ABSTRACT
The 2009 Iranian presidential elections resulted in a second term for Mahmoud Ahma dinejad, as well as a series of public protests against alleged election fraud. These protests came to be called the Green Movement. The protesters were predominantly young, but members of Iran’s reformist factions, who have long sought more democratic rights, also participated. Facilitated by digital interactions via instant messaging and postings on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the protests were reported worldwide, while the Iranian regime struggled to shape public perceptions of the events. Although the regime’s security apparatus ultimately suppressed the Green Movement, it undoubtedly felt threatened by the efficiency and organizational skills that allowed opposition groups to inspire popular protests on a scale unseen since Iran’s 1979 revolution that overthrew a monarchy. Thirty years later, the protesters demanded individual freedoms and rights, and thereby gave evidence of the normative diffusion of human rights language into ev eryday Iranian politics. According to the human rights expert Anthony Chase (2012), the regime countered the language of human rights on the streets by invoking Iran’s national security, sovereignty, and cultural exceptionalism.
