Having opposing views than that of the government is quite dangerous in Iran. Let me take the example of the 2009 presidential election, after which several hundreds of people were arrested. Among them were prominent reformist politicians, human rights defenders, journalists and students.
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But how did that happen?
In 2009 Iranian people were about to appoint their president for the next four years, after the controversial presidency of ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In the previous four years, the inflation had risen and the property values, especially in the capital, had increased sharply. Moreover, Mr Ahmadinejad focussed on Iran's nuclear program, which resulted in the United Nations’s sanctions on the Iranian government.
So in the election of 12 June 2009, three new candidates, running beside Mr Ahmadinejad, promised to change the current economic and social situation and bring reforms, namely:
- Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a reformist politician and the strongest candidate against Ahmadinejad. He served as the last Prime Minister between 1981-89 and has won the backing of major politicians, such as former President, Mohammad Khatami.
- Mehdi Karroubi, another influential reformist politician, and the candidate of the National Trust Party. He was the chairman of the parliament between 1989-92 and 2000-04. He was an advocate of women's rights.
- Mohsen Rezai, the Conservative candidate. He previously headed Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards and, in his presidential campaign, promised to fight poverty and unemployment.
Although the votes are counted by hand, the Interior Ministry, announced the first results within an hour of the polls closing. The official result came out less than a day later. These surprised many and the results themselves foreshadowed a level of distortion of the votes.
Mr Ahmadinejad won by a landslide (62.6%), while the other candidates received far less support (Mousavi 33.8%, Rezai 1.7% and Karroubi 0.9%), according to official figures. The election featured high participation (85%).
Even though the three opposition candidates rejected the results, claimed that the votes were manipulated and lodged official complaints, nothing happened, indeed, the Supreme Leader defended the election as legitimate and called Ahmadinejad’s victory a “divine assessment”.
On the following days, supporters of the opposition candidates took to the street, claiming that the votes were rigged and demanding the dismissal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office. They took green flags and dressed in that colour and were chanting the motto “Where is my vote?”. Day after day the protests widened, including uprisings outside Tehran and also outside Iran: in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, Paris, Berlin, London, Rome, Sydney etc. In spite of the government’s prohibition of any form of protests, peaceful gatherings were organised until early 2010 in Tehran and across the country.
In response to the outcry, the government arrested a large number of protesters and several were killed by the police and governmental militia forces. The regime significantly slowed down internet access and censored any form of media agreeing with the opposition. Media outsets and newspapers reported direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that “some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines”.
After Ahmadinejad’s official inauguration, Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi continued to voice opposition to the government and to human rights violations by security forces. They set up a new coalition named "The Green Path of Hope” and started working in peaceful and legal methods to widen the influence of their reforms.
In February 2011 they sent an open letter to the Interior Ministry, requesting permission to hold a rally on 14 February “[i]n order to declare support for the popular movements in the region, in particular, the freedom-seeking movements of the people of Egypt and Tunisia…” But the authorities didn’t grant permission and responded by placing the leaders of the movement under house arrest.
They are still being held under house arrest without an arrest warrant, charge or trial, along with Mir Hossein Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard. As their families revealed, they are deprived of access to books, newspapers, a telephone and radio.
Now, fours years after ordering the preventive custody, President Rouhani is increasingly fighting a battle with the regime's hard-liners over the fate of "Green Revolution" leaders.
Mr Rouhani has demanded that the national security council find a "final solution" to their continued arrest. Last month Iranian media suggested that Mr Rouhani might ask the public to vote on the fate of the two men. But the dossier on the three detainees has recently been transferred to the office of Iran's Supreme Leader, who has the last say on the issue.