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Iran’s Green Movement

FEBRUARY 2011

  • The desire by some Iranian leaders and millions of Iranian citizens to change the regime in a more liberal and pro-Western direction is not new.  It existed even under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1979-1989)
  • The Iranian hunger for reform exploded into public view it surfaced during the "elections" of 2009, and was catalyzed by the candidacy of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who had been Khomeini's prime minister in the years after the revolution.
  • Mousavi had been out of public politics for twenty years, working as an artist, architect and professor.  His supporters— a broad alliance of Iranians, some seeking reform, others seeking more fundamental regime change— created “the Green Movement,” wearing green in their public rallies and creating enormously popular Twitter and Facebook sites.
  • Most Iranians believe that Mousavi got more votes than Ahmadinejad, but the regime declared Ahmadinejad the winner (62% for Ahmadinejad and 34% for Mousavi).
  • Following the election, Iranian’s erupted into huge protests, which the regime put down with singular brutality.  Nonetheless, FDD intelligence suggests that the movement has actually grown in the past year.
  • The Green Movement’s discourse is particularly revealing. They speak of “restoring” the Republic’s values, including:  religious toleration, freedom of press and assembly, and greater rights for women and minority groups.  In reality, these never existed after the 1979 Revolution.  The Greens' use of such language is a commonly understood code, and members of the movement understand that their goal is the end of the regime.
  • Mrs Mousavi, Zahra Rahnevard, is the starlet of the Green Movement.  She challenged the regime’s orthodoxy when she stated, “I am religious and wear a veil, but if any women don’t want to wear it, that’s their right.”  That was a frontal assault against the regime, which preaches the inferiority of women and requires that they cover their heads.
  • The regime is afraid to crack down on the Green Movement.  Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei stated that if he ordered the arrest of Mousavi and his associate Mehdi Karroubi “it would be like throwing a torch into a weapons depot.” 
  • The Green Movement can still triumph in Iran if they get Western support.  The US, however, has failed to provide that support.
  • The focus of the movement is the corruption and illegitimacy of the regime. This was the same strategy that dissidents adopted in the years leading up to the fall of the Soviet Union.
  • The fall of the Iranian regime would be an enormous blessing for US national interests.  It would weaken our enemies, from Hezbollah and al Qaeda to radical Latin American leaders like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.  It might even make an Arab-Israeli peace agreement possible.