The Iranian government has confronted several rounds of widespread nationwide protests in recent years, and it has only been able to maintain power through brutal suppression, including shooting protesters in the streets, carrying out public and secret executions, arresting and torturing protesters, and cracking down on any activity that criticizes the ayatollahs’ repressive and corrupt rule.

The turning point for the dictatorship

Now, as the regime prepares for its false presidential elections on 18 June, all of those crimes are turning against the regime. While the election is a complete farce, it represents a turning point for the dictatorship and will determine the power balance between the ruling theocracy and the restive public.

While the dictatorship has attempted to mobilize its supporters and propaganda machine to push for widespread voter participation, the relatives of the regime’s victims have raised their voices to demand a total boycott of the election.

 

 

Relatives of the regime’s victims

“I will neither forgive nor forget the unjust murder of my son,” said the mother of Mohsen Jafarpanah, one of the martyrs of the November 2019 Uprising, in a video broadcast online. I demand that my child’s murder, as well as the murders of all other youths in November 2019, be brought to justice. To the Islamic Republic, I say no. I’m not going to vote. My vote is for the regime’s overthrow and annihilation.”

 

 

November 2019 Uprising

After months of negotiations, the Iranian government announced a 50-300 percent increase in gasoline prices on 15 November 2019. On the same night, Iranians, angered by economic hardships, took to the streets in various cities to express their displeasure with the government’s policies.

Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian system, issued orders for major repression, allowing his soldiers to go on a murderous rampage. As a result, at least 1,500 people were killed.

 

 

Families of Ramin Hossein Panahi

The brother of Kurdish political prisoner Ramin Hossein Panahi, Amjad Hossein Panahi, added his voice to the relatives of the regime’s victims. “Together with the mothers [of martyrs] across Iran, with the families of the martyrs who died for freedom, I declare that my vote is to overthrow this dictatorial regime, a 42-year-old regime that is based on the killing, imprisonment, torture, and execution of our young people.

Hopefully, one day this regime will be overthrown and the perpetrators of the massacre of our youth will be brought to justice in the people’s courts! We will demand the overthrow of this dictatorial regime.”

On 8 September 2018, Ramin Hossein Panahi was executed while being on hunger strike in Karaj’s Gohardasht Prison, west of Tehran. He was buried at an undisclosed location by the dictatorship.

 

 

Elham Afkari, the sister of national wrestling champion

On her Instagram page, Elham Afkari, the sister of national wrestling champion and political prisoner Navid Afkari, wrote:

“During the 2013 presidential election, Navid was a conscript. I remember he told me, ‘No matter how much they tried, I didn’t vote.’ They even told him that if he didn’t vote they would extend his mandatory military service. But Navid said, ‘I will not vote. I will even tear my identification papers. I will not betray my people. I will not vote.’”

 

 

The families of victims of the regime’s cruelty

Several groups, including the families of victims of the regime’s cruelty, are advocating for a boycott of the regime’s fake presidential election. Farmers, laborers, pensioners, teachers, creditors, and many other groups that have been victimized by the regime’s corruption and authoritarianism have joined the boycott movement in recent months.

I salute the brave mothers of the martyrs of the November 2019 uprising. They safeguard their children’s sacrifice by calling for the clerical regime’s overthrow and boycotting the mullahs’ sham election.

 

 

MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook)

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