Green Movement of Iran

The Iranian Green Movement (Persian: جنبش سبز ایران‎‎), also known as the Persian Awakening by the western media, refers to a political movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office. Green was initially used as the symbol of Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign, but after the election it became the symbol of unity and hope for those asking for annulment of what they regarded as a fraudulent election. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are recognized as political leaders of the Green Movement.Hossein-Ali Montazeri was also mentioned as spiritual leader of the movement.

The Green Movement protests were a major event in Iran's modern political history and observers claimed that protests were the largest since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979.

Background to the protests

The office of the President in Iran is considered the second powerful position in the country as it is granted significant power. Since 2005, Iran was led by Conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as Tehran mayor before being elected as President. Ahmadinejad’s name was associated with the profound human rights violations in the country, particularly with the use of violence. The list of these violations included the increased level of death penalty and problems with LGBT rights. According to the Human Rights Watch, “basic human rights protection in Iran has deteriorated to new lows” under Ahmadinejad’s first presidency as, for example, the number of executions increased by three times.

During the first presidency of Ahmadinejad, the problem was particularly severe with juvenile death penalty since more than 130 juvenile offenders were sentenced to death in Iran as of 2008. Moreover, the independent researchers pointed out on the issue of political prisoners whose number increased during Ahmadinejad’s first presidency. Other problems with human rights involved the absence of basic protection of LGBT rights as the number of criminal convictions for homosexual sex increased during the period between 2005 and 2009, while the President even denied the existence of gay people in Iran.

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