The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, left the country on a journey to exile on January 16, 1979. Less than a month later, on February 11, the popular revolution triumphed and closed the book of monarchy. The day the Shah left was perhaps the happiest day in my life up to that point. I was at my university campus, Tehran Polytechnic, when the news arrived. I lit a cigarette, another bad habit of teenage years, and left the campus aimlessly just to join the joyous crowds. I had never seen an entire nation so exceptionally jubilant, deeply ecstatic, profoundly euphoric. People were holding up the front page of various newspapers, all of which read, in the largest font that could fit the page, the words “Shah Raft” (The Shah is Gone!).

Traffic was at a total halt, many turned on their wipers with wiper arms separated from the front windshield in a dancing mode. Many cut out the image of the Shah from the Riyal bills, looking at the festive marches from the hole they had cut in the money. There were no guns on the streets. Soldiers held their fire, facing the unremitting flood of the masses with smiles on their faces, hoping that the martial law and their deployment to the streets of big cities was inching to an end. Strangers hugged each other in solidarity and with the realization that they, we, had done the impossible, forced the man who commanded the fifth largest army in the world into exile. After that day, we all waited for the final collapse of the regime, which came with the military’s declaration of neutrality on this day, forty-seven years ago.

A few weeks ago, a considerable number of demonstrators in Iran chanted Long Live the Shah! and called for the return of his exiled son to the throne. Although from its reflection in the mediascape one might conclude otherwise, the call was not by any measure all-encompassing on the ground. Nevertheless, reconciling the mass euphoria of the Shah’s departure with the call for his return under the barrage of bullets, regardless of how extensive or small the call, after almost half-a-century seems impossible to comprehend. Especially since the call for the return of monarchy sounds unapologetically fascist, with the promise of a bloodbath of all those who raise voices against their agenda.

In late December 2025, peaceful protests against the rising cost of living, skyrocketing inflation, and the free fall of the........

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