Iran | Iranians deserve better

Dubious goings-on in Frankfurt am Main: A man salutes with the Shah's uniform at his rally after the awarding of a prize in the Paulskirche. Photo: dpa/Boris Roessler Nobody authorized Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran, who was deposed in 1979, to speak and act for the Iranian people. But that's exactly what he did on Saturday in Frankfurt am Main, invited by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which presented him with a peace prize. A foundation that claims the big word “freedom” and is close to a party that de facto no longer exists in the political spectrum. It is a mystery as to which freedom the foundation means and which the Shah's son means. His father's authoritarian monarchy had just as little to do with "freedom" as the currently ruling Islamic Republic. Both regimes have the lives of thousands of Iranians on their conscience.

The jubilant Persians who traveled to Frankfurt in their thousands from all over Europe seem to have forgotten this as they pay homage to a man who is already struggling to recognize that Iran is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country in which minorities should enjoy special protection rights. The son never publicly distanced himself from his father's legacy, although his 37-year rule was marked by repression, torture, political persecution and the destruction of democratic institutions.

Critics of the Shah's protégés have not forgotten that he essentially invited the USA and Israel to bomb the country that he would one day rule again, and assured the demonstrators who died in January under gunfire from regime henchmen that the USA would soon come to their rescue. Reza Pahlavi wants to come to power, he is drawn back to the peacock throne of the Iranian monarchy, which is many times too big for the lay politician. He is seeking support for this from Western governments - and is finding quite a few open ears in Germany who want to see him as the straw that they have to cling to in the absence of an alternative: "He is the only opposition face that we know," said CDU politician Armin Laschet in April when he met Reza Pahlavi in ​​Berlin.

In Iran, no one needs a monarchy whose only goal is to restore the “greatness of the Iranian nation” and which promises vehement nationalism. This can be observed at every rally by Reza Pahlavi's sometimes aggressive supporters. The people of Iran suffering from the violence of the Islamic Republic deserve better.

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