Iranian Green Movement as Civil Society and Nation Building Movement

The point of departure of this article is that a shift in the balance of political power has occurred in Iran since the June 2009 presidential election. In fact, the effort of the Iranian neo-conservatives to take advantage of the 2009 election to emerge as the undisputed political force in the ruling power structure led ironically to the shrinkage of the social base of the ruling conservative political camp, on the one hand, and the emergence of a vociferous opposition force, on the other. By the emergence of an opposition force, we do not mean the formation of a single political group or front with specific partisan agenda, but the spontaneous eruption of a social movement, known as the Green Movement, which has rallied a variety of social groups across political persuasions, social classes, religious beliefs and ethnic belongings, and which claims to represent the Iranian nation. As a supporter of Green Movement puts it, this movement, both qualitatively and quantitatively, is the greatest movement of ‘nation-building’ in Iran’s modern history.