Iran’s Tiananmen Square is unfolding in slow motion. The Iranian opposition movement has seized upon the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover on Nov. 4 to reignite their anti-government protests. They allege that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection was fraudulent.

Iran’s presidential election was held on June 12 with Ahmadinejad narrowly winning over his reformist opponent Mir Hossein Mousavi. The election was marred by various irregularities including a brief government shutdown of communications that might have helped opposition candidates.

Mousavi’s party, part of the Iranian Reform Movement, emphasizes secularism and democracy. This stance has put them at odds with Ahmadinejad’s incumbent, conservative, Abadgaran party.

The Guardian, quoting the Iranian watchdog Web site Ayandeh, reported that during the election some towns had voter turnouts as high as 132 percent. Because citizens may vote outside of their home districts, such numbers are possible, but still highly unlikely.

On June 13, Mousavi supporters took to the streets in massive demonstrations, many wearing green, Mousavi’s chosen campaign color. Some have optimistically termed the protests the Green Revolution, referencing Ukraine’s successful Orange Revolution in 2005.

Some analysts say that the opposition has undergone an ideological shift to opposing more than just the Ahmadinejad administration.

“It’s gone from anti-Ahmadinejad to more of anti-regime in general,” said Mustafa Alani, an analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, according to a Nov. 11 article by the Associated Press. “That’s an important shift.”

Now, with the embassy showdown of 30 years ago in mind, the opposition movement is also using the government’s anti-American rhetoric against them.

According to a Nov. 5 New York Times article, these recent opposition protests show an unusual amount of anti-Russian sentiment. Echoing its Cold War stance, Russia supports Iran’s Islamic regime. In a retort to the well-known propaganda message, “The American Embassy is a den of spies,” protesters outside the Russian Embassy chanted, “The Russian Embassy is the real den of spies.”

The New York Times also reported that amid the conflicting shouts of “Death to America” and “Death to Russia,” a third slogan rang out on the streets of Tehran: “Death to Nobody.”

Just as in June, police and volunteer Basij paramilitary forces have used force against demonstrators. Civilians wearing green armbands or headscarves on Tehran subways have been especially singled out, while police have used tear gas and riot batons to disperse crowds aboveground.

Coinciding with the protests, Oxford University in England has announced a new scholarship in honor of Neda Agha Soltan, an Iranian singer who was killed in the violence of the June protests. According to the BBC, Iranian officials have sharply criticized the scholarship, saying it politicizes Oxford as an academic institution.

Agha Soltan’s death by gunshot was recorded and broadcast worldwide via video-sharing sites such as YouTube. The video has now become a heart-rending icon for the protest movement. Online networking sites have also played a crucial role for protesters to organize meetings and distribute information.

However close the vote was between the two candidates, it is important to remember that a considerable portion of the country supports Ahmadinejad and the Islamic regime.

Meanwhile, the world watches as Iran convulses, a country coming to terms with its government and its strife.