Rouhani’s key: Symbols and Rituals in Iranian Presidential Elections 2013

Merging the three fields of anthropology of emotions, politics of emotions and anthropology of symbolism, we try to understand the coming to power of a figure in Iranian politics, who is no one but the actual president elected in 2013. With one symbol developed and used during the last days of his campaign, Rouhani did the impossible task of convincing the people, who had lost interest and trust in participating in elections, to go to the booths again and vote for him, a religious dignitary. Attention is paid to ritual as a specialized domain of religious experts. My claim is that focusing for a few days on one potent symbol, was a very efficient tactic to win this election.