iran election crisis
Riz Khan

Iran’s bitter political divide

Will the country spiral into another cycle of demonstrations?

Watch part two

A little over six weeks after Iran’s controversial presidential election, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes the oath of office to begin his second term as Iran’s president.

His election victory has been endorsed by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader.

The opposition hotly disputed the election result calling it a fraud and demanding its annulment.

Violent protests broke out of the streets of Tehran after the results were declared.

Around 30 people were killed although human rights groups say that number could be far higher.

Women played a tremendous role in the protests and the fatal shooting of Neda Agha Soltan became the most defining image of the demonstrations.

Opposition leaders are likely to boycott Ahmadinejad’s swearing-in ceremony.

According to a reformist website, Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate, has promised to continue his protests against the results of the presidential election.

Will Iran again spiral into another cycle of violent demonstrations? Or will it be able to turn the page on its bitter political divisions?

Joining the programme to discuss Iran’s political future will be Dokhi Fassihian of the National Iranian American Council. She serves as the executive director of the Democracy Coalition Project where she implements multilateral human rights strategies through the UN and other international forums.

Also joining us will be Kaveh L. Afrasiabi, a political scientist and author from Boston in Massachusetts. He is director and founder of Global interfaith Peace, a non-governmental organisation. Dr Afrasiabi has taught political science at the Tehran University and he is the author of Reading in Iran’s Foreign Policy after September the 11th which was published last year.

This episode of the Riz Khan show aired from Wednesday, August 5, 2009.