Who’s Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince encouraging demonstrations in Iran? : NPR

Because the Islamic Republic of Iran nears two weeks of nationwide demonstrations, the federal government in Tehran has acknowledged the protests whereas persevering with with a crackdown.

The demise toll from clashes between protestors and authorities safety forces had reached 116 as of early Sunday, with greater than 2,600 individuals detained, in accordance with the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists Information Company (HRANA). Among the many most distinguished cheerleaders for continued motion towards the federal government is Reza Pahlavi, son of the previous Shah of Iran, who has issued frequent messages encouraging protesters.

Iran’s legal professional common, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, introduced Saturday that contributors within the unrest can be thought-about an “enemy of God,” An announcement, carried by Iranian state tv, mentioned even those that “helped rioters” would face that cost, which carries the demise penalty.

The present wave of protests started on Dec. 28, following a collapse within the nationwide forex, the rial, which is at the moment buying and selling at over 1.4 million to the U.S. greenback and has misplaced half its worth since September. Worldwide sanctions have squeezed the economic system and the ensuing public grievances have prompted direct challenges to Iran’s theocracy.

In response, the federal government has mobilized safety forces and state-controlled media. State tv has broadcast pro-government rallies, whereas on the identical time surveillance footage launched by the federal government affiliated Fars information company depicted a protester in Isfahan allegedly firing a protracted gun as others lit fires and threw gasoline bombs at what gave the impression to be a authorities compound.One other government-affiliated information company with shut ties to Iran’s highly effective Revolutionary Guard pressure, Tasnim, reported that authorities had detained practically 200 individuals belonging to “operational terrorist groups,” alongside allegations these arrested had possessed weapons together with firearms, grenades, and gasoline bombs.

A divisive determine

Amid these occasions, Reza Pahlavi, the 65-year-old exiled crown prince and son of the late Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, has re-emerged as a number one determine within the numerous Iranian opposition actions. In messages shared on social media, Pahlavi spurred protesters onto the streets Thursday evening and Friday. He urged demonstrators to proceed public road protests over the weekend, carrying the nation’s outdated lion-and-sun flag and different nationwide symbols used in the course of the time of his father to “declare public areas as your individual.”

Regardless of being born in Iran, Pahlavi has lived in exile for practically 50 years.

Born in Tehran in 1960, he was appointed Iran’s crown prince till the overthrow of his father – who had inherited the throne from his personal father, a military officer who seized energy with help from the British. After efficiently using rising oil costs in the course of the Seventies, financial inequality had deepened over the last Shah’s rule, and his Savak intelligence company turned infamous for the torture of dissidents.

That Pahlavi dynasty resulted in 1979 when hundreds of thousands throughout the nation participated in protests towards the shah, uniting secular leftists, labor unions, professionals, college students, and Muslim clergy. Reza Pahlavi had left his homeland for flight college at a U.S. air base in Texas a 12 months earlier, in 1978, and subsequently noticed his father flee Iran in the course of the onset of what turned referred to as the Islamic Revolution, throughout which period Shiite clerics established a brand new theocratic authorities. After the demise of his father, a royal courtroom in exile introduced that Reza Pahlavi had inherited the monarchical position of Shah on Oct. 31,1980, his twentieth birthday.A frontrunner for a future Iran?

Pahlavi’s efforts to place himself as a pacesetter for a future Iran have prompted generally heated debates inside and out of doors the nation. And whereas protesters have shouted in help of the shah in some protests, it’s not clear whether or not that’s help for Pahlavi himself or a want to return to a time earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

His public help of Israel has prompted important criticism prior to now from odd Iranians and different members of opposition teams, significantly after the 12-day struggle launched by Israel in June 2025.

He has sought to have a voice by way of social media movies, and Farsi-language information channels akin to Iran Worldwide have highlighted his requires protests. In press interviews, Pahlavi has repeatedly raised the concept of a constitutional monarchy, maybe with an elected quite than a hereditary ruler, however has additionally said it’s as much as Iranians to decide on.