| Description: | protesters flooded the streets of Iran's major cities today accusing the government of The last time Iran had street demonstrations this big was 30 years ago In 1979 Iranians deposed US-backed dictator Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and established the Islamic Republic"These are the most in the history of the Islamic Republic over the past 30 years" said Afshin Molavi a former Reuters journalist who is now a scholar at the New America Foundation a Washington DC-based nonprofit nonpartisan public policy instituteMolavi called the demonstrations "eerily reminiscent in terms of numbers of the demonstrations that led to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran"The revolution gave Iran an elected president But real power actually rests in the hands of Iran's Shiite Muslim clerics led by The handpicked successor to the ayatollah who led the revolution Khamenei has sweeping powersHe has absolute authority over the institutions of government including the judiciary and the armed forces He appoints mili |
