Issue and Opponent: Iran’s Green Revolution stemmed from a disputed presidential election. In 2009, Iran’s conservative incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was up for reelection. Ahmadinejad was challenged by Mir Hossein Mousavi, a moderate reformer who had previously served as the Iranian Prime Minister during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. Mousavi’s candidacy in the election was permitted by Iran’s hardline Guardian Council only because the council strongly believed Mousavi would not win the election. However, Mousavi’s campaign was able to unite many moderate and reform-minded factions in Iran and mount a significant challenge to Ahmadinejad’s reelection during the June 12th presidential election. During the election, outside observers were not permitted to monitor the polls and the counting process was opaque. Some individuals and civil society organizations reported concerns about election fraud and an incomplete count of votes. Only a few days after the election, the government announced that Ahmadinejad had won in a landslide. Activists and civil society organizations denounced Ahmadinejad’s victory as fraud, and Mousavi refused to accept the results of the election.
Dilemma Action: Outraged at the results of the election, hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the street in protest during the summer of 2009. The protesters dressed in green, carried green signs, and wore green ribbons around their wrists to show their support for Mousavi through his campaign color. Mousavi himself participated in the protests and carried a green sash, giving the Green Revolution its name. The peaceful protesters flooded the streets of Tehran, using the slogan “Where is my vote?” to express their discontent with the election proceedings. The majority of the protesters were students, activists, intellectuals, and middle-class urban elites. After the initial wave of election-related protests, other protests erupted around Iran in the autumn of 2009 with broader anti-government messages. Protesters gathered on public holidays to chant “death to the dictator” and express opposition to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, who had upheld Ahmadinejad’s election victory. It is estimated the Green Revolution protests in Iran saw roughly 3 million peaceful demonstrators take to the streets. The protests forced the Iranian government to choose between giving in to their demands for a new election or brutally crushing the peaceful demonstrations.
Outcomes: The Green Revolution was not successful in its calls for the removal of Ahmadinejad and a new, fair election. Protesters and activists faced merciless repression from the government. Initially, security forces were powerless to stop the demonstrations because of the sheer number of protestors. But protesters were soon met with violence from the Revolutionary Guard, plain-clothes police officers, and paramilitary units. Peaceful demonstrators were beaten, arrested, and killed on the streets by security forces. The leading activists organizing the Green Revolution protests were subject to show trials in the fall of 2009, during which they were forced to make televised confessions of their alleged crimes. The Iranian government also shut down newspapers and arrested journalists who were accused of reporting on the protests. The Green Revolution was successful in drawing international media attention, especially when the death of 26-year-old Neda Agha Soltan was publicized after she was shot by a sniper during a protest. In the end, the government chose to brutally suppress the protests rather than give in to their demands. A new election was never called, and Admadinejad served his second term as president from 2009 to 2013.