Riz Khan - Iranian Female Police Officers
Riz Khan

How will Iran deal with protesters?

Regime has threatened harsh measures against those accused of ‘corrupting God’s earth’.

Watch part two

The recent anti-government demonstrations in Iran have once again highlighted its stark political divisions.

The country remains tense after clashes erupted between security forces and tens of thousands of opposition supporters in December.

Eight people died on Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Shia Muslim calendar.

Iran has been simmering since demonstrations erupted after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, won the disputed presidential elections in June.

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The pro-reformist opposition called the vote fraudulent, but Iran’s government retorted that the opposition protesters were doing the bidding of western powers – especially the US, UK and Israel.

The regime’s response has been criticised by both the EU and the US.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Iranian government have accused the protesters of “corrupting God’s earth”, a charge punishable by death under Islamic law.

This edition of the Riz Khan show asks: How far will the Iranian government go in dealing with this ongoing political crisis? And what role, if any, should the international community play?

Joining the conservation will be Azadeh Moaveni, an Iranian-American journalist and writer and author of the book Honeymoon in Tehran about life under Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, a political analyst who has extensively researched US foreign policy towards Iran, and Hillary Mann-Leverett, a former US diplomat who presently heads Stratega, a political risk consultancy that works on Middle Eastern issues.

This episode of the Riz Khan show aired on Tuesday, January 5.