ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 surveys political developments during the period 2005–2009, beginning with the inauguration of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad government and concluding with the mass demonstrations extending from June 2009 to the capture and house arrest in February 2011 of the symbolic leaders of the Green Movement: Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi. Referencing the trajectories of the student, youth and women’s groups opposed to a neo-Islamist governmentality, I examine the underlying conditions and processes responsible for their coalescing into a united front. This chapter also provides a definition of the term movement of movements and articulates how this concept can aid in understanding the Green Movement’s various dimensions, especially in relation to the earlier cases of social mobilization cited above. Lastly, the 2009 election crisis is analysed with a view to determining whether, in providing the conditions of possibility for the emergence of a home-grown rights-based society, the Green Movement signifies a paradigm shift in the aspirations and assumptions of dissident groups operating within Iran.
