Reza Pahlavi the Shahs son the legitimate voice of the

Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s son, the legitimate voice of the protest movement in Iran?

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An online campaign to grant power of attorney to the US-exiled Iranian crown prince to represent the ongoing protest movement in Iran has picked up steam in recent days. And this while the debate between supporters and opponents of Reza Pahlavi and those who support him out of pragmatism is being nurtured so that the opposition to the Islamic Republic can be coordinated.

Prince Reza Pahlavi, son of the last Shah of Iran and heir apparent to the throne, has been in exile for 43 years and now resides in the United States. A fierce opponent of Iran’s theocratic regime, the 62-year-old prince could face a new twist in his struggle when an online petition aims to have him spokesman for the opposition.

It all begins on January 1, when a ragtag group of Iranian figures, including the crown prince, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad, simultaneously posted a message of hope on their social media.

“By organizing and standing together, 2023 will be the year of victory for the Iranian nation. The year of freedom and justice in Iran,” they wroteimplicitly pointing the way to a united front against the regime.

A regime that has for more than four months repressed the protest movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian girl, after her arrest by vice squads for violating the dress code.

While the United Nations has counted 14,000 arrests since mid-September, Norwegian NGO Iran Human Rights says at least 481 people have been killed and at least 109 people are at risk of execution in connection with the protests, in addition to the four already hanged.

A petition signed by more than 423 000 People

More than ten days after the Jan. 1 message, Reza Pahlavi gave an interview on Jan. 13 to Manoto TV, a royalist Iranian broadcaster based in London, in which he advocated the organization of free elections and the formation of a constituent assembly .

“Whatever we want to do, we have to have legitimacy in the country,” he said, however, when asked about his role in the opposition. When we have to negotiate on the ground with the international community on behalf of our compatriots, we need to be able to say that we are supported by political prisoners, civil society activists and political currents and intellectuals in the country who give us a proxy to to speak her name.”

Iranian actor Ehsan Karami, who lives in the US, was enough to start an online petition entitled “Prince Reza Pahlavi is my representative” on Change.org.

A short introductory text explains the process without mentioning a possible restoration of the monarchy: “In light of the revolution taking place in Iran and the fact that Prince Reza Pahlavi has asked the Iranian people to grant him full powers to lead this movement, this petition allows the Iranian people to express their opinion”.

Since then and to date, it has been signed by more than 423,000 people, including artists like Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo and athletes like football legend Ali Karimi, who gave his support “for a transition”, or taekwondo champion Kimia Alizadeh. the first Olympic medalist in her country’s history.

At the same time, the hashtag #من_وکالت_میدهم (#you_me_represents), launched by journalist Saeed Hafezi, is picked up by thousands of Iranians, who sometimes accompany their tweet with a photo of Reza Pahlavi.

Even former political prisoners like Amirhossein Moradi or relatives of victims killed by the security forces since the beginning of the protest movement have publicly supported Reza Pahlavi Nasrine ShakaramiMother of Nika, a protester who was killed in September aged 16.

An initiative that is causing debates in Iran and in the diaspora

For his part, Reza Pahlavi, in an interview granted to Skynews this week, affirmed “that he is not a candidate for office and is not aspiring to gain a political position in the state apparatus […].”

“I prefer to be a defender of the people […]. I have no aspirations for power or authority, he added, not without announcing that he plans to travel internationally in the coming weeks to discuss with officials and elected officials the steps to be taken in support of Iran.

Prior to this “digital referendum,” Reza Pahlavi’s name had rarely been mentioned in Iran since Mahsa Amini’s death, explains an Iranian academic, who asked for anonymity to speak freely. “But while his popularity and influence are difficult to measure, the Shah’s son is a well-known figure in the country,” he stresses. Also and especially among young people, thanks in particular to the considerable impact of television channels. Televisions like Manoto and Iran International, open supporters of the monarchy”.

While the petition had some success on social media, this initiative sparked debate in Iran and in the diaspora, as evidenced by the appearance of the hashtag #من_وکالت_نمیدهم (#tu_me_pas-représentes) or anti-Pahlavi in ​​Iranian streets.

“This initiative, and the idea that the Shah’s son could represent the opposition, has sparked a major debate between those who dispute his legitimacy because of the Pahlavi dynasty’s grave human rights record, and those who believe he is the only one among the Iranians are personalities to have the necessary aura to speak on behalf of the Iranian people,” the scholar continues.

Some even fear it could harm the movement in the sense that it could feed propaganda from the Iranian power, which often labels the protesters as “rioters” who are being manipulated by Iran’s “enemies” abroad.

“The Islamic Republic was quick to exploit the petition by minimizing its impact, pointing out that 400,000 signers cannot represent the opinion of the country’s 87 million inhabitants, or even ironic about the political weight of the Shah’s son,” said the academic in installed in France.

“She cannot represent the current movement alone”

Arrested, imprisoned and “systematically tortured” on numerous occasions in the 1970s when he was an active advocate of Iranian democracy and the left in academia, Ebrahim* therefore believes it is “not a good idea” to be entrusted with a role as spokesman for Reza Pahlavi.

“As a victim of the dictatorship of the Shah and the Savak [la police politique de la monarchie]”I cannot support such an option, even if Reza Pahlavi’s speech, who never distanced himself from his father’s record, seems clear and open to everyone,” explains the man who fled to France in the early 1980s fleeing the repression of the Revolutionary Guards: “He cannot and must not represent the current movement in the country alone, that is neither in his interest nor in ‘nobody’s interest’.

“After forty-three years of the Islamic Republic, I am ready neither to cling to the past nor to be left to my own devices, even if I almost died under torture, like some of my friends, or under that of Reza Pahlavi,” Ebrahim continues. The Shah’s son may, if he wishes, take part in such representation, provided that he pledges himself against any kind of foreign interference in Iran and to purge his entourage of those who show a spirit of revenge, but only in a plural framework by uniting with other personalities and not just a few celebrities.”

“Don’t confuse Reza Pahlavi with his father”

On the contrary, others believe that no avenue should be overlooked that would allow the opposition to organize and unite its ranks in order to effectively confront the Iranian regime and its machinery of repression.

“No politician will ever agree, but I remind you that Reza Pahlavi has written three books in which he recalls his father’s political legacy and denounces the human rights abuses that took place under the Shah’s rule,” confides France 24 Me Sahand an Saber, Franco-Iranian lawyer at the Paris Bar.

He describes himself as a supporter of Reza Pahlavi and a pro-democracy activist, calling for “the son of the 21st father of the 20th century”.

For Me Sahand Saber, the petition can allow Reza Pahlavi to know “if he is entitled to temporarily carry the voice of the Iranian people for a period of transition” and to allow Iranians themselves “to feed the debate who is entitled is to represent them”. The international community should also “know that there is a legitimate interlocutor” with whom it can speak.

Asked about the possibility that the initiative could involuntarily serve the interests of power in Iran, Mr Sahand Saber said he was confident because “Iranians are not naïve”.

“You are intelligent enough to distrust the official discourse of the ayatollah regime, which will obviously exploit this consultation,” he stresses. I also note that several personalities living in Iran have expressly pledged their support to Reza Pahlavi and signed the petition, which proves that his voice also carries on the spot.”

A heterogeneous opposition without a leader

For the academic quoted above, the petition and the debate it has sparked show that there is still no natural leader for the Iranian opposition. “And this despite the fact that, paradoxically, we in the Iranian public are beginning to come to the conclusion that a theocratic regime in Iran cannot work and that we are witnessing the beginning of unification of the opposition abroad and even inside Iran.”

According to him, Reza Pahlavi has so far failed to embody the alternative or create an organization influential enough to carry weight in the Iranian opposition. And not just because of the reservations about the monarchy that he embodies and that left “only good memories”. [en Iran]”.

“The repression of the Islamic regime has never allowed it to have relays on the ground, while the dispersal of Iranian forces between the republicans and the monarchists, the left and the right and those representing the minorities, everyone is divided over the future of are the country and even his past didn’t help him,” he deciphers.

And finally: “Despite the controversy, Reza Pahlavi remains objectively the best known and most imposing figure within this motley opposition, no other Iranian figure or organization can bear comparison with him.”

* The first name has been changed at the request of the person concerned.