IRAN AFFAIRS: After founding the Pahlavi dynasty, Emperor Reza Khan sought to reduce the influence of the Shia clergy and other religious authorities and to create a modern, centralized nation-state.
The Pahlavi family has been in the forefront of Middle East news for the past two months, as a focal point for anti-regime activists who have been protesting in Iran and across the world to denounce the Islamic Republic.
But how did this family rise to prominence, and why did it become such a popular image, even today, 47 years after the Islamic Revolution deposed it from the monarchy?
Almost 105 years ago, on February 21, 1921, a colonel in the Qajar Empire’s army, Reza Khan, leading the British-backed Persian Cossack Brigade, staged a coup against the weakening emperor.
The military, at the time, was dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of the Qajar ruling dynasty and, ostensibly, frustrated with the growing political instability and corruption within the empire, rode into Tehran and seized control of key government institutions. The emperor, Ahmad, was forced into exile, but not officially deposed.
Reza was appointed war minister and soon became prime minister, holding the real power behind the throne. By 1925, he was able to formally abolish the Qajar dynasty, founding the Pahlavi dynasty, with himself as emperor.
AN IRANIAN banknote (100 rials), issued in 1976 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Pahlavi dynasty. Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (right) and his father, Reza Shah Pahlavi. (credit: Apic/Bridgeman via Getty Images)
Despite his backing from the British, the emperor attempted to build a strong centralized state, modernize the military, and assert national independence, including working toward weakening the influence of foreign powers, with Britain and Russia particularly having held sway within the waning Qajar imperial state.
He also attempted to differentiate the new dynasty from the old by focusing on introducing a series of reforms that aimed to modernize the country’s legal, educational, and economic systems, while promoting secularism and nationalism.
Reza’s secularization of Iran
The Qajar dynasty was heavily influenced by the Shia clergy, with religious authorities playing a key part in government and society.
Reza’s reforms, post-founding of the Pahlavi dynasty, aimed to reduce the influence of the Shia clergy and religious authorities’ positions within government and society, and to create a modern, centralized nation-state modeled on Western legal systems, including state courts to weaken the power of religious courts.
The state also took over education and document registration, further weakening the Shia clergy that previously held this responsibility, and education was placed under secular state control, also removing the clerical monopoly over schooling and literacy.
Further, it banned the hijab and chador Islamic veils in 1936, and limited other public displays of religious faith and festivals. Critics, though, felt that some of these measures went too far.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi takes over from deposed father
In 1941, amid the height of World War II, Iran’s strategic location and resources made it a focal point for both the Allies and Axis powers. Reza had pursued a policy of neutrality during the war, but there was growing belief from the Allied powers that he might have been showing pro-Nazi Germany sympathies.
Both Britain and the Soviet Union held significant interests in Iran, including access to oil, becoming ever more important as mechanized warfare caused the resource demand to boom.
A poster featuring portraits of former Iranian monarchs alongside Reza Pahlavi is seen during a protest in The Hague, the Netherlands, last year. (credit: Giuseppe Pirrotta/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Fearing that Reza might align with Nazi Germany, London and Moscow pressured him to align with the Allies or step down. This led to a joint invasion on August 25, 1941, known as Operation Countenance, which aimed to secure Iranian oil fields and strategic transportation routes.
The Iranian military attempted to resist, but was overwhelmed, and the Allies gained control of major cities across the empire. Reza was forced to abdicate on September 16 and was exiled, with his son, Mohammad Reza, taking control of the empire at only 21 years old.
After World War II ended, the shah gained control over Iran’s domestic and foreign policies and was able to consolidate power and strengthen Iran’s ties with the US as the Cold War began, creating geopolitical splits across the world.
Mohammad Reza’s growth in power
From 1941, the shah had wide constitutional powers, including the ability to appoint and dismiss governments, influence legislation, and shape national policy.
However, after 1953’s Operation Ajax, where the US’s Central Intelligence Agency and the UK’s Special Intelligence Service (commonly known as MI6) deposed prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza’s power and authority grew. He was now able to oversee the consolidation of state power, weaken parliamentary checks, and use loyal security forces and intelligence services to suppress political dissidence and maintain control over the empire.
This included the notorious SAVAK agency, established in 1957, heavily criticized for its heavy-handed monitoring and suppression of anti-imperial elements of Iranian society.
Opposition parties, labor movements, and critics of the state were often banned and suppressed, with SAVAK reportedly spying on nationals both within the empire and in the diaspora in order to clamp down on dissidents, which also built growing dissatisfaction.
In addition, he continued his father’s work in reducing clerical influence, including imposing policies that restricted clergy from political roles, further curbing public religious authority. These included requiring clerical students to attend state universities and further reducing the acceptance of religious observances in public.
However, Mohammad Reza also promoted land reforms, industrialization, and social development, including via the White Revolution – a series of far-reaching reforms which began in 1963.
These reforms were intended to transform Iran into a modern, economically independent state and expand state institutions, education, and national infrastructure, aiding Mohammad Reza’s vision for a centralized and progressive empire.
Pahlavi emperors’ ties to Iran’s Jewish community
Iran has had a Jewish population with ancient ties to the region. Generally accepted under the pre-Islamic states, up to the Sassanid empire, the Jewish community faced some levels of persecution under Islamic Iran, including the Qajar dynasty, which the Pahlavi family deposed.
This is highlighted by how Reza shah, in visiting a synagogue in Isfahan, became the first emperor to stage an official visit to the Jewish community since before the Islamic conquest over 1,400 years earlier.
Under the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran’s Jewish community enjoyed greater rights and integration. Due to the nationalization of education and reduced control within the Shia clergy, Jews could now attend state schools, serve in the military, and participate in public life with full civil freedoms, as well as having the path toward other civic and professional opportunities open that were previously denied to them.
During Mohammad Reza’s reign in particular, especially after Mosaddegh’s deposition, Iranian Jews became one of the most economically prosperous and socially integrated populations in the region. By the 1970s, a vast majority of community members were part of the middle class or wealthy merchants, with many Jews proudly serving in medicine, academia, business, and political roles.
Islamic Revolution deposes Pahlavi
One of the acts of the suppression of Shia clerics by the Pahlavis included exiling Ruhollah Khomeini in 1964 to Bursa, Turkey, due to his opposition to the White Revolution.
Khomeini moved to Najaf, Iraq, a holy city within Shia culture due to its historical significance.
He became an inspiration for anti-regime activists and a focal point for 1979’s Islamic Revolution, returning to Tehran and taking over as the supreme leader.
The new Islamic Republic of Iran quickly reversed all reforms that weakened the Shia clergy, leading to a religious council holding the true power within the country, and a political body, including a so-called president and prime minister, holding very little actual power without approval from the supreme leader.
Mohammad Reza fled with his son, Crown Prince Reza, and died shortly after in July 1980. Reza took over as a significant focal point within the anti-Islamic Iranian society.
Living in exile for 47 years, he has been an outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic and has continuously called for the establishment of a secular and democratic state. He also has supported various opposition groups and dissident movements both within Iran and in the Iranian diaspora.
He has repeatedly argued that the current theocratic government is incompatible with the modern needs of the Iranian people, calling for separation of religion and state. He also repeatedly calls for highlighting the regime’s human rights violations, particularly against women and ethnic minorities.
In 2006, Pahlavi called to create a national council for Iran, which could bring together various political and civil organizations, including secular and religious factions, to work toward democracy. He has been careful not to hold anti-religious sentiments in public, only speaking out against the idea of a religious state rather than against Islam itself.
While the national council never materialized, it signified his commitment to bring together a wide umbrella of opinions to build a secular Iranian future for the benefit of all aspects of the population.
Pahlavi has also repeatedly called for stronger international action against the Islamic regime, calling on Western nations in particular to take a more active role against the regime, including through economic sanctions, diplomatic measures, and supporting civil society within Iran.
Pahlavi has continued in recent years to voice a vision for a “new Iran” where the state will be built on principles of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and a separation of religion and politics, including by empowering Iran’s younger generations and speaking out in favor of providing greater political freedom, educational opportunities, and a path toward democratic governance for young Iranians.
He has also critiqued the Islamic regime’s foreign policy, arguing that a democratic Iran would be far more suited to forging stronger international relationships, thus holding a stronger position within the wider international community.
In recent years, Pahlavi has proposed holding a referendum for the Iranian people to be able to decide which form of government it wants. He argues that the Iranian people should be given the opportunity to freely choose, and is being refused this right by a Shia clergy holding total control over the form of government.
Reza Pahlavi’s support for anti-regime protest movements
Pahlavi has been a vocal supporter of anti-regime movements and civil rights activists within Iranian society whenever they have been able to emerge.
The 2009 Green Movement, led by reformists within politics, led to tens of thousands of protesters calling for wider civil rights, after a controversial presidential election was perceived as being fraudulent.
The Green Movement protests started peacefully, and were the largest protests within Iran since the Islamic Revolution, but suppression, including hundreds of arrests, led to violence.
Pahlavi commented, “We don’t want our votes back; we want our country back,” reports at the time cited, adding later that the initial election controversy and subsequent suppression highlighted the “true nature” of the regime.
The 2017-2018 Dey protests, starting in Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s birthplace of Mashhad, erupted initially following a sharp spike in food prices, spreading to wider anti-regime protests over several issues. Both Pahlavi and his mother supported the protests from exile.
The 2019 fuel protests, often called Bloody November, was also triggered by economic concerns, as fuel prices rose by 50%-200% across the country. Pahlavi wrote on X/Twitter at the time that the regime brings only poverty and suffering to the Iranian people, and the only thing that the regime offers for free is “oil to its allies in the region,” referencing the regime’s support for then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad amid Western sanctions on Damascus.
Not all Iranian protests that Pahlavi has supported have been economic, however. When Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini died on September 16, 2022, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij paramilitary beat her for not wearing a hijab properly, violent protests erupted across the country. Pahlavi denounced the incident as murder and supported the Women, Life, Freedom movement within Iran and the diaspora.
In December, both political suppression and economic concerns caused protests to spread again across the Islamic Republic. Pahlavi quickly became a leader of the protest movement, using his influence to call for heightened protests.
This led to the height of the violence in early January, after Pahlavi called for a 48-hour period of intense protests. He further showed his influence last weekend, calling for the Iranian diaspora and supporters across the world to march in support of the ongoing protest movement.
Pahlavi’s influence highlights that he may be the only figure who could lead Iran into a new future. Having made public comments accepting the position as a transitional leader, the crown prince is a unifying figure for hope, highlighted by his ability to trigger intense protests both within Iran and across the world.