The previous Iranian month (ended Feb. 19) saw entertainment move to the top of the chart, with the country's showcase cinema festival, called Fajr, leading the charge.

Romance also moved to the top along with less emotional topics like national identification card causing people to check out online.

In first place and peaking in search terms on Feb. 11 was Fajr Film Festival written in Persian. Fajr Festival, named in honor of the return of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Revolution, from France in 1979, showcased Iranian movies to an international audience, as well as art-house foreign language movies. This led the search terms with 1,350% in the past 30-day period.

The leading area searching for the term was the former capital city of Isfahan followed by Khorasan Razavi Province.

The second most searched query during this period was Dahe-ye Fajr, (meaning literally Ten-Day Dawn), spanning the arrival of the late Imam and the victory of the Islamic Revolution 10 days later.

In third place was "Valentine" written in Persian with a 550% increase in searches. Like everywhere globally, February 14 has become a day when couples give each other gifts. The leading province searching for this term was Kerman Province followed by Khuzestan, while the two leading towns were Kerman and Rasht.

In fourth place were searches for new television programs, especially those being prepared for the upcoming spring season (starting March 19). This search term increased 400% compared to the corresponding period of the month before. The leading city for this search term was Isfahan followed by Fars Province.

Coming in at fifth place was the "National ID Card" written in Persian as "Karte Melli", the search for which increased 170% during the period. This was mainly due to rumors that new ID cards are necessary for voting in the Feb. 26 elections, or those lacking them will be removed from the list of cash subsidy recipients.

The leading region for this search term was Khuzestan Province followed by East Azarbaijan and Fars. The leading cities in this regard were Kerman, Urmia and Rasht respectively.

In sixth place was "Model Manteau" written in Persian, referring to designs for manteaus, one of the popular dresses worn by women in public.
As the Iranian New Year and spring are on the way, many women are looking for new styles for making visits to relatives during the festive season. The leading city for this search term was the southern city of Yazd followed by Bushehr.

Education continued to play a significant role in monthly searches across Iran and with this in mind, the next most searched term was "Daneshgahe Azad", meaning Islamic Azad University.

The largest number of searches for the country's biggest private higher education system was registered for Sistan-Baluchestan Province. It was followed by the central Lorestan Province. The leading cities in this regard were Zahedan and Kermanshah.

Next up for the most searched term was "SAIPA" written in Persian comprising 60% of searches in that month. The leading city for this term was Tehran's southern neighbor of Qom, which was followed by Kermanshah.

The automotive theme prevailed during the month with Iran Khodro registering a 50% jump in searches. Hormozgan Province led this search and was followed by West Azarbaijan Province, in addition to Kermanshah and Urmia as the leading cities.

By Financial Tribune