TEHRAN, Iran >> When they stepped through the gates of Tehran University last week, the student protesters had every expectation of igniting an impassioned rally against the government. After all, the university grounds had long been a flash point for demonstrations in the capital.

But this time, their exhortations went unheeded. “Proud Iranians, support us,” they shouted, only to find pedestrians walking by, looking to see what the commotion was about but declining to join the protesters.

The protests that broke out a week ago in the northern city of Mashhad have shown some signs of abating, but demonstrators are still taking to the streets after dark in many outlying provinces. Elite forces with the Revolutionary Guards Corps were deployed to three of them Wednesday — Hamadan, Isfahan and Lorestan — to help quell uprisings there.

The government took another step today to tamp down the uprising, staging pro-government rallies throughout the country and affording them generous coverage on state-controlled media.

But little of the action, either for or against the government, has found its way to the capital.

That stands in sharp contrast to 2009, when millions of middle-class people in Tehran erupted in anger over an election they saw as rigged, churning into the streets for months of anti-government protests that came to be called the Green Movement. But this time, as protests over the poor economy erupted in more than 80 cities over the past week and evolved into a condemnation of the political system and its clerical rulers, Tehran remained curiously muted.

To some extent, some say, it may reflect a divide between Iran’s urban and rural populations, with more sophisticated city dwellers dismissing the leaderless provincial protests as too violent and undisciplined.

Others see the chaos and violence in nearby Syria, and worry about what could happen if Iran suffered a similar breakdown in authority. Still others, having gone through the 2009 protests and the brutal repression that finally contained the uprising, say they are willing to work patiently to wring economic and political concessions from the clerical government.

“Maybe it’s the presence of security forces,” said Farhad, a 33-year cybersecurity expert who refused to give his surname for fear of reprisals by authorities. “Or maybe Tehranis are just not interested.”