The 2009 presidential election continues to divide some of the top leadership in Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, which his opponents claimed was fraudulent, brought about the largest protests in Tehran since the 1979 revolution. The two Reformist presidential candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi (and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard) and Mehdi Karroubi, remain under house arrest for challenging the results of the elections and calling for demonstrations. Conservatives and hard-liners immediately depicted the organizers of the protests as foreign agents determined to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Hundreds were arrested for politically motivated charges in the aftermath of the elections.

Reformists and many who voted for Mousavi were either forcibly removed from active political life or were too disillusioned with the repressive environment to vote in the following parliamentary elections. While President Hassan Rouhani’s 2013 election brought back some moderate Reformists and increased political participation, the 2009 election is still used by hard-liners in parliament to attack or impeach ministers they perceive to be too lenient on social or cultural issues. A rebirth of the “2009 sedition,” which is what the hard-liners call the 2009 election protests, still serves as a rallying cry by conservatives to push back against Rouhani and his administration.

However, the narrative that those who protested the 2009 elections wanted to overthrow the Islamic Republic took a hit after comments by Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, the body that played a central role in the repression of the postelection protests. In a June 28 speech in commemoration of the judiciary, Larijani said, “The situation of the sedition was a situation that was accompanied by a crime and it was like a coup — we don’t want to say they discussed a coup or overthrowing [the government] — but they prepared the platform for the enemy in a way that the president of America said that they will support it.”

Larijani added, “Some analysts say the sedition is over and it is a topic of history but these inclinations still exist. During that time, with the recommendation of the supreme leader, some stepped to the side but some still insist on their positions. I have told the monitoring institutions to be alert and do not allow these individuals to enter [politics].”