The New Statesman: My father Reza Pahlavi, the shah’s heir, has put forward a framework that Iranian come from a family that dreamed boldly, and fought relentlessly to turn those dreams into reality. My grandfather, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – the former shah of Iran – sought to build a modern and thriving nation through sweeping reforms that would improve the standard of living, expand education and women’s rights, and secure Iran’s place among the world’s great nations. My father, Reza Pahlavi, has long hoped to see Iran’s people choose a democratic, secular and prosperous future grounded in dignity and human rights. For many years, I assumed those dreams would never be fulfilled. In a world where honour is often treated as a liability and power is often pursued without restraint, I came to doubt that integrity could prevail. The past weeks have changed that belief. For 47 years, my father has stood for Iran in exile while entire regimes and powerful interests sought to weaken, erase or discredit him. And yet, when the moment came, Iranians poured into the streets chanting, protesting and demanding an end to tyranny. They were not only calling for change. They were naming the person they trusted to lead them there: my father. Against decades of propaganda and imprisonment, and facing the constant threat of death, the Iranian people saw him clearly. They saw my father not through an imposed lens, but for who he is: an honest man of noble intent, defined by his love of country, willing to sacrifice everything – including his life – for Iran to become a free, democratic and sovereign nation. Iranians have lived under a system that does not represent their dignity, their aspirations or their heritage. Yet repression has failed to extinguish something fundamental: the belief that Iran will be reclaimed from its occupying regime. Today, the regime has expanded its repression by bringing foreign militias and Hezbollah fighters on to Iranian soil to suppress protests and kill unarmed civilians. This campaign amounts to the regime waging war on its own people. Political dissent is treated as a mortal crime, and civilians are met with lethal force in their neighbourhoods. Hospitals have been turned into sites of terror, raided to arrest the wounded and hunt protesters seeking medical care. Thousands of Iranians have been killed. A government that is meant to protect its citizens has become a source of violence against them. In the face of mass killing and arrests, Iranians bravely continue to rise up. It is uncertain whether the international community will support them and place the will of the Iranian people above short-term interests. The question is no longer whether Iran will change, but if – and how – the world will stand with the Iranian people as they decide what comes next. My father has never sought power for its own sake. He has been clear: his role is to help guide Iran through a transition toward a system chosen freely by the Iranian people. In the years ahead, Iran will need steady, credible leadership capable of bridging generations, ideologies, ethnicities and faiths. It will need leadership that commands international respect while remaining accountable to Iranians at home. That is what brought the democratic opposition together at the 2025 Munich National Cooperation Conference. Republicans and monarchists and representatives from across Iran’s communities and regions, converged around a framework my father has articulated for decades: the separation of religion and state, Iran’s territorial integrity, the protection of individual liberties and equality before the law. Those principles are why many, even former opponents, see him as a way to enact a peaceful transition. History is unambiguous: when the international community ignores a society in transition, space is created for the most extreme actors to dominate. We have seen legitimate aspirations displaced by militant factions, cults and violent separatism. Iran cannot afford that fate – and neither can the world. Iranians are demanding a free, pluralistic and united country, not one fractured by extremism, ideological monopolies, or territorial division. Any future built on coercion, personality cults or oppression will only repeat the tragedies of the past under a different flag. This movement is rooted in a love for its country and in a desire to reclaim Iran’s dignity, its culture, its history and its future. Iranians are seeking the freedom to build a nation that reflects who they are. What the world must do is clear. It must reduce the regime’s capacity for repression, including through targeted military and cyber action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It must stop financing repression by seizing regime assets and denying the system the resources it uses to kill its people. It must keep Iran connected, refusing to allow internet shutdowns that isolate civilians and conceal mass violence. And it must end the diplomatic fiction that grants immunity to those who rule through terror by closing regime embassies, designating the IRGC and holding officials accountable for their crimes. The world must support a clear and credible transition. My father has offered a framework for a transitional government rooted in unity and democratic choice. The Iranian people are ready. Will the world stand with them?