Opinion: Rouhani won the presidential election in Iran and the feeling of relief is profound

The Iranian electorate had a choice between a moderate, by Iranian political standards, and a conservative hardliner. They went for the moderate, hoping for a more open and free future.

As an Iranian and Swedish dual national, I felt duty bound to vote in the 2017 presidential elections. My vote went to Hassan Rouhani, who according to my mother dropped his middle name Fereydoun because it’s “gherty”. Gherty meaning sexy. Rouhani and sexy in the same sentence just does not sit well with me.

I hassled my mother to the voting station at the Iranian Embassy. She was too tired, had things to do, you know life. But I argued, “We have too! If Rouhani loses Iran is screwed.” Yes, that was my intellectual argument for voting.

We missed the morning drama, where the Iranian Mojahedin (not to be confused with the Pakistani Mujahedin), was there protesting the election and throwing paint at voters. I am quite annoyed I missed that, but given I was wearing my new Topshop jacket it is probably for the best.

And we also bumped into a lot of friends also waiting in line, so we made a party of it.

In all seriousness, all I can say is thank goodness Rouhani won. By a landslide may I add. He got a whopping 57% of the vote while his conservative rival Ebrahim Raisi got 38%.

“Hope prevailed over isolation,” former president and key Rouhani ally Mohammad Khatami posted on Instagram, along with a photo of Rouhani making a victory sign.

Yes, the man is not perfect, he is not going to change much and he was involved with some of the worst parts of the Iranian regime back in its early days. But his promise of wanting to re-engage with the West and offering more freedoms at home has grabbed Iranians by the heart.

Did you know that voter turnouts in Iran are higher than in the United Kingdom and America? Out of 59m eligible voters, over 41m participated. That is a 70% turnout.

As Kasra Naji at BBC Persian put it, “President Rouhani will now have a bigger mandate to push through his reforms, to put an end to extremism, to build bridges with the outside world, to put the economy back on track.”

But you may be thinking what is the point? It is not a democracy, it is a theocracy. That’s right, and critics often say that the voting system and high turnout gives the regime validation. But a lot of Iranians would disagree with you. To them, and to me, voting is a form of protest. We are meeting the government on their turf, and making our voices heard.

Hardliners were not discreet in their efforts to get more of their supporters to the ballot box to vote for Raisi and Rouhani supporters rallied together even harder to get out the vote themselves. The enthusiasm was so unprecedented that voting stations decided to extend voting times by five hours.

Back in 2009, Iranians boycotted the presidential election and as a result Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative populist, took the presidency for another term. There was arguably some rigging of the results as well. People, particularly the young, were angry and they took to the streets. The Green Movement was born.

Back in the UK, I remember me and my family watching anxiously and constantly calling our relatives there to check on their safety. Everyone felt helpless, so now the vote is more important to us than ever.

There are obviously groups who disagree. The Iranian Mojahedin or MEK, a leftist militant-style organisation in exile, is seen as the main opposition to the Iranian government. In fact, they claim to be the shadow government.

Having been on the US terrorist list for its alleged killing of US personnel in Iran in the 1970s and their former ties to late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, they were taken off in 2012 after the State Department recognised their rejection of violence. They found politicians in the US willing to help them off the list, obviously with some ‘lobbying’ to grease the wheels.

They rightly argue that the Iranian government has treated and continues to treat their own people horrendously and they want an immediate regime change. But given the bad example of an attempt of that over in Syria, there are many who argue for slow and steady change so violence and death can be avoided.

And it is not like the Iranian government does not have support, because they do. Reformists hate to admit this, but in the more rural parts of Iran and some conservative cities support for the regime is loud and proud.

But that does not mean they do not want openness. I visit every few years, the most recent being last summer. We did a road trip around half of the country and we saw more tourists from Europe and America than ever. And locals were absolutely delighted.

Every travel article you find on Iran mentions how friendly and welcoming Iranians are to tourists, wherever they are from. This is because Iranians love meeting new people, learning new things and discussing their beloved homeland.

So I endorse the incremental change path. I want people in Iran to live happy and healthy lives, and in my humble opinion, a violent uprising will only cause destruction. And it seems like the majority of Iranians in Iran and the diaspora agree with me.