Reza Pahlavi, speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Political Thought & Leadership at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Picture by Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Four decades ago, on January 16th 1979, the last Shah of Iran left the country to the jubilation of millions of Iranians and the amazement of the world. Unnerved by massive protests, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had lost the will to fight for his crown and country. Two weeks later, the charismatic leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in triumph and embarked upon establishing his Islamic government. And yet, as the 40th anniversary of the 1979 revolution approaches, a spectre is haunting Iran, a spectre of monarchism.
Iran’s 2017 nationwide protests had some unique features, dissimilar to those of the previous mass protests against the 2009 ‘electoral coup’. Notably, the 2017 protests had neither leadership nor any immediate political demand, but a wholehearted political message was evident: the protesters rejected the Islamic Republic as a whole. Radical slogans, such as ‘death to Khamenei!’ (the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader) were chanted without hesitation. The protesters demonstrated absolute contempt for the Shia clerical establishment by chanting “people are paupers, while mullahs live like gods”. State-funded religious schools were attacked and set ablaze and about 60 offices of state-appointed Friday Imams were vandalized.
