Why Iranians Paid So Much Attention to Results of US Elections

According to a report by Asr-e Iran, as translated by IFP, the US election is an issue related to another country and not Iranians. However, Iranian people in their political, social and family circles have kept speaking about the reasons for victory of Donald Trump.

The event has been so much important that certain people speak of Mrs. Clinton’s failure as if they have lost a loved one and at the same time, certain people speak of Trump’s victory with so much passion as if he is going to offer part of his wealth to them. Their approach towards the issue is so strong that it seems a matter and business of Iran and Iranians.

But why Trump’s victory and Hillary’s failure and the whole process of the US presidential elections are so much interesting for politicians and elites as well as ordinary and non-political citizens or experts of other fields and even more interesting in this period than ever?

Here are 10 reasons:

The most important reason is that Donald Trump had threatened that in case of victory he would scrap the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Though he softened his tone later on, he provoked public opinion in Iran because the JCPOA is influential in economy, living, trade and industry of Iran.

The election of a Democrat or Republican has never been so much important for the non-political strata, especially regarding the fact that many Iranians believe main events take place behind the curtain but, this time, more attention is being paid to the US election due to the JCPOA.

The second reason is that both candidates were very much famous even beyond the field of politics: One point is that Clinton was a woman and wished to be the first female US President in the history and the other candidate being widely known for his business, entrepreneurship and wealthy background as well as other attractions. They were also became more famous as they both used to accuse each other in debates. In the presidential debates the two sides even accused each other of having immoral and extramarital relationship and even sexual assault.

This was what made politics no longer so rigid and harsh, and it was treated like tabloid journalism and was touched upon in the dialogue of a large number of individuals.

The third reason was the Iranian population living in the US. Being directly engaged in the case, they shared the sensitivities with their relatives living inside Iran.

The fourth point is the expansion of social networks. In the past, people were informed of such events only through the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), satellite networks, the press and websites, but now mobile apps are used for the transfer of images and messages of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to a wide range of population.

Where the IRIB, the press and websites could not reflect certain images and messages due to certain considerations, social networks recklessly and without any censorships did the job and this got people more engaged.

The fifth reason is that Trump is known to be a populist figure, and since Iranian people had such an experience for highly scandalous eight years with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, they wished to know how the Americans would deal with such an issue.

It is not yet clear what type of populism is that of Trump. Will he continue to act in the same manner during his presidency? At any rate, despite ideological differences and positions, Trump is now compared with Ahmadinejad not only in Iran but also in other countries.

One more interesting point is that Iran was considered a thorny subject in debates and naturally, when Iran is the point of attention, Iranian officials and people follow up the subject, the content and the results with more patience.

The seventh point is that, though not being genuine, a comparison had been drawn in Iran regarding the US election; the competition between Democrats and Republicans is similar to the one between reformists and conservatives in Iran, and people compared the Iranian version with Clinton-Trump competition.

Certain media in Iran provoked such a mentality: Trump’s victory will likely guarantee the victory of conservatives in Iran, and President Hassan Rouhani is the Iranian version of Hillary!

The eighth reason is that politics has once again become an attractive issue in Iran. So many Iranians had distanced themselves from politics for a while but they have come to know again that it has cast its shadow on their daily life. They have come to think that if they leave politics, politics will not leave them. Therefore, they move further into politics, especially when the entire world is speaking about it.

The ninth reason for so much sensitivity about the issue is that Iranian economy has for a while waited to observe the achievements of JCPOA. On the other hand, the results of the US elections can be effective on prices of such items as gold, and people are undecided whether or not they should make investment.

Mentality of Iranian people is geared on profit or loss, and since Iranians favour business and trade, they look at the issue from the same point of view. Two or three weeks before the US elections, there were discussions whether gold price would go high because when the atmosphere is insecure, people turn to buy gold.

As the last word, let’s say people have special kinds of theories for themselves and some of them bet and share the same feelings.

Many individuals would bet that a woman would be the next president of the United States and due to the same reason, they considered a person such as Trump as a rival to her; they believed with a radical figure like Donald Trump as the rival, Hillary’s victory was guaranteed. Certain theorists had also made such a prediction and insisted on their claim.

People waited to see what would happen and like presidential elections in Iran they stayed awake the election night up to early Wednesday morning. Interestingly, many people were pleased with Trump’s victory. We [Iranians] are the kind of people in search of some adventure!