election

i didn't vote in the last election when ahmadinejad became the president. i remember people told me i should vote, and i was against voting. mostly because i didn't think any of the candidates are legitimate, but also, i reasoned, the larger number of votes would indicate stronger support for the islamic republic. ahmadinejad was elected and i remember feeling very indifferent about it. i thought there is not a big difference who is the president; the country is not going to change for better, or much worse. it was the end of khatami's term and i was only thinking about how much more could be done with his popularity, and how many things went wrong. but i seemed to have forgotten how the result of that election changed our country for ever. not only because we, people of iran, felt we have a saying in our country's political path, but also, because of all the positive change that followed the election of khatami.

four years later, i am looking back and think there were very few days in the past four years, in which i, an iranian who doesn't even live in the country, did not feel the catastrophic result of this past election. let's remember ahmadinejad denial the holocaust, his interview/speech in columbia university and the united nations, to the nuclear energy controversy and the threats of preemptive attacks, the unbelievable inflation of the past four years, and the increasingly deteriorating freedom of speech in iran.


to vote or not to vote...


i wish i could say: of course i am going to vote, and of course i know who i am voting for. that i believe in the competence, integrity and the judgment of this or that candidate. i wish i could say, my candidate is not going to lie when he campaigns and is going to execute what he promises, and is not going to be afraid to take action when it is needed. i wish i could say my candidate is a diplomat with the tools, knowledge and resources needed to run the country in the center of all different ideologies and for all iranian people.


but i can not say any of these. i can not possibly believe such a candidate could get passed the filters that the islamic republic enforces on the nominees. and i can not say from the existing choices, there is a single candidate that i trust, even in the loosest form...


but i can also say, my candidate, whoever it is going to be, is hopefully going to be a less horrible choice than mahmoud ahmadinejad and is going to run the country less horribly than him. and that might only be wishful thinking, but what else is there for me to do? because when your alternative is the worst, whoever you choose, is going to be better...


and i wish this was not the case.