Iranian female political prisoner asked people in a joint statement to boycott parliamentary election scheduled for this week.
The 12 female prisoners said those who vote would be “endorsing the regime and its crimes.”
“Anyone who goes to the polls will be complicit in the regime’s killing of the revolutionary youth and would be endorsing the regime and its crimes,” reads the statement, which was published on Monday.
The regime fears a low turnout in the upcoming elections due to the nationwide anti-regime protests last November, which resulted in the death of 1500 civilians.
“For 41 years, they have tried to portray their totalitarian regime as a democratic one by repeating the word elections,” reads the statement. “The Iranian parliament is not a democratic institution and has no use other than serving the regime.”
Department of Social Studies and Research Institute at Tehran University has conducted a poll, which showed that less than 25 percent of the capital’s population said they will vote in the coming parliamentary election.
