Elections in the Islamic Republic of Occupied Iran

On the Elections in the Islamic Republic of Occupied Iran

Picture, if you will, France under the occupation of Nazi Germany. Now imagine a group of French citizens who, having escaped from France with their lives, are in London collectively working to “free” their country. Would the first and only goal of these patriots be to free their nation from Nazi occupation, or, Nazi Germany not being a democracy, to chide the Germans for not allowing free local elections in France?

As instinctively as one may answer that question, and the answer is quite obvious, there are, however, those who would dismiss what has in fact been a rule, in favor of their own notion of history, democracy and what is and is not occupation.

In the case of Iran, for an international media that for some 3 decades has misinformed the public on the nature of the Islamic Republic, that has vilified the Shah of Iran and the Iranian Monarchy for much longer (to the point of our King’s designation as the most villainous rulers of all time), or one which continues to designate Islamic gangsters, opportunists and agents as “moderates” and “conservatives” or “philosophers” and “pragmatists”, all with the double aim of the Republic’s legitimization and prolongation, clearly “democracy” is to precede independence and liberation.

Thus, the international media may continue to paint a “democratic” picture of the Islamic Republic through its coverage of these latest elections, much like how it, through its coverage of the nuclear issue, transformed the regime, in the eyes of many, including many ignorant Iranians, into “a hero standing up to the west!”

But to Iranians such as myself, whose voice is hardly ever heard, Iranians who do not lend legitimacy to an anti-Iranian regime by participating in its elections, however “democratic” or “not quite democratic” in the eyes of the international media they may be, any consideration besides independence is absurd.