Iranian Uprising of 2009

Iranian uprising of 2009
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Institution
Iranian uprising of 2009
Introduction
The Iranian uprising of 2009 was as a result of the alleged election fraud that brought President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad back to power. The protests took place in various cities in Iran with Tehran being the epicenter in support of opposition candidates, Mehdi Karoubi and Mir-Hossein Mousavi (Al Jazeera English, 2009). The regime responded to these demonstrations by using the police and the Basij Militia leading to the death of 36 people according to government reports, but supporters of the opposition candidates claimed that at least 72 people died. Although the supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised the high voter turnout and urged the country to unite, he later ordered an audit of the election results.
Many thought that the uprising will lead to a revolution to remove president Ahmedinajad from power, but if failed to have far reaching effects on Iranian society. In essence, the uprising was by professionals and students who felt that the current regime was stifling press freedom and human rights, and also endangering Iranian security by pursuing its quest for nuclear energy, which led to its isolation by the international community. Although the uprising failed to produce long-term impacts in Iran, it challenged the common political, economic and social order in Iran. The government used force and intimidation to quell the protests in major Iranian cities. The resulting deaths could have been avoided if the government used a better strategy in managing the uprising.
The political, social and economic order that was broken
The uprising brought to the fore the political tensions between the clerics and Amhedinajad. The clerics are a powerful ruling class in Iran and they view Ahmedinajad as a threat to their interests, mainly economic interests and also taking the country to unnecessary risks (CNN, 2009). On the other hand, Ahmedinajad is popular due to his hostility to what he views as corruption of the clerics; by hijacking the 1979 Revolution to serve their personal interests. There was division among the clerics, but many of them wanted Ahmedinajad to lose; hence putting the supreme leader in a precarious position.
Despite having the powers to order for the recount of the votes or endorse the results, the supreme leader chose the latter. The Supreme leader holds immense powers and represents both clerical and non-clerical forces, and has to rule by balancing the two. Some factions of the clerics, especially the one led by Rafsanjani wanted the supreme leader to annul the results, but since the Ayatollah is the defender of the regime, he had no otherwise but to defend it (Wright, 2009). There are two political forces that were at play during the uprising: those who supported the incumbent, which is mainly made up security forces and the anti-regime forces that demonstrated. There was a likelihood of a far reaching disa...