Shah’s exiled son Reza Pahlavi accepts freedom prize for Iranian people amid backlash

FRANKFURT – The son of the ousted shah of Iran received on Nov 7 a “Freedom Prize” in Frankfurt awarded to the Iranian people in a ceremony that critics said was illegitimate.Greeted by thousands of demonstrators chanting their support and waving pre-revolutionary Iranian flags, Reza Pahlavi took receipt of the prize awarded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, an activist group close to the liberal FDP party.Iran “is a country not waiting to be taught democracy”, Pahlavi said at St Paul’s Church, famous for hosting Germany’s first-ever elected Parliament in 1848-1849. “This is a country being prevented from practising it.”“A people ready to die for the right to vote is willing to exercise the right to vote,” he added to applause.Anti-government protests broke out at the end of 2025 in Iran and were suppressed in a January crackdown by security forces that rights groups say killed tens of thousands.Pahlavi’s voice quivered as he spoke of the relatives of those killed, some of whom were present in the hall.“You could not have chosen a people who better understand the meaning of the word ‘freedom’,” he said.Pahlavi taking receipt of the prize was not welcomed by all, despite the visible support he enjoyed on the streets of Frankfurt.Pahlavi’s father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was the last shah of Iran, an autocratic ruler who fled into exile in 1979 ahead of a broad revolution that overthrew the monarchy and later became consolidated under Islamist clerical rule.Others criticise Pahlavi for his vocal support for Israel and what they say is insufficiently distancing himself from his father’s autocratic rule.‘Bygone dictatorship’About 200 prisoners held in Iran signed a letter protesting Pahlavi’s receipt of the prize, according to Sahar Sanaie, spokeswoman for the Society for German-Iranians in the state of Hesse, describing him a symbol of a “bygone dictatorship”.The Frankfurt branches of the centre-left SPD and Greens boycotted the event, arguing Pahlavi could not be considered a legitimate representative of the Iranian people.The Frankfurt branch of the far-left Die Linke said the church should not host the event, pointing to city statutes that prevent the place of worship from hosting political events.Speaking on Nov 7, Pahlavi said he was accepting the prize only as a “trustee” until a democratically elected government is in power in Iran.“I hold it only temporarily,” he said. “One day I will place it in the hands of its rightful owners, not on foreign soil but in the capital, Tehran.” AFP