis, who in the intervening years have thronged the streets in spontaneous bursts of excitement to put their power on display. If before May 1997, younger Tehranis used the little-known name of {Mohammad Khatami} to team the sidewalks and demonstrate their desire for festivity and change in the structure of power, after the landslide elections, which saw an 80% voter turnout, they needed little pretext (like the victories of the Iranian national football team) to pour onto the street for a city-wide party and political exhibitionism.
Read the full article at Tehran Avenue
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