The View from Prison: Who Votes and Why?

As Iran’s presidential and local elections approach, the country’s prison population is deciding whether to vote. For political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, boycotting elections has become tradition, sending a clear message of opposition against the regime of the Islamic Republic. But people jailed for other, “apolitical” crimes will probably take part — not because they believe they can make a difference, but in a bid to secure greater privileges in jail. 

“I am not going to vote this year, and I did not vote in the years past, because I am afraid I will be called an informer for the Islamic Republic,” said one inmate serving a long sentence at Evin Prison’s communal Ward 350. Many prisoners of conscience and political prisoners have now been transferred out of this ward, but he remains there.

He has paid the price for his beliefs, he said, and is proud of it. But he is unwilling to isolate himself even further by voting, which could prompt his fellow inmates to believe he supports the Islamic Republic’s political system. He needs their company and support. 

“This year a larger number of ordinary prisoners will participate in elections so they will receive privileges such as furloughs,” he said. “But political prisoners — whether they believe in voting or not — will not vote because of peer pressure. If they do, it will be interpreted as proof of their affiliation with the regime.”

His claim is confirmed by most inmates at Ward 350 and Ward 8, which currently houses political prisoners. It is also corroborated by former prisoners, including Saeed, who was released in 2016. He says that the dominant psychological atmosphere in the prison tends to create an anti-voting sentiment. “For this reason, even those who want to vote are scared of how they’ll be judged in that small and closed environment,” he said.

Boycotting is now a long-standing tradition among political prisoners, and although reformist prisoners broke the taboo of voting in 2009, many political groups still believe that voting implies an association with or even support for the regime. Since they do not accept the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic and its constitution and oppose the social conditions that have resulted, boycotting is the clearest way they can demonstrate this belief. 

Non-Political Prisoners

I asked Saeed about non-political prisoners and whether they tended to vote. “Last year [when parliamentary elections were held], when a number of reformist figures were still in prison, the elections were taken more seriously,” he said. “This year it seems that ordinary prisoners in the communal ward are paying more attention to the elections.”

He says that ordinary prisoners have an “opportunistic” approach toward elections, as they do with any participation in institutions, ceremony or tradition. For example, many of them take part in religious holidays or mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. When required, they memorize parts of the Koran or certain prayers, reciting them so they can get special privileges inside the prison or short periods of leave.

Rahim Sabaghi is a high school history teacher serving time for unpremeditated crimes he committed because he could not repay loans. He says that most ordinary prisoners vote not because of political awareness or beliefs or because they want to make a difference, but because they want to have better conditions in prison. “They had transferred a political prisoner to our ward and he had boycotted the elections,” he said, remembering the 2016 parliamentary elections. “They made him very uncomfortable. Nobody talked to him and even during lunch when all inmates gathered together, he had to eat by himself, alone. On the day of the elections, prison officials urged other inmates to shout chants against him. This behavior made me extremely unhappy.”

But inmates say that the same behavior exists in the ward for political prisoners — although in reverse, meaning that anyone who does want to vote is pressured not to, and judged harshly if they do. 

A Shift in Behavior

Farhad, a human rights activist who has been incarcerated at both Rajaei Shahr Prison near Tehran and Tehran’s Evin Prison, gave his perspective about the pressure political prisoners face to boycott the elections. “It depends on the situation,” he said. “In the early years of the Green Movement [following the disputed 2009 presidential election], political prisoners boycotted the elections. But lately, reformist prisoners publicly encouraged voting. [Imprisoned reformist figures] such as Mostafa Tajzadeh and Emad Behavar did vote, but other prisoners did not participate even though they wanted to because they were afraid of other prisoners.”

What prisoners are calling for boycotts these days, I asked him? “Those prisoners who are more antagonistic toward the regime,” he says. “Prisoners from Kurdish parties, human rights activists and the leftists have been boycotting elections for years now, especially the prisoners from the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MEK) who do not accept the constitution or the legitimacy of the elections.”

In general, political prisoners can be split into “pro-reformists” and “anti-reformists.” The first camp believes in the efficacy of reforms and encourages others to vote while the second — a majority of political prisoners these days — do not believe reforms will matter, and consequently boycott the elections.

A prisoner called Ali remembers that in the 1980s, prisoners were pressured to take part in elections, and in Friday Prayers or any other religious rituals. “In those years elections were used as a powerful lever to pressure prisoners,” he said. “Voting was considered a religious duty and it was seldom that anybody boycotted elections. Even soldiers were not free not to vote.” He said many prisoners pretended to be passionate about the election process. “But since the 1990s, there has not really been any pressure to force political prisoners to vote. In the wards for ordinary prisoners, however, this still goes on. To curry favor, some inmates participate in the election, [offer to] carry the ballot boxes into the ward, or to carry them to the prison’s central office.” He said many of these prisoners make a big show of casting their votes.

But he also said that although prison officials do not force political prisoners to vote, or to refrain from voting, prisoners themselves take part in a sort of surveillance operation. “I remember that in 2004 or 2005, when I was in Ward 350 a couple of inmates who wanted to vote were labeled by other inmates as infiltrators or mercenaries. But in 2009 it changed. When reformists joined the prison population, some of them asked for ballot boxes and they were proud to vote.”

Ali closed the discussion by telling me about a memory he has from 2001 when he was an inmate at Eshrat Abad Prison. He said among the inmate population were well known political figures from the moderate political group the Council of Nationalist-Religious Activists of Iran, including the late Ezzatolah Sahabi, a former cabinet minister and member of parliament, Dr. Habibollah Peyman, Ali Afshari and others. “They wanted to vote for Mohammad Khatami,” Ali said. “They had written slogans supporting him on the walls of the bathroom, but naturally the prison officials were not willing to give a hand and increase Khatami’s vote count. That year no ballot box was brought into the cells, and they could not vote.”