• Listen to this segment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after a much disputed presidential election on June 12th, was inaugurated earlier this week in Tehran with several members of parliament and senior officials boycotting a ceremonial endorsement by Ayatollah Khamanei. The two main opposition candidates in last June’s election, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, as well as former Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also decided against attending the event which was not televised on Farsi television channels in Iran. Protesters had attempted to assemble but were dispersed by authorities. But since the inauguration, they have once more taken to the streets in smaller numbers denouncing Ahmedinejad’s election as fraudulent and keeping his government on edge. Meanwhile, a trial of reformist activists and dissidents accused of directing the massive protests this past June, that came to be known as the “Green Revolution” has resumed this week. Defendants include former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Mohsen Mirdamadi, the secretary-general of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, and Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Laureate. The trial has been roundly criticized as similar to those under Stalin’s Russia in the 1930s.

GUEST: Muhammad Sahimi, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California and a regular columnist for Tehranbureau.com.