Back to the Future a Persian Prince ?

It’s been forty-seven years since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled Iran to escape the Iranian revolution and the consequences of his autocratic rule and government corruption while suppressing political dissent and the use of the Savak secret police to stamp out any opposition to his rule.

Mohammad Reza’s control became increasingly despotic; his will was law and would brook no dissent. By 1978, the Shah’s government was disintegrating, and once he lost the army’s support, the writing was on the wall. On January 16, 1979, he ignominiously fled the country with a few loyal satraps, never to return.

Iran was then in the hands of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini Iranian cleric, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, creating a pervasive cult of personality that still overshadows every walk of life in Iran today.

Four decades later, and the best opposition figure to the Mullahs’ rule in Iran is the son of the late Shah, Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince of Iran in waiting. Surely the majority of Iranians must have their doubts about a return of the Pahlavis to Teheran. Is there such a dearth of serious potential leaders to choose from that the country has to go back to the future, a Persian Prince?

More on this unfolding story to come…!