Iranians are angry with their theocratic leadership under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In their biggest protests yet of an almost two-week movement sparked by anger over the rising cost of living, thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Friday, shouting slogans and marching through the streets after a call by the country's exiled crown prince for demonstrations, despite the theocratic leadership cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls.
Videos shared by activists on social media purported to show protesters chanting against Iran's government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas. The chants included "Death to the dictator!" and "Death to the Islamic Republic!"
Others praised the exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, shouting, "This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!" Such support of the shah could have brought in a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fuelling the protests that began over Iran's ailing economy.
The son of the last shah of Iran, ousted by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, US-based Reza Pahlavi, has called for Iranians to come out in large numbers against the Islamic regime in the country.
When Kings Ruled Iran
The Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran between 1925 and 1979, before the monarchy was overthrown during the Iranian Revolution, leading to the establishment of the Islamic Republic. During this time, Iran was ruled by kings in Western suits, who led the industrialisation of the Middle Eastern nation. During that time, historians say Iran's capital, Tehran, was so free and glamorous that it was called 'the Paris of the Middle East', where women walked the streets wearing short skirts instead of hijabs.
However, beneath that facade was the iron-fisted rule of the Shah and chronic corruption in favour of Western forces. The repression led to the king being overthrown by his people. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Pahlavi's father, was the last Shah of Iran before going into exile.
The Pahlavi dynasty was born not in royal blood, but on the battlefield. Reza Khan, a military officer of humble origins, rose through the ranks of Iran's Persian Cossack Brigade, formed in 1879 under Russian guidance. In 1921, he led a coup d'etat with the help of British officers who feared Soviet influence in Iran.
By 1925, the Qajar dynasty was overthrown, and Reza Khan was "selected" by the Majlis – an Arabic Islamic council – to be the next Shah. He adopted the name Pahlavi in honour of a mediaeval Persian ruler, launching a new monarchy with ambitions of modernisation and secular nationalism.
The Goods, The Bads And The Uglies Of Monarchy
Reza Shah initiated sweeping reforms such as Western-style education and dress codes, banning the veil for women in public, establishing a national bank, railway system, and a strong central state, limiting clerical influence in courts and schools.
But his rule was also autocratic. Political dissent was crushed, and the free press was muzzled. Still, many saw him as the father of modern Iran. But World War II changed everything.
In 1941, Iran's own allies invaded the country, fearing Reza Shah's closeness to Nazi Germany. British and Soviet forces forced him to abdicate in favour of his son, the 22-year-old Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The young Shah inherited a fragile throne, a divided country, and growing nationalist sentiment. During the decade that followed, Iranian oil, controlled by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), became a source of deep resentment. This led to a turning point in 1951, when the Iranian parliament elected Mohammad Mosaddegh as prime minister.
A fierce nationalist, Mosaddegh nationalised Iran's oil industry, directly challenging British control. This outraged Britishers and the Americans, who feared Iran would tilt toward the Soviets.
In 1953, America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) orchestrated Operation Ajax, a coup that removed Mosaddegh and reinstalled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with full control. This marked the beginning of absolute monarchy under the Pahlavis and also US dominance in Iranian affairs.
The Shah was no longer just a king. He was America's man in Tehran. In the 1960s, Mohammad Reza Shah launched the White Revolution, a series of top-down reforms meant to modernise Iran, like land redistribution to weaken feudal landlords, women's suffrage, literacy and health programmes for rural areas, industrialisation and military build-up. Iran saw economic growth, urbanisation, and a rising middle class.
Western culture spread rapidly, from fashion to film. But beneath the surface, clerics were alienated by secularism. Rural migrants flooded into cities without jobs.
Political parties were banned, and SAVAK, the Shah's secret police, silenced dissent with torture and fear. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then a relatively obscure cleric, condemned the Shah's westernisation and was exiled in 1964.
But the seeds of revolution had been planted. Rising inflation, inequality, authoritarian rule, and growing religious opposition culminated in mass protests in 1978. Despite his powerful military, the Shah hesitated to use full force.
By January 1979, the once-mighty monarch had fled Iran, never to return. On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile to a hero's welcome. Within weeks, the Pahlavi monarchy was dismantled. Iran became an Islamic republic under clerical rule.
Mohammad Reza Shah died in exile in Egypt in 1980, leaving behind a complex legacy.
The Nostalgia
Conveniently forgetting the autocratic rule, many Iranians, especially the youth, view the Pahlavi rule with nostalgia for its relative freedoms, prosperity, and global prestige. In recent years, the exiled Shah's son has reemerged as an opposition to the theocratic rule led by Khamenei. He was just 18 when the revolution forced his family into exile.
Educated in the West, Reza Pahlavi has spent decades advocating for secular democracy in Iran. The increasing scale of protests after this call represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by a Crown Prince, whose autocratic father fled Iran just before the country's Islamic Revolution.
