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The crowd of young Iranians roared their approval as a group of burly men led the speaker to the stage. When the cordon of men opened up, it wasn't one of the candidates in this week's presidential elections who stepped up to the podium. It was Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. 

"Why do they want to turn women into housewives?" shouted Rahnavard, clad in a black chador and red floral head scarf. "Freedom for women needs to be supported in the country!" The crowd at the rally in north Tehran shouted back, "Rahnavard, Rahnavard, the equality of woman and man!"

In the most knock-down, drag-out presidential election in the history of the Islamic Republic, women have become a key voting bloc. And Rahnavard, educated and urbane but also...