One year on from the disputed presidential election of June 2009, Iranians who want to
criticize the Government or protest against mounting human rights violations face an evertightening
gag as the authorities and the shadowy intelligence services – shaken to the core
by the events which followed – consolidate their grip on the country and intensify the
repression already in place for years. Iranians have moved from protest to prison, as the
authorities resort to locking up hundreds of people in a vain attempt to silence voices
peacefully expressing a dissenting view to the narrative which the authorities wish to provide
of the election and its aftermath.