15.10.2003 - Source: International Crisis Group

15.10.2003 - ICG: Popular interest in Shah’s eldest son Reza Pahlavi ("Iran: Discontent and Disarray") [#16759],  [ID 8363]

"The opposition figure generating the most curiosity in Iran at this time appears to be 42-year-old Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah’s eldest son and a resident of suburban Washington. In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, Pahlavi began appearing regularly on the Los Angeles-based Persian language satellite television, articulating his vision of a democratic and secular Iran and saying he would like to serve as a “catalyst” for change. His message seems to have resonated somewhat among disaffected youth, who have no recollection of the
corruption and brutality of his father’s regime, as well as middle and working-class Iranians who recall an era of higher living standards and greater social freedoms. “The only thing he has going for him”, said one Iranian historian “is the politics of nostalgia”. Indeed, interest in Pahlavi is probably best interpreted as a symptom of the depth of discontent with the current order rather than a genuine desire to see him lead the nation."

Document(s): Open document

11.2001 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

00.11.2001 – ACCORD: No activities of monarchist groups inside Iran ("7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11 - 12 June 2001: Final Report - Iran") [#7661],  [ID 8364]

"Although often Iranian asylum seekers claim to have carried out activities for either nationalist or monarchist groups inside Iran (distributing pamphlets, putting up posters, organizing resistance etc...) there is no evidence of any such activities inside Iran. Occasionally urban professionals such as lawyers or doctors who have a fax machine
receive unwelcome and unsolicited fax messages from abroad with monarchist or secular nationalist messages.

There are, however, numerous monarchist splinter groups in many of the European countries, that have lost all sense of reality with respect to Iran. Some are not more than coffee gatherings, others try to pursue some structured activities with members, admission fees, occasional publications, contact with the exile community and with recent arrivals from Iran, some are slightly more active such as the Derafsh-e Kaviani
led by former Minister Manouchehr Ganji, but in fact none of these organizations are known in Iran or have activities inside the country."

Document(s): cois2001-irn.pdf