BBC | By Jon Leyne
Twelve months on from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s bitterly disputed re-election, Iran is both back to normal and changed forever.
The opposition protests that brought millions out on to the streets have petered out. Opposition supporters seem disillusioned, not just with their own government but with the opposition leadership as well.
The two main opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have called off protests planned for the weekend, saying they do not want to cause the loss of innocent lives.
The government continues to insist that all the trouble was caused by a tiny handful of foreign-inspired rioters and troublemakers.
But they betray their sense of insecurity by their endless succession of warnings and triumphant declarations about how they have vanquished the enemy.
Witnesses say the streets of Tehran have been flooded for days with unprecedented numbers of police and members of the security forces. The odds are stacked against anyone who still wants to go out and protest.
After the government’s initially hesitant response to the demonstrations last summer, the apparatus of repression has been honed and hardened.
Monitoring of the internet and phones has risen to new levels, making it ever harder to receive reliable information out of the country. Opposition supporters and journalists continue to be arrested.
Even Iranian exiles have become steadily less willing to speak out, as they continue to receive threats from the intelligence services and the Revolutionary Guards back in Iran.