Iranians are getting ready to go to the polls for a vote taking place on March 1 in the 12th legislative election the Islamic Republic will have held since its founding in 1979.

A country of nearly 90 million people, Iran’s government is at the centre of several ideological battles at home, in the Middle East and on the international stage.

A wave of protests swept Iran from September 2022 and lasted well into the spring of the following year after the death of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by Iran’s religious police on suspicion of not wearing a headscarf properly. Although the protest movement has subsided, many inside Iran say the relationship of the country’s young people with the state – particularly that of young women – has changed irreversibly.

Two former presidents have already described these elections as neither free nor fair and authorities are worried that the aftermath of the protests, widespread dissatisfaction with the economy and general disenchantment with the country’s system of governance will result in the lowest turnout the Islamic Republic has seen.

In this episode of Year of Elections, The National’s Opinion Editor Sulaiman Hakemy looks into all of that with Arash Azizi, a senior lecturer in history and political science at Clemson University, South Carolina, and Milad Dokhanchi, a renowned cultural critic and entrepreneur.