Atta Kenare / AFP - Getty Images

An Iranian woman holds a firecracker in Tehran on March 13 during the Wednesday Fire ritual, or Chaharshanbeh Soori..

Vahid Salemi / AP

Joyful Iranian men dance around a firework, in the Pardisan Park in Tehran during Chaharshanbe Soori, or Wednesday Feast.

Vahid Salemi / AP

An Iranian woman jumps over a bonfire, in the Pardisan Park in Tehran during Chaharshanbe Souri, or Wednesday Feast.

Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

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Chaharshanbe Soori is the ancient Festival of Fire celebrated on the eve of the last Wednesday of the Iranian year. Iranians jump over burning bonfires while throwing firecrackers to celebrate arrival of spring and the upcoming holiday of Nowruz.

The origin of the festival comes from pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism era and has been discouraged by conservative Islamist rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Kamran Jebreili / AP

People line up to cast their ballots for the parliamentary elections at Masoumeh shrine in the city of Qom, Iran, on March 2, 2012.

Ayatollah Khamenei's official website via EPA

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, giving his ID to officials before casting his vote in Tehran on March 2, 2012.

Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters

Young people stand in line while waiting to cast their votes at a mosque in central Tehran on March 2, 2012.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP - Getty Images

A clergyman chooses his candidates at a polling station at the Massoumeh shrine in the religious city of Qom on March 2, 2012.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP - Getty Images

A girl stands next to a ballot box as election officials register a voter at a polling station at the Massoumeh shrine in Qom on March 2, 2012.

Atta Kenare / AFP - Getty Images

A couple cast their vote at a polling station in Tehran on March 2, 2012.

Iranians voted on Friday in a parliamentary election which is expected to reinforce the power of the clerical establishment of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over hard-line political rivals led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The election is unlikely to have much impact on Iran's foreign policies - the country's disputed nuclear program and international relations are already strictly controlled by Khamenei.

But it could allow the clergy to strengthen its hand in determining the political backdrop ahead of a presidential election due in 2013. Read more.

-- NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services contributed to this report

EDITORS' NOTE: Foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

See more photos of the election campaign on PhotoBlog.

Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

An Iranian waiter works at the KFC restaurant in the city of Karaj in the Alborz province in central Iran on Monday. The American fast food chain restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken has opened a branch in Iran despite harsh US sanctions against Iran over that country's nuclear programmes, Iranian media reported on Feb. 25. Amir-Hossein Alizadeh, the licence holder, said it took him five years to get the permission from relevant local authorities to re-open KFC in Iran. KFC was closed in Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution, due to its affiliation with the US, the country's political arch-enemy.

Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

Iranian women pass in front of the KFC restaurant in the city of Karaj in the Alborz province in central Iran on Monday.

According to QSR Web, KFC denies opening a restaurant in sanctioned Iran:

KFC told the BBC's Persian Service that it plans to take legal action against individuals or companies that take advantage of the brand name in Iran. The statement also says that that the company has no plans to open a restaurant in that country.

See more images of Iran in PhotoBlog.

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Behrouz Mehri / AFP - Getty Images

A man shouts slogans as he distributes electoral leaflets of the United Conservatives' Front candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections outside the Tehran University compound on Feb. 24, 2012.

A man holds electoral leaflets for candidate Zohreh Elahiyan outside Tehran University on Feb. 24, 2012.

Campaigning has begun for Iran's March 2 parliamentary election, the first nationwide vote since the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that sparked eight months of unrest and a crushing state response. 

3,444 candidates are standing for election to the 290-seat parliament. Officials and state media have called for a big turnout to counter "enemies' threats" against the regime. 

Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters

A woman holds election leaflets in central Tehran on Feb. 24, 2012.

With a no-show by leading pro-reform groups, loyalists of Iran's most powerful figure, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and backers of Ahmadinejad, who is not a cleric, will compete for a majority.

Khamenei's supporters, sharply critical of Ahmadinejad's economic policies, look set to win the vote as international sanctions imposed over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme make life harder for ordinary Iranians.

"Iran has become a one-party system: the party of Khamenei," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment. "The most important qualification for aspiring members of parliament is obsequiousness to the Supreme Leader."

-- Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Read more in Reuters' report: Iran's Ahmadinejad, reviled abroad, fades at home

EDITORS' NOTE: Foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Vahid Salemi / AP

An artist paints a portrait of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, looking out from above a major street in Tehran on Feb. 24, 2012.

Behrouz Mehri / AFP - Getty Images

Worshipers look at electoral leaflets after Friday prayers outside Tehran university on Feb. 24, 2012.

Raheb Homavandi / Reuters

EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.

Women pray beside the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at the Behesht Zahra cemetery, south of Tehran, on Feb. 1, 2012.

Leader.ir via AFP - Getty Images

A photo provided by Iran's Supreme Leader's office on Feb. 1, 2012 shows Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praying at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's tomb during a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Behesht Zahra cemetery south of Tehran on Jan. 31.

On Feb. 1, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile from Iran, a homecoming which triggered the country's Islamic revolution.

 See more pictures or Iran on PhotoBlog and read a Reuters report on the return of "great power" politics to the Middle East.

Reuters

Members of a smuggling group stand near boxes in a tent as they prepare to move during an alcohol-smuggling operation from Iraq to Iran, at the border near Sulaimaniya, Iraq, on Jan. 26, 2012.

Reuters

Border security forces have repeatedly clashed with smugglers who use the remote, rugged landscape to facilitate their operations.

See pictures of another smuggling route into Iran - across the Strait of Hormuz - in an earlier post on PhotoBlog.

Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

A picture made available on Friday shows an Iranian tourist visiting the historic mud volcano called Gel-Afshan in the city of Chabahar in south-eastern Iran. A natural phenomenon of gas rising from the depths of the earth raises a hill of mud over time.

Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

Tourists climb the mud volcano called Gel-Afshan.

Abedin Taherkenareh / EPA

A close-up view of bubbling mud.

Much of the photography reaching us from Iran focuses on matters of political conflict, so these images of a curious geological site are a pleasant change.

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US Navy / AFP - Getty Images

Sailors from USS Dewey provided food, water and medical supplies to distressed Iranian mariners on Wednesday.

US Navy / AFP - Getty Images

A rigid hull boat with Sailors from USS Dewey speak with mariners on an Iranian fishing dhow on Wednesday.

Courtney Kube, NBC News reports: The guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey came to the rescue of a sinking Iranian fishing dhow in the Arabian Sea early Wednesday morning.

An MH-60R Seahawk helicopter spotted the sinking dhow at 7:53 a.m. All but one of the crew members had already climbed on to two other dhows nearby.

The USS Dewey hurried to the boat -- named the Al Mamsoor -- where a U.S. boarding team gave the Iranian fishermen water, food, and both medical and hygienic supplies. In all, the U.S. gave them about 150 pounds of supplies.

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