The 2009 Iranian election protests used moral, cultural, socio-organizational, human, and material resources in order to sustain the movement. Edwards and McCarth explain that there are various resources that social movements benefit from: 1) moral; 2) cultural; 3) socio-organizational; 4) human; and, 5) material.
Moral resources can provide legitimacy, solidarity support, sympathetic support, and celebrity (125). The 2009 Iranian election protests made use of moral resources through the support of the movement by former reformist president, Ayatollah Mohammad Katami. He publicly questioned the legitimacy of the government, furthering the Iranian election protesters’ legitimacy. Also numerous Grand Ayatollahs including Bayyat Zanjani and Yousef Sanei declared that the elections were fraudulent.
Cultural resources are resources that are available to a certain culture that increases the knowledge of certain aspects of society (126). First of all, the 2009 Iranian election protests drew off of aspects of the 1979 Iranian revolution. Protesters drew on the same tactics such as stopping work to hold peaceful stand-ins in bazaars and holding demonstrations in Tehran University on the anniversary of the 1999 student uprising. Also, the 2009 Iranian election protests made use of their technological knowledge. Iran has a large number of hackers and bloggers. The protesters made use of their technological advantages and participated in hacktivism and shut down Ahmadinejad’s web site. Iranians have experience doing this before since they had previously shut down the Israeli secret service website during the siege in Gaza in January. The Iranain protesters drew upon their cultural resources and tactical knowledge to help increase the impact of the protests.
The 2009 Iranian election protests also made use of socio-organizational resources. Socio-organizational resources are resources that provided a preexisting social organization, whether it be infrastructures, social networks, or organization (127). The protesters drew on both cyber organizations and social organizations within Iran. Iranian protesters made use of the cyber organizations such as Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is a social networking site that connects people from all over the world. Protesters started a group called “100 Million Facebook Members for Democracy in Iran: which currently has over 255,700 members. This allows for a large pool for mass mailings and updates of pictures and youtube videos from protests. The protesters also made use of Twitter. Twitter is another social networking sight for micro-blogging that allows easy translation tools and is decentralized so it is not easy for the government to block.
#IranElection was a trending topic on Twitter for over two months following the election. This meant that the hashtag #IranElection was on the front page of Twitter spiking interests with random users and foreign news media. Both Twitter and Facebook gave the protesters a way to easily and quickly share information wether it be about organizing an event or reporting about protests and government reaction.
Twitter also made use of the women’s movement, minority movements, and the labor movements when organizing. The women’s movement proved to be especially important since Mir Hossein Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, was a figure head for the movement. Rahnavard actively campaigned for her husband and even called Ahmadinejad a lier who humiliates women. Thewomen’s movement even came together in April and made a list of demands for the election. When their demands were not attended to and Ahmadinejad won the election, they became a valuable resource for the movement.
Human resources are the valuable resources individuals have such as labor, experience, skills, and expertise (128). The 2009 Iranian election protests highly benefitted from Mir Hossein Mousavi’s experience in the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Mir Hossein Mousavi was in influential figure in the 1979 Iranian Revolution, so influential, in fact, that he received the post of Prime Minister from 1981 to 1989 which is when the post was eliminated from the constitution. Mousavi understands the importance of the people in Iran and knew the tactics that were used when he participated in the 1979 Revolution. In the Presidential debates Mousavi called Ahmadinejad a lier when Ahmadinejad called himself a populist. Mousavi recognized the importance of the working class and by stressing the privatizations under Ahmadinejad’s rule, he helped mobilize the labor movement against Ahmadinejad.
The 2009 Iranian election protests made use of material resources in society which include property, money, office space, and supplies. The most influential material was that of Tehran University. Tehran University was the place where students organized demonstrations. Tehran University has always been the place where student movements mobilize. In 1999 there was a student uprising after the basij, under Ahmadinejad’s control, raided dormitories and killed 17 students for organizing to support Khatami in their dorm rooms. In the 2009 Iranian election protests, the dorm rooms once again became place where groups could organize.
The 2009 Iranian election protests were also influenced by previous movements. According to Nancy Whittier, there are various spillover effects of social movements including the frames, collective identities, and tactics the movement uses (538). The main movement that influenced the 2009 Iranian election protests was the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
First of all the protesters made use of the religious framing used by the 1979 Iranian Revolution. “Allah Akbar” meaning “God is Great” was commonly used at protest events. This phrase was used in the Revolution and numerous protests all over the Middle East. This phrase is used to show that God is on the side of the movement giving the movement supreme legitimacy.
The protests also made use of national identity over racial identity. This was also used in the Revolution to unite the country. The 2009 Iranian election protests did not separate men from women or Kurds from Pursians. This allowed the movement to unite the entire country against Ahadinejad rather than just portions of it.
Finally the protests made use of the different tactics used by the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Mousavi was an organizer for the Revolution so he had intimate knowledge on the way to organize the protests First of all, the 2009 Iranian election protests held stand-ins at the Grand Bazaar. These protests stop trade and slow down the economy and provide a visual element of support to those who are going to the Bazaar to shop. In the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the Grand Bazaar shut down for weeks. At the time, the Grand Bazaar was responsible for 30% of the import trade. The protests at the Grand Bazaar were vital to the overthrow of the Shah. The 2009 Iranian election protesters made use of these same tactics and help mass stand-ins at the Grand Bazaar.
To conclude, the 2009 Iranian election protests made use of numerous internal resources. These resources included moral, cultural, socio-organizational, human, and material resources. Also, the 2009 Iranian election protests were influenced by previous social movements, most notably, the 1979 Iranian Revolution. They borrowed the tactics, the collective identities, and the framing tools used by the Iranian Revolution to further their cause.
