Chehabi in HuffPo: Iran’s Reformist Voters
Houchang Chehabi, Professor of International Relations and History at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, said he believes Iranian reformists would rather vote in the upcoming election that they see as a rigged process than sit out the vote entirely.
Chehabi made the argument in February 25, 2016 article on The Huffington Post, entitled “Iran to Hold First Elections Since Nuclear Deal, But Don’t Expect Changes Overnight.”
From the text of the article:
Iranian studies expert Dr. Houchang Chehabi says it is likely that reformist voters will prefer to participate in what they may feel is a somewhat rigged process than sit the election out entirely.
“This time, there are enough people who will say there are conservatives who are somewhat rational and others who are totally irrational — and we’re better off with rational conservatives who will can make deals with the president, as opposed to those who will just sabotage him all the time,” said Chehabi, who was born in Tehran but now teaches international relations at Boston University.
Houchang Chehabi has taught at Harvard and has been a visiting professor at the University of St. Andrews, UCLA, and the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa. He has published two books, Iranian Politics and Religious Modernism: The Liberation Movement of Iran under the Shah and Khomeini (1990) and Distant Relations: Iran and Lebanon in the Last 500 Years (2006).