What will happen in Iran on Feb, 26 is a selection, not an election

Is the Feb. 26 election for the Iranian parliament and Assembly of Experts going to be a window for change in that country? Are the prospects for that election made better by the fact that it is the first since last summer’s nuclear agreement? Based on what I know of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I say “no” on both points.
       
I am an 18 –year-old Iranian girl who fled Iran a few months ago and made it to Europe. This alone does not qualify me to comment on Iranian affairs, but my unique experience and what I have been through during my short life does. 

{mosads}My father, Saleh Kohandel, is an activist of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the principal Iranian opposition movement. He has been arrested three times by the clerical regime. I remember all the three times vividly. He is serving a 10-year prison term in Iran’s infamous Gohardahst Prison because he refused the mullahs’ demands to speak out against the MEK on state television.

As such I grew up facing the bitter realities of the Iranian political landscape, i.e. suppression and repression.

I had to live half of my childhood without my father’s presence in my life, other than 20-minute visits to his prison. Over the years I had to live with the fact that scores of my father’s prison-mates were executed solely for their beliefs on human rights, democracy and true elections.

In addition, my aunt and my uncle were slain at Camp Ashraf, the place of residence of Iranian dissidents in Iraq. The attack was carried out by Iraqi forces at the behest of Tehran in April 2011. I hardly saw my aunt and uncle before losing them altogether. But all three of these relatives have remained very much with me in spirit. In each case, the last words they spoke to me helped me to realize that I must be their voice in places where they have been kept silent.

For obvious reasons I spent my formative years as an activist, even participating alongside my 12 and 13 year-old schoolmates in the 2009 protests (in which MEK played an instrumental role). I saw the loathing of some of the youngest Iranian citizens for the ruling theocracy, as well as their commitment to replacing it with a democratic system. And I watched in the following years as their hatred of the regime and their profound craving for freedom continued to grow.

The Feb. 26 elections and similar events are looked upon as a joke among the youngsters, who see no value in participating in the process.
Still, it was with a heavy heart that I made the decision to flee the Islamic Republic of Iran on my own after the end of high school, arriving in Europe this past summer.

I worry that I may not be able to see my father released from prison.  As long as the current regime remains in place, no political prisoner can be sure of when he will be released, even if he has reached the end of his prison term. I am not able to see my father for even 20 minutes per week and I am more uncertain than ever of his status in prison. But I can use the opportunities provided by my new life in Europe in order to be active for his freedom and the freedom of my enchained nation.

Through the experience of visiting Iran’s notorious prisons over and over again, I have learnt much about the nature of the Iranian regime. And so it seems like the most natural fact in the world to me that that regime must be overthrown for me to go back to Iran and embrace my father again.

However, during my time in the West, I have learned that many Western leaders have inexplicably come to the conclusion that the 2013 election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani signaled a change in the regime’s ideals and practices. Some are hoping that those who are dubbed as “moderates” in the West will gain the upper hand in the elections and that this could lead to a change of behavior by the Iranian regime.

But this kind of optimism is sorely misplaced and this fact will be reinforced this week with what is really a series of selections, not an election. Like Rouhani, those who are taking part in the process are all integral parts of that theocracy.  They were only permitted to take part in the “elections” after being vetted several times, thus proving their total adherence to the supreme leader.

But there will be an important message coming out of Iran on Feb. 26. The Iranian people, particularly the youth and the women, by shunning ballot boxes will declare their rejection of the ruling theocracy that has deprived Iranians of their most rudimentary rights.
   
Western leaders should pay close attention to this message. This is the message of Iranians demanding regime change and this, not the charade of the ayatollahs, is what will determine the future course of events in Iran. 

Kohandel is an 18-year-old Iranian human rights activist who fled to Europe last summer and whose father is currently a political prisoner in Iran