In a column published on The Globe and Mail on March 11, with comments closed,  Kaveh Shahrooz, a Toronto-based fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute sought to delegitimize millions of Iranians, portraying their support for Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi as manipulated, artificial, or the product of shadowy influences. This framing does not analyze the opposition; it dismisses the very people risking imprisonment, torture, or worse to call for change. Across Iran and throughout the diaspora, these are citizens expressing genuine political convictions—voices that deserve recognition, not skepticism rooted in bias or convenience.

When commentators sitting comfortably in Western policy circles attempt to explain Iran’s opposition movement, they often reveal more about their own prejudices than about the reality inside Iran.

The latest example by Kaveh Shahrooz questioning the rise of support for Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi. His argument is not merely skepticism about one political figure. It is something far more troubling: a thinly veiled dismissal of the millions of Iranians who have chosen to rally around him.

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