Karim Sadjadpour:

I think the protests are significant. They are different than the major protests of 2009 in a few different ways.

Number one, in 2009, you had millions of people take to the streets. So far, we have seen in these protests tens of thousands. So the scale has been smaller.

But what's been larger than 2009 is the geographic scope. In 2009, it was mostly in the city of Tehran. These protests began in very religious cities, like Mashhad and Qom, and spilled over to smaller provincial cities. So the geographic scope has really been unprecedented.

And number three is that the slogans of these protests have been far more intense than 2009. In 2009, people were saying, where's my vote? They want their vote back.

This time around, people are calling for death to the supreme leader and end to the Islamic republic.