Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 1, 2021—During the month of May, over 310 areas in all of Iran’s provinces witnessed activities calling for a boycott of the regime’s sham presidential elections in June. These are activities of the Iranian Resistance Units, the network of the Iranian opposition the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
This campaign primarily began in April 2021, following the Iranian Resistance’s call to boycott the mullahs’ farce elections. In April, The Resistance Units, carried out anti-regime activities in over 250 places in 27 provinces.
The call for a boycott very quickly turned into a nationwide effort and a widespread social movement in Iran. In recent weeks, various sectors of society have called for a nationwide boycott and chanted “We’ve heard so many lies that we won’t vote anymore.”
On May 18, Iranians held a major a major social media campaign denouncing the regime’s upcoming Presidential election as a “sham” and pointing out that the leading candidate is a hard-line cleric known for his role in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.
A Twitter storm targeting Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s current Judiciary Chief and a former member of the 1988 Death Commissions, became the second-most trending topic on Twitter in Persian.
The campaign’s main Twitter hashtag, #رئیسی_جلاد۶۷, which translates to ‘Raisi the henchman of 1988’ had more than 130,000 tweets and retweets in just a few hours. A popular English-language hashtag was #BoycottIranShamElections.
Simultaneously, the Iranian opposition network had organized a vast anti-regime campaign across the country.
Slogans such as “A strong no to the religious dictatorship,” “Our vote is regime change and boycott of the sham elections,” and “Down with Khamenei” were spread in cities such as Tehran, Shiraz, Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz, Karaj, Lahijan, Rudsar, Esfarayen, Hamadan, Ahvaz, Arak, Konarak, Torbat Jam, Kashan, Fariman, Hashtroud, Khorramabad, Doroud (Lorestan), Shahriar, Rasht, Ghaemshahr, Sabzevar, Zahedan, Behbahan, Shustar, Astane Ashrafiyeh, Kermanshah, Ilam, Behbahan, Meshkin Shahr, Sabzevar, Qazvin, Sanandaj, Kerman, Chaboksar, Bojnourd, Lahijan, Gorgan, Saqqez, Kahnuj, Saveh, Nishabur, Iranshahr, Birjan, Nikshahr, Anzali, Chalus, Gachsaran, Aligoudarz, Shahr Quds, Najafabad, Fasa, Shahre Kord, Semnan, Shahsavar, Jahrom, Abadan, Sari, Omidyeh, Kerman, Behbahan, Shahin Shahr, Astara, Kazeroun, Hastpar Tavalesh, Yasuj, Yazd, Amol, Kashmar, Andimeshk, and Eslam Abad.
These activities were welcomed by the public and were a boost of inspiration for millions of Iranians who demand change.
Also, in major cities such as Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Mashhad, MEK supporters installed slogans in support of Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). “Democracy & freedom with Maryam Rajavi,” their slogans read.
This is while supporting the MEK is considered as “enmity against God” and is punished severely. In the last 42 years, over 120,000 MEK supporters and sympathizers have been executed by the mullahs’ regime. Therefore, the members of the Resistance Units take an enormous risk to carry out these activities, while security cameras and the regime’s suppressive forces are constantly present.
The Resistance Units risk being arrested, imprisoned, and tortured while carrying out these activities that aim to break the atmosphere of fear imposed by the mullahs and give heart to millions of outraged people who demand regime change.
Recently, the regime sentenced two young students Mehran Gharabaghi, (29) Majid and Khademi, (29) to execution on the charge of being MEK supporters.
The upcoming so-called presidential elections in Iran and elimination of all candidates except those from harshest faction of the regime and close to its supreme leader Ali Khamenei show once again that the main confrontation in Iran is and has been between the Iranian people and their resistance and the clerical regime.
Since June 1981, when the mullahs opened fire on peaceful protesters in Tehran, the Iranian Resistance has stated that the regime is incapable of reform and it must be overthrown.
Since that year, the repression of opponents of the mullahs’ regime in Iran has not stopped for a single day. Thousands of dissidents have been jailed or executed and the people have faced an ongoing massacre. In recent years, the world has witnessed a bloody crackdown on three major anti-regime uprisings in Iran. Only during November 2019, over 1500 protesters were gunned down on the streets.
Therefore, the brave campaigns of the MEK’s network inside Iran express the Iranian people’s long desire for regime change, freedom and democracy.
