Pahlavi stated that Iranian society has come a good distance from the times of “male chauvinism”

Washington:

The son of the late shah hailed Iran’s mass protests as a landmark revolution by girls and urged the world so as to add to the strain on the clerical management.

Reza Pahlavi, whose father was toppled within the Islamic Revolution of 1979, known as for larger preparation for a future Iranian system that’s secular and democratic.

“It is truly in modern times, in my opinion, the first revolution for the women, by the women — with the support of the Iranian men, sons, brothers and fathers,” Pahlavi, who lives in exile within the Washington space, instructed AFP.

“It has come to the point, as the Spaniards would say, basta — we’ve had enough.”

Demonstrations have swarmed main cities, with dozens killed, since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died on September 16 within the custody of Iran’s infamous morality police, allegedly for breaching the strict necessities that ladies put on headscarves in public.

While additionally condemning discrimination towards minorities and the LGBTQ group, Pahlavi stated, “The symbolism of today’s repression is represented by women.”

“I think most Iranian women, when they look at the freedoms that women in the free world experience and exercise, are asking for the very same rights for themselves,” he stated.

His grandfather, Reza Shah, banned all Islamic veils in 1936 as a part of a Westernization drive impressed by neighboring Turkey.

The final shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, let the veil be a selection — which ended when the Islamic republic imposed necessities for ladies’s “modesty” in public.

Pahlavi, the daddy of three daughters, stated that Iranian society has come a good distance from the times of “male chauvinism” and that ladies’s decisions ought to be revered.

“Women may decide to wear or not wear the veil. But it ought to be a choice, a free choice, not imposed for ideological or religious reasons,” he stated.

Separation between church and state

Pahlavi, whereas having fun with respect in a lot of the exile group, says he’s not searching for to revive the monarchy, an concept that has restricted assist inside Iran.

Working with the abroad opposition, Pahlavi favors a constituent meeting that will write a brand new structure.

“There’s no way you can actually have a true democratic order without a clear definition and separation of church from state,” Pahlavi stated.

The Islamic republic has survived greater than 4 many years regardless of dissent and antipathy from the West, significantly the United States.

But Pahlavi insisted that the system may finish at any time — and that the world wanted to be prepared.

“We need to consider the high possibility that this regime will not exist for long,” he stated.

“I’ve been saying for some time — it could happen in a few weeks or a few months, and we need to think of the alternative.”

Pahlavi stated that there ought to be a “controlled implosion” with a easy, peaceable transition.

He praised a lot of the robust worldwide feedback on the protests, together with from Germany and Canada.

But he known as for extra motion together with the expulsion of diplomats and freezing of belongings.

“It’s important for more than just giving moral support. These are the kinds of measures that are impactful,” he stated.

He renewed his name for a strike fund to compensate staff, hoping that the nationwide demonstrations may remodel right into a common strike.

Pahlavi, whereas supporting diplomacy, voiced misgivings over a possible return by the United States to the 2015 nuclear deal below which Iran would once more be enable to promote oil overtly on international markets.

Western powers usually imagine they will “create an incentive for the regime to change its behavior, so we can drag them back to be good boys and behave,” Pahlavi stated.

But the Islamic republic, he stated, is rooted in exporting an ideology.

“With this regime, you cannot you cannot have a coexistence.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)