Ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Feb. 21, Iranian hard-liners find themselves facing an unprecedented challenge: the emergence of a group with left-leaning tendencies spawned inside its own conservative camp.

The mostly young activists of the Justice Seekers current are practically communists in the eyes of their former friends on the far-right. In the latters' eyes, the Justice Seekers represent a threat in their willingness to cross certain redlines. As a result of some of the group's actions, two of its senior members have been barred from running in the elections, and two other prominent members were arrested Feb. 11, perhaps as a warning, given that they were quickly released. The hard-liner-controlled security apparatus has reportedly forced the Justice Seekers to cancel a number of campaign events they had planned.

Over the past two decades, conservatives had sought to develop a large presence at universities by winning the hearts and minds of students, with the added advantage of also being able to rally a significant number of youths when desired to protest against the Reformists and Reformist-backed governments. To this end, “justice-seeking” groups and associations began organizing in 2004. During the tenure of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), new currents were instructed to engage students to support the hard-liner president.

In the past few years, some who called themselves Justice Seekers apparently decided to distance themselves from the extremists, noting contradictions and possible hypocrisy in the hard-liner camp. They had always been told that the other, rival currents, including the Reformists, were corrupt, but discovering corruption within their own camp opened their eyes, leading them to part ways with the founding fathers of conservatism.