Iran, a country full of history and civilization, has witnessed three major social revolutions on the path to establish independence, freedom, and a state based on the rule of law and the people's vote.

However, to this day, despite vast efforts and grave sacrifices, the Iranian people have yet to reach this objective and been plunged into dictatorship each time.

The autocracies of Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Shah followed the shortcomings of the Constitutional Revolution, between 1905 and 1911, and the oil nationalization movement led by former Iranian prime minister Dr. Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1951.  The former led to a 16-year rule of dictatorship, and the latter, defeated by an American-British-led coup d'état in 1953, resulted in a 37-year period of tyranny. 

The massive yet shallow social revolution of 1979 against the Shah's dependent dictatorship, hijacked by Ruhollah Khomeini, the current regime's first supreme leader, destroyed all the Iranian people's hopes of finally establishing freedom and prosperity.

After 43 years, the Iranian society is restive and turbulent, on the verge of another revolution.

From the cities of Tabriz to Abadan, and Isfahan to Khuzestan, Shahr-e Kord and Bakhtiari, everywhere across Iran, there are indications proving such a case.  The ruling regime's senior leadership have no way of escaping these political, social, economic, environmental, regional, and international crises and cannot continue their rule with their past methods.  And the Iranian society will no longer accept the status quo.

The nuclear talks between the international community and Iran have reached a complete impasse.  Economic sanctions against the Iranian regime continue.  Social patience has come to an end, and there is no peaceful way out of this dilemma. 

The mullahs' theocratic regime has played all its cards to contain this restive society that has taken to the streets time and again in 1999, 2009, 2018, and 2019.

In December 2017 and January 2018, the Iranian people, by chanting, "Reformists, principalists!  Game over!," put an end to a long-running scheme between the regime's two factions aimed at deceiving the general public.

However, the mullahs' intelligence apparatus and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), as the regime's arms, maintain their rule intact through the heavy crackdown of social discontent and through exporting terrorism and instability throughout the region.

Now certain elements within the mullahcracy have launched a strange new initiative with the slogan of "Reza Shah, bless your soul!"  Their objective is to divert the current wave of social dissent by sending people searching for a new mirage: the revival of the monarchial rule in Iran.

Their focus is on infiltrating regime elements into the ranks of today's protesters, so even they have begin chanting this slogan.

The question is, why are the mullahs using a dead shah in their latest deceptive methods?  What is the goal behind this slogan that represents nothing, does not lead to the past, and provides no road to the future?

The answer is nothing but diverting the general public in search of a lost cause. As a result, those media outlets that provide coverage to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah, who was overthrown some 43 years ago, willingly or unwillingly, are helping the status quo.  This is tantamount to gross human rights violations in Iran, along with terrorism and instability across the Middle East.

The last living Pahlavi has no organization.  He has had no occupation throughout his life and has literally done nothing other than go on vacations with money stolen from the Iranian people.

Everyone knows that in Iran, there exists a powerful opposition in the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. secretary of state, recently visited the main base of this opposition. 

This opposition has a strong network expanded across Iran and, in recent months, in addition to its active presence in social protests, has infiltrated into the regime's state TV and radio networks; the websites of the mullahs' Ministry of Agriculture Jihad; and the network of security cameras, computers, and servers associated to the Tehran Municipality and Khomeini's Mausoleum.

This opposition also recently exposed a list of 33,000 personnel working in the regime's prisons, including the names of interrogators and torturers, coupled with a thorough list of prisoners across the country's prisons.

In the past 50 years, there has been a serious resistance movement in Iran led by the PMOI/MEK, Marxist groups, and local Kurdish organizations against the regimes of the Shah and Khomeini.  These are the true representatives of Iran's society, especially the powerful PMOI/MEK movement, and not Reza Pahlavi, representing the overthrown dictatorship of the past, which has now become a plaything of the mullahs' regime and the IRGC.

Chanting slogans for Reza Shah among Iran's protesters and promoting Reza Pahlavi abroad are meant to divert a part of the Iranian society, used to help quiet the current social unrest, but the next revolution in the making will not be easy and peaceful.

It is a democratic revolution that will without a doubt lead to freedom, democracy, prosperity, peace, friendship, and stability in Iran and across the region.

However, in the current circumstances, when the world is supporting the resistance in Ukraine, will the international community stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people and their resistance movement?  This is the question of every Iranian protester these days. 

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.