As reformist-backed candidates sweep to victory in Iran’s elections, many voters have taken to social media to share celebratory jokes and mocking memes about the country’s conservative hardliners. “Dear citizens! Attention please, attention please: Tehran is now free,” read a message widely shared on the popular messaging app, Telegram.
Jokes started circulating on social media on 27 February after it became clear the coalition of candidates supported by the reformists, dubbed “the list of hope”, was likely to take all of the capital’s 30 parliamentary seats.
One popular quip shared on Telegram imagined the former parliament speaker and conservative hardliner Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel – who eventually lost his seat – resting his head on the legs of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, telling him: “I won’t go to the parliament!” with Khamenei responding: “Don’t be afraid, my little one. You’ll find new friends.”
With strong emphasis on privacy protection and anonymity for its users the Telegram app has become a popular platform for pro-reform supporters to spread their message, with one in four Iranian now thought to be using the service.
One joke shared widely on the app showed the head of the Guardian Council of the Constitution, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, pleading: “Don’t push me [out]!” – a reference to the fact that he is was languishing in 15th place on the list of assembly candidates from Tehran.
‘Please end vote counting’
Other social media users alluded to the house arrest of Iranian opposition figuresMir Hossein Musavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, and fellow reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi.
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