There are protests in Iran again. But this time, something is different. In the uprisings of 2019, 2022 and 2023, the dominant slogan was negative: what Iranians did not want. ‘Death to the dictator’ echoed through the streets. Today, the country has moved beyond rejection. Now there is affirmation. A name is being chanted: Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

More than ten Iranian cities have risen up in recent days, from the most conservative quarters of society to elite universities. Across Iranian cities one hears slogans: ‘Pahlavi will return’, ‘Javid Shah’ – the Persian equivalent of ‘Long live the King’ – and simply, ‘King Reza Pahlavi’. For the first time since the revolution, Iranians are not merely denouncing a regime; they are articulating an alternative.

What does the renewed popularity of the Pahlavi name signify? Some context is helfpul. Last year, the Crown Prince, the son of Iran’s last Shah visited Britain, where he met Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Nigel Farage. In 2023, he travelled to Israel and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a remarkable vibe change for a country whose ruling ideology is premised on the destruction of Israel and names the street on which the British embassy is based Bobby Sands Street, after the IRA hunger-striker who died in a Northern Irish prison in the 1980s.

Iranians are once again resisting what Scruton called ‘the tyranny of evil mullahs’

The message Iranians are sending is disarmingly simple: we........

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