After the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia on 14 January 2011, millions of people began demonstrating across the region in a broad movement aimed at various issues such as their standards of living or influencing significant reforms, with varying degrees of success.
On 27 January, the opposition Green Movement of Iran announced a series of protests against the Iranian government scheduled to take place prior to the "Revolution Day" march on 11 February.
[9] The day before the protests were due to begin, opposition leaders Mousavi and Karroubi were placed under house arrest and denied access to telephones and the Internet.
[25] The protests that occurred on this day marked a setback for the government of Iran, as the regime has campaigned that Mousavi's Green Movement had lost momentum, but the revived uprisings helps prove otherwise.
[33] Mousavi's website stated that the "normal" guards that had been surrounding his home during his house arrest over the past week had been replaced with "masked security forces".
[37] The Fars News Agency released a report in the morning warning that "armed opposition groups plan to shoot at people in [the] protest rally set for Sunday afternoon."
However, coverage by journalists was thin because the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security had "sent a letter to foreign media offices in Tehran warning them that their bureaus would be shut down and their reporters deported if they wrote 'negative articles' surrounding the opposition protests."
[43] The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran expressed its concern for these changes, since a safe house is "considered a place for the secret detention of high security-value detainees, which is not under the control of the judiciary or any other monitoring mechanisms."
[48] According to the BBC news, one of the arrested was Fakhrosadar Mohtashami, the wife of former minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, who (according to a relative or hers) is being kept in Evin Prison and "has not been allowed contact with her family for the time being.
"[48] According to RFERL, a "number of prominent Iranian activists" have appealed to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him "to use all 'international levers' at his disposal" to ensure the welfare of Musavi and Karrubi and "seek their release from detention".
"[52] During President Ahmadinejad's trip to Lorestan province, which is in the west of the country,[citation needed] he blamed foreign powers for triggering unrest in Iran.
The statement also said that Vahid Haghanian, the administrative advisor to Khamenei, had personally led the "security forces which raided Karroubi's house in north Tehran and confiscated his belongings.
"[57] Rafsanjani's resignation from the Assembly caused concern among the opposition protesters, as they had been hoping that he would "help influence Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to moderate his support for Mr. Ahmadinejad".
This resulted in confusion for both the police forces and for the protesters, who eventually gave up on gathering in one of the places given and instead returned to the "old routine of walking quietly on the sidewalks of Enghelab Avenue."
The spokesman of the French foreign ministry, Bernard Valero, also released a statement saying: "This pitiful decision by the Iranian authorities reflects a new deterioration in the working conditions of journalists in Iran.
[61] Sajjad Rezaie, the head of the Islamic Association of Tehran University's art faculty, had spoken out previously about Sanee Zhaleh, stating that he had been "a member of Mir Hossein Musavi's presidential campaign team in the June 2009 election."
He also reportedly said he "hopes that with the beginning of the Persian new year on 21 March, 'the rule of law would be established' in Iran and 'people, political activists, and leading figures of the Iranian Revolution would be treated with wisdom and prudence.
[67] According to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab news channel, Al Arabiya, there were protests by Iranian Arabs in the city of Ahvaz, capital of the Khuzestan province who were "demanding more rights and humanitarian benefits."
"[68] Lebanon-based journalist Roula Hajjar wrote on the Los Angeles Times's blog that the protests on 15 April had also occurred in the cities Abadan, Khorramshahr, Mahshahr, and Shadegan.
Joe Stork, the Middle East director of HRW, stated, "Iran has made it impossible to confirm the scale of the deadly violence against protesters in Khuzestan province, making transparent and independent investigations into alleged killings and arrests there absolutely essential.
"[70] According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and The Guardian, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi sent "a letter to UN human rights chief Navi Pillay in which she describes a deadly crackdown by Iranian security forces last week on a peaceful protest in Khuzestan's capital, Ahvaz."
Moslehi was later restored by Khamenei, while several close allies of the president, including Ahmadinejad's progressive chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, have been arrested and accused of invoking djinns.
[78] The children of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi called for silent protests in Iran on 14 February, to mark the one year anniversary since their fathers were placed under house arrest.
[84] Spain later demanded an explanation or apology from the Iranian government about the arrest of Pérez-Cambra that included a "satisfactory response", threatening to call him home from Iran if one was not received.
[61] The human rights organisation HRANA's website reported that one person had died after riot police opened fire at protesters near Tohid Square in Tehran.
The Iranian state media later quoted the president of the student's university as saying that "Nour-Mohammadi died in a car accident and that he hadn't taken part in the antigovernment rallies that day."
They called for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, abolition of the death penalty, and a public trial for all those who had permitted massacres of citizens in the past 35 years.
[103] On 15 February, Press TV reported that members of the Iranian parliament had called for the execution of two opposition leaders for inciting demonstrations on the previous day.
[100] Pro-government clerics began calling for the execution of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on 16 February as he had become increasingly aligned with the Green Movement since the 2009 election protests.
According to information released by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, these children were "armed with batons, clubs and air guns and ordered to attack demonstrators who have tried to gather in Tehran."