Even in Paris, many of them give him “your majesty” when they address Reza Pahlavi. On his presentation card, the word “prince” precedes his name. At 62, the son of the last Shah of Iran and heir to the Pahlavi dynasty has not lost his letters of nobility for everyone, despite the fall of his father during the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Today, after six months of revolt in Iran, Reza Pahlavi “comes out of the woods” and tries to become the face of the opposition in exile. On tour in Europe, he was in Paris this week to meet the media and political world, and make known his strategy to overthrow the mullahs in Tehran.
Reza Pahlavi has not set foot in Iran since 1978. At the time, the Shah’s son passed his pilot’s license in the United States, where he still lives today. “Not a day goes by that I don’t come into contact with a political prisoner or with civil society in Iran,” explains the elegant sixty-something man, sky blue tie and white hair gathered back. Since January 1, his supporters have launched a vast online campaign so that this heir to the Iranian monarchy embodies resistance to the Islamic regime, with the message “Prince Reza Pahlavi is my representative”. For this, the Shah’s son blended into a group of personalities, ranging from Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi to feminist activist Masih Alinejad. A online petition has already collected more than 450,000 signatures to name him spokesperson for the movement.
The symbol of a nostalgia for pre-revolutionary Iran
In recent weeks, as demonstrations have become rarer in Tehran, tags bearing his name have appeared on the walls of the Iranian capital. “I think I have an important role, perhaps because my political capital is more important than others, and I choose to use it,” says Reza Pahlavi in perfect French, without announcing his ambitions frontally. “The fact that his name, Pahlavi, is known allows him to have a certain notoriety inside Iran, explains Clément Therme, associate researcher at the International Institute of Iranian Studies and lecturer at Sciences- Po Paris. He benefits from a form of nostalgia in relation to the country’s downgrading. Before the 1979 Revolution, Iran had the level of economic development of South Korea, whereas today the official discourse is say that Iran will not become Syria.”
Very discreet during his 40-year exile, the Shah’s son has been leading an intense media campaign for almost two months. A sign that he is starting to count in the landscape, he was invited to speak at the Munich conference last week, even though no representative of the Iranian state had been invited. His presence angered Tehran, which denounced “a sign of contempt for the great Iranian nation”. “For the first time since the Islamic Revolution, the Western world is beginning to speak to those who represent the democratic alternative”, savors Reza Pahlavi, permanently supervised by two bodyguards.
The last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, at his wedding to Farah Diba on December 21, 1959 in Tehran
© / afp.com/-
Despite the mobilization in sharp decline in the Iranian streets, the “prince” in exile keeps faith in what he calls “the Women’s Revolution”. For this, he argues very concretely, the demonstrators need access to a more developed Internet, in particular thanks to Elon Musk’s Starlink system (with which Pahlavi says he is discussing “indirectly”), but also a funds for the strikers. “Strikes are the best way to paralyze the regime, assures Reza Pahlavi. The movement is still alive, standing, and we can see the end of this regime in the next few months. We want maximum measures for a controlled implosion of the regime, then a transition.”
An ambiguity about the authoritarian regime of his father
If this “implosion” were to take place, the Shah’s heir cast doubt on his desire to restore a monarchy and agitated the vague, but according to him “innovative” concept of “elective monarchy”. “We want to establish a meritocratic and democratic system, whatever the authority on which it is based. The question must be studied”, he avoids, insisting on the determining role that a constituent assembly would have at the fall of the Islamic regime, relying on the precedents of the Nuremberg trials to judge the crimes of Nazi Germany or the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. “Even Ali Khamenei, who has nevertheless committed crimes against humanity in my opinion, must have the right to a fair trial,” said Reza Pahlavi.
The descendant of the Pahlavi dynasty is far from unanimous in the Iranian opposition. They are numerous to reproach him for a certain ambiguity on the crimes committed by the regime of his father and the authoritarian drift of the latter. When The Express questions him about the past and the abuses committed by his family, Reza Pahlavi prefers to talk about the future. “I spent 40 years in free countries, with institutions that help prevent the abuse of power, trying to reassure the heir. During the time of my father’s reign, liberalization was restricted, but the time has changed: even some who overthrew it in 1979 recognized that it would have been more a reform of the system, rather than a revolution.
The path promises to be still long before Reza Pahlavi can even set foot in Tehran, so much does the regime and the Revolutionary Guards seem to retain control over all the levers of power in Iran. “To consider the question of the future, it would first be necessary for the regime in place to go bankrupt, which for the moment is science fiction, believes Clément Therme. The future role of Pahlavi is envisaged by his supporters as a transition, it is not a question of organizing a return to the old regime but of presenting a transition council to get out of the current obscurantism.
After all, Iran’s history is full of unlikely political scenarios. A few months before the 1979 revolution, few would have bet on a seizure of power by Ayatollah Khomeini, exiled abroad for 14 years before settling in France in 1978. At the time, a year before his return triumphant in Tehran, the future Supreme Guide had chosen to settle in the Parisian suburbs because, according to him, the French capital was the ideal place to publicize his political cause… Something to inspire some people today.