Spatial Explanation of the Foundations of Women's Representation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly Elections (First to eleventh parliaments)

Women's political participation in major areas of political decision-making such as legislation or parliamentary representation is one of the components of political development. To this end, most countries, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran, seek to strengthen women's participation in the power structure and political decision-making in order to move towards political development; However, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic until today, the spatial (geographical) distribution of women's representation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly has not been uniform and in some constituencies women have been elected in most constituencies, but still in some constituencies, no woman has been elected to parliament. Therefore, the question is what factors do affect the geographical distribution of women's representation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly? To answer this question, the Delphi method and the Shannon technique were used and the researchers collected the views of 10 experts in the field of election geography through interviews and questionnaires and then the data obtained from the consensus of experts using the Shannon technique. The findings showed that "multi-member constituencies", "larger cities", "areas with higher populations", "economic welfare" and "areas with a higher level of education" are among the most important factors influencing the geographical distribution of women's representation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly.