A young woman affiliated with the pro-democracy movement in Iran spoke to The Times Radio on Saturday, May 29, about this month’s presidential election and the planned boycott, which will show how the people do not support the mullahs and seek to overthrow them.
She said: “In Iran, elections are a joke. All of the candidates are the same and all the people of Iran know this. In the past 40 years, elections in Iran have never been about an expression of popular choice. It has always been a selection by the supreme leader.”
The woman stressed that the situation is different this year, thanks to the dire economic situation, with the boycott more serious than any that have come before, including the 2020 parliamentary election boycott, which at the time shook the regime officials.
She said: “There is a different atmosphere, not comparable to the previous years. None of my friends and family will vote. The Iranian people are boycotting this mock election. The Iranian people’s true vote is the regime’s overthrow… The regime is facing an explosive society. There are daily protests by virtually every sector.”
The unnamed woman is a member of the Resistance Units, which are the internal network of the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), responsible for organized protests and anti-regime activities in the country. When asked what these activities included, she explained that she’d recently been part of a group that put up a banner advertising the boycott and a picture of opposition leader Maryam Rajavi on the highway
She said: “A few people saw us but wished us well. We saw with our own eyes the extent to which the Iranian people support us. And this popular support gives us the heart to continue our work.”
The activist said that as the people have rejected the regime, the West must stand with them and take a firm policy on the regime. This includes sanctioning and prosecuting all officials responsible for terrorism and human rights abuses, no matter how long ago.
She said: “[Iranians] hate the policy of appeasement. Western governments should not deal with the mullahs. Any deal will help repression and killing of the Iranian people. It will help the regime get nuclear weapons… We know that the enemy is not West but the mullahs.”
The woman explained that Iranian women have no rights and are treated as less than men, but that women are fighting back and they will win.
