On 30 December 2009, pro-government rallies, also known as the "Dey 9 epic",[2] took place in various Iranian cities, including Tehran,[3] Shiraz, Arak, Qom[4] and Isfahan.

[6][7] In protest against the results of the 2009 Iranian presidential election, demonstrators took to the streets on 27 December 2009,[7] coinciding with Ashura, a Shia holy day.

According to Ibrahim Moussawi, associate professor of Lebanese University and head of Hizbullah's media relations, the incident damaged "public relations" of the Iranian Green Movement with Iranian citizenry more than all events as the acts of the protesters on that day including "applauding, whistling, and engaging in other cheerful displays," was "widely" seen as violation of a "red line" and targeting Husayn ibn Ali and Ashura commemoration itself.

[7] A witness said, according to The New York Times, that "many demonstrators on Wednesday were taken to protest sites by dozens of buses and were given free chocolate milk, and the Associated Press said the government had given all civil servants the day off to attend the rallies".

One source called the main rally in the capital "possibly the largest crowd in the streets of Tehran since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's funeral in 1989.