Following the 2009 Iranian presidential election, protests against alleged electoral fraud and in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi occurred in Tehran and other major cities in Iran and around the world starting after the disputed presidential election on 2009 June 12 and continued even after the inauguration of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad as President of Iran on 5 August 2009. This is a timeline of the events which occurred during those protests.
2009
June
June 13–15
In what had become the worst civil unrest in Iran in over a decade, clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early Saturday morning onward. Protests were initially mostly peaceful but became increasingly violent. Demonstrators chanted phrases such as "Down with the dictator", "Death to the dictator", and "Give us our votes back". Mousavi urged for calm and asked that his supporters refrain from acts of violence.
Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and arrested a number of people.
Two hundred people protested outside Iran's embassy in London. Protests led by Iranian-Americans were also held outside the Iranian representative office in New York City.
On Sunday, protests grew considerably in scope and violence, leading Al Jazeera English to describe the situation as the "biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution". It also reported that protests seemed spontaneous without any formal organization. Buses and trash cans were burned, and parked cars blocked streets and highways in Tehran and routes leading into the city. Protesters attacked shops, government offices, police stations, police vehicles, gas stations and banks. Barricades were installed around all government ministries, embassies (there were reports of shootings outside the Russian Embassy, which supported the election results), Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini International Airport, where there were scenes of large clashes with riot police. Large protests, which escalated into riots, broke out at Tehran University, Amirkabir University, and Shahid Beheshti University. Other protests occurred in Ahwaz, Shiraz, Gorgan, Tabriz, Rasht, Babol, Mashhad, Isfahan, Zahedan, Qazvin, Sari, Karaj, Tabriz, Shahsavar, Orumieh, Bandar Abbas, Arak, and Birjend. In Gorgan, protestors broke into a Basij base and killed several IRGC officials, causing mass purges and attacks in the city. Since riot police are largely limited to Tehran, the IRGC and the Basij were dispatched to quell protests in other cities.
Reporters from the Italian state-owned television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes. Also several BBC cameramen were beaten and arrested by IRGC officials and had their tapes confiscated.
On the night between the June 14 and 15, 15 students were severely injured by beating or killed when police and basij attacked Tehran University dormitories. 120 faculty members of Sharif University of Technology resigned in protest of the alleged electoral fraud and began a protest against Ahmadinejad's re-election as President.
Protests were organized outside the United Nations in New York City; in front of the Iranian embassies in Paris, Berlin, London, and Iranian consulate in Sydney; and in a public square in Toronto. Protests also occurred in Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Dubai. Other protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, Paris, Berlin, London, Milan, Rome, Vienna, and The Hague. In addition, a large counter-demonstration celebrating the reelection of Ahmadinejad took place in central Tehran.
On June 15, Mousavi made his first post-election appearance, before supporters numbered at two million or more, at a rally in Tehran's Freedom Square, despite being warned by state officials that any such rally would be illegal. Shots were fired from a compound used by Basij pro-government militia, apparently killing seven demonstrators, after the crowd allegedly attacked the militia's compound. Iranian authorities arrested one man over the shooting. Besides this incident, the protest appeared peaceful. Several rallies of smaller scale took place in other Iranian cities.
Solidarity protests took place in Montreal at Place des Arts; in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where police fired tear gas to break up a protest at the city's United Nations building; in Chicago; and in Copenhagen.