Iran:
Reza Pahlavi, Like Father, Like Son

January 19, 2026

This article is translated from the January 16 issue, #2998 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the Trotskyist group of that name active in France.

Reza Pahlavi is the son of the Iranian king (shah) who was deposed in 1979. Since the uprising started, he has been trying to sally forth from his gilded exile in the U.S. and present himself as an alternative to the ayatollahs’ regime. Media outlets show some protesters holding portraits of him and chanting, “Pahlavi, come back.”

Some of these images are doctored and spread by pro-American and pro-Israeli networks. While the shah undoubtedly has supporters, most of them are outside the country, in the diaspora. Maybe now some people see no other alternative to dictatorship and are pivoting to the solution he proposes. But until recently, he had very little support. For good reason.

The monarchy of the Pahlavi family was a regime serving imperialism. Reza Pahlavi’s father came to power during World War II, when the U.S. and Great Britain were dividing up oil resources. In 1953, liberal Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh tried to nationalize Iran’s oil. The CIA orchestrated a coup against him, with the shah’s support, and effectively neutralized nationalists who opposed U.S. interests. For several decades, the shah’s regime with its American-equipped army served as the U.S.’s primary policeman in the Middle East—even more than Israel.

The dynasty presented itself as modernist. But political opponents were hunted down, tortured by SAVAK, the political police notorious worldwide for its brutality, and “disappeared” without a trace. Activists from the numerous workers’, socialist, and communist organizations in Iran were among its principal victims. SAVAK terrorized the population to such an extent that it was unthinkable even to joke about the regime without fear of being turned in.

The regime modernized the country in the name of a “white revolution,” developing industry for the benefit of Western capitalists, harshly exploiting workers, and deepening inequality. In 1971, the shah celebrated the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian (Iranian) empire at the site of its ancient capital Persepolis. To welcome heads of state from around the world, he ordered fountains built, flowers flown in from the Netherlands, and 25,000 bottles of wine and more than 300 pounds of caviar carried to the middle of the desert. Poor people were evacuated tens of miles away, so the sight of their abject poverty would not disturb guests at the celebration.

The shah’s pro-American dictatorship ultimately turned the entire population against it, from workers and merchants to small farmers and the urban poor—as well as all political organizations, from leftist parties to supporters of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1979, a massive uprising overthrew the monarchy. But the uprising was channeled by Khomeini’s men, with the complicity of imperialist leaders who helped him return from exile. Leaders of left-wing parties presented Khomeini to the masses as the man they should trust.

The man who presents himself today as an alternative is the heir to this deeply unequal monarchy which was a devoted agent of imperialism and ferocious toward its opponents. Reza Pahlavi grew up in exile in the U.S. and Switzerland. He never disavowed this heritage. He finds support among the far right worldwide. Trump cautiously keeps his distance. But Pahlavi is backed by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, butcher of Palestinians, who makes state resources available to promote him.

A return of the Pahlavi dynasty to power could only become another dictatorship, just as brutal against the exploited, and in the service of imperialism. People in Iran who stand against the ayatollahs and the shah know this well.