Azad: "Change costs money and we are ready to pay"
Many Iranian women continue to protest the Islamic Republic's all-out coercion by refusing to cover their hair - and refusing to vote in Friday's election. The BBC reports.
- Change costs and we are ready to pay, says 34-year-old Azad via an encrypted app to the BBC.
She continues to go out without a veil, despite the usual punishment of 74 lashes. Azad was imprisoned for a month during the wave of protests following Jina Mahsa Amini's death in September 2022 in custody, where she was serving for violating the veil laws. Last year, Azad was arrested again and kept in solitary confinement for a month for criticizing the government on social media.
Voter turnout is expected to be below 50 percent in the elections to the parliament and council of experts on Friday, according to AFP and AP. The election is not considered free and fair because the religious Guardian Council controls who is allowed to run.
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Few are expected to vote – two out of three candidates stopped
Fewer than half of Iranians are expected to vote in Friday's election. This is shown by several opinion polls, according to AFP and AP. The religious Guardian Council decides who can stand for election to the parliament and to the expert council, which appoints the country's highest leader. The council has ruled out two-thirds of the candidates in advance.
- Why should I vote? says taxi driver Morteza to AP.
Several interviewees express frustration that politicians are failing to do anything about the economy, which has been hit hard by sanctions and recession in the wake of the mass protests following Jina Mahsa Amini's death in custody in 2022. Opposition parties in the country and abroad have called for an election boycott.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei advocates a high turnout and claims that otherwise the country's enemies will "threaten our security in one way or another".
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