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The late shah’s son praised Iran’s widespread demonstrations as a historic revolution by women and urged other nations to exert more pressure on the country’s clerical leadership. Reza Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, called for more work to be done in order to prepare for a secular and democratic Iranian system in the future. It’s reached the point where we’ve had enough, or basta as the Spaniards would say.
Since Mahsa Amini, 22, died on September 16 while being held by Iran’s notorious morality police, allegedly for violating the country’s strict laws requiring women to wear headscarves in public, protests have erupted in major cities, leaving dozens dead.
“The symbolism of today’s repression is represented by women,” Pahlavi said, condemning prejudice against minorities and the LGBTQ community.
In 1936, Reza Shah, his grandfather, outlawed all Islamic face coverings as part of an effort to modernize the country in the vein of neighboring Turkey.
The last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, allowed women to choose whether or not to cover their faces in public; however, this practice came to an end when the Islamic republic imposed similar rules.
Pahlavi, the father of three daughters, asserted that gender equality and respect for women’s choices have come a long way in Iranian society since the time of “male chauvinism.”
Church and state separation
Pahlavi, who is well-liked in the majority of the exile community, claims he is not attempting to reinstate the monarchy, a position with scant domestic support.
Pahlavi supports a constituent assembly that would draught a new constitution in collaboration with the international opposition.
Despite opposition and hostility from the West, especially the United States, the Islamic republic has endured for more than 40 years.
However, Pahlavi insisted that the world needed to be prepared because the system could collapse at any moment.
According to Pahlavi, there should be a “controlled implosion” and an orderly transition.
Many of the vehement international responses to the protests, such as those from Germany and Canada, were praised by him.
But he also demanded other measures, such as the freezing of assets and the deportation of diplomats.
In the hopes that the widespread protests would lead to a general strike, he reiterated his request for a strike fund to pay workers.
Pahlavi expressed concerns about a hypothetical US return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, which would allow Iran to once more sell oil openly on international markets, even while he supported negotiation.
According to Pahlavi, Western leaders frequently think they can “provide an incentive for the dictatorship to change its behavior, so we can drag them back to be good guys and behave.”
However, he claimed that the Islamic republic’s foundation is the exportation of an ideology.
