\nA 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)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After World War II ended, the shah gained control over Iran\u2019s domestic and foreign policies and was able to consolidate power and strengthen Iran\u2019s ties with the US as the Cold War began, creating geopolitical splits across the world.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Reza\u2019s growth in power<\/h3>\n From 1941, the shah had wide constitutional powers, including the ability to appoint and dismiss governments, influence legislation, and shape national policy.<\/p>\n
However, after 1953\u2019s Operation Ajax, where the US\u2019s Central Intelligence Agency and the UK\u2019s Special Intelligence Service (commonly known as MI6) deposed prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, Mohammad Reza\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In addition, he continued his father\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
However, Mohammad Reza also promoted land reforms, industrialization, and social development, including via the White Revolution \u2013 a series of far-reaching reforms which began in 1963.<\/p>\n
These reforms were intended to transform Iran into a modern, economically independent state and expand state institutions, education, and national infrastructure, aiding Mohammad Reza\u2019s vision for a centralized and progressive empire.<\/p>\n
Pahlavi emperors\u2019 ties to Iran\u2019s Jewish community<\/h3>\n 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Under the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
During Mohammad Reza\u2019s reign in particular, especially after Mosaddegh\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Islamic Revolution deposes Pahlavi<\/h3>\n 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.<\/p>\n
Khomeini moved to Najaf, Iraq, a holy city within Shia culture due to its historical significance.<\/p>\n
He became an inspiration for anti-regime activists and a focal point for 1979\u2019s Islamic Revolution, returning to Tehran and taking over as the supreme leader.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s human rights violations, particularly against women and ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pahlavi has continued in recent years to voice a vision for a \u201cnew Iran\u201d 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\u2019s younger generations and speaking out in favor of providing greater political freedom, educational opportunities, and a path toward democratic governance for young Iranians.<\/p>\n
He has also critiqued the Islamic regime\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Reza Pahlavi\u2019s support for anti-regime protest movements<\/h3>\n Pahlavi has been a vocal supporter of anti-regime movements and civil rights activists within Iranian society whenever they have been able to emerge.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pahlavi commented, \u201cWe don\u2019t want our votes back; we want our country back,\u201d reports at the time cited, adding later that the initial election controversy and subsequent suppression highlighted the \u201ctrue nature\u201d of the regime.<\/p>\n
The 2017-2018 Dey protests, starting in Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201coil to its allies in the region,\u201d referencing the regime\u2019s support for then-Syrian president Bashar al-Assad amid Western sanctions on Damascus.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pahlavi\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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