Imprisoned Civil Activist Narges Mohammadi Calls for Election Boycott ‘Out of Respect for the Blood of Fallen Protesters’
Narges Mohammadi, a civil activist imprisoned in Iran, released a brief note referring to the suppression and killing of protesters by the Islamic Republic government, calling for a boycott of the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections.
In this note, which Taghi Rahmani, Narges Mohammadi’s husband, published on Tuesday, the 15th of Bahman, Ms. Mohammadi described the Iranian people as a peace-loving nation committed to justice and freedom, who went to the polls seeking reform, but the government responded to the people with crisis and suppression.
This civil activist wrote: “The nation called the government toward moderation, but extremism and street killings were the government’s ruthless response.”
Referring to “street killings and the government’s ruthless response” to the people’s protests and the government’s inability to tolerate any legal and peaceful forms of public protest, she called for “election boycott” as the most civil way to protest against the government’s narrow-minded and repressive policies, writing: “Out of respect for the blood of the innocent killed, let us not appear at the polling stations.”
The Islamic Consultative Assembly elections, scheduled to be held on the 2nd of Esfand, are the first elections following the bloody suppression of November protests this year.
The widespread disqualification of election candidates prompted a response from Morgan Ortagus, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, who wrote on Twitter that with the disqualification of many parliamentary election candidates by the Guardian Council, all remaining candidates have the same shape.
Source: Voice of America
