Aside from Masoumeh Ebtekar, Parvin Ahmadinejad and Masoumeh Abad, who won seats in Tehran’s city council, 43 other women found their way into the city councils of Iran’s provincial capitals by impressive numbers of votes.

In Hamedan’s city council elections, Mehrnoush Najafi, a reformist lawyer and women’s rights activists, won a seat with 14,841 votes. In addition to being a member of the Iranian Bar Association, Najafi is also a blogger. Voltaire’s famous statement appears at the top of Najafi’s blog [http://noghtehsarekhat.blogsky.com]: “I do not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.”

Najafi did not use her blog to promote herself, however; perhaps because blogging is not a powerful media in Hamedan yet. Nevertheless, a few hours after the voting booths closed, Najafi wrote on her blog, “I am a candidate, therefore I am.”

“Why don’t women want to have a larger share of participation?” Najafi continues, “We shouldn’t wait until they give us a share. We should go forward ourselves and be involved. Standing aside will do no good.”

In Shiraz, the city of Hafiz and Sa’adi, and one of the country’s largest urban areas, a 25-year-old architecture student, Fatemeh Houshmand, received the most number of votes with 31,103. The Farsnegar News Agency referred to Houshmand as “the girl who surprised everybody.” According to Farsnegar, Houshmand’s number of votes was unprecedented in the history of Shiraz’s city council elections. Houshmand is also the first woman to lead Shiraz’s city council members in the number of votes.

In Ahwaz, with 36,561 votes, Arezou Babadi came in second in the elections for the city council. Babadi, who sells cosmetics, began her campaign by printing posters and pictures of herself. Her slogan, “replacing honesty for flattery and false praise,” caused uproar among many of Ahmadinejad’s supporters. Babadi ran for office as an independent.

In Zanjan, a 25-year-old woman, Somayye “Servin” Sabetghadam, received the most number of votes with 17,180. She has a degree in psychology, but lacks any experience in social or political activism. Sabetghadam, who ran as an independent, is among the women whose election has created some controversy. Two other women, Arezou Rahmati and Fatemeh Heidari also won seats to Zanjan’s city council.

Over all, women performed exceptionally well in this year’s city council elections. In 12 of the 30 cities that are provincial capitals, women were either first- or second-place winners: Fatemeh Houshmand in Shiraz (1st), Somayye Sabetghadam in Zanjan (1st), Azizeh Taraz in Ardebil (1st), Fatemeh Dabaghian in Hamedan (1st), Zahra Aghabagheri in Arak (1st), Khadijeh Mansouri in Oromieh (2nd), Seddigheh Hekmat in Ghazvin (1st), Arezou Babadi in Ahwaz (2nd), Maryam Eghbali in Bandar Abbas (2nd), Arezou Ghosi in Sanandaj (2nd), Fereshteh Tahmasbi in Khorramabad (2nd), and Tuba Hejazi in Qom (2nd).