Sounds like a very good cover story. Let’s see if she’s ever seen again, or has an accident whilst detained.
Revolution in Iran
- Thread starter Rajma
- Start date
Thank you. I think it's coming very soon, and honestly that's probably my only wish in life (plus fatherhood).
Would be wonderful to have a country again, be able to spend time with family, build it from the ashes and you know, just have a normal life.
Not only will Iranians benefit, but so will our neighbours like you guys. More regional stability and cooperation = more growth and prosperity opportunity for all.
This "Syrian Girl"'s name is Maryam Susli and she's been living in Australia for a long long time, despite her favourite dude "Assad" ruling her country. I wonder, if Assad is so good, why doesn't she move back to Syria? Why does she shill for Assad, while she lives thousands of kilometers away? She won't have our fears of being arrested at the airport if she lands at her own country, and she clearly loves how the current regime rules her counry. So have skin in the game and go back and live there. Moral coward and a total fake is what she is. A true moral prostitute.
She shills for the mullahs in Tehran at every opportunity, yet if she was a content producer in Iran with her hair and skin showing as much as she does, she'd be arrested and then disappeared and never heard or or seen again.
Not to mention, this is what she said about the October 7 female victims: "The zionist filths are too ugly to be raped."
Anyways, it appears as Assad is slowly turning against the Ayatollahs and trying to decrease IRGC influence in Syria in order to save his own arse from Israel, so Maryam from Australia, the moral prostitute of the Resistence front, has to pick a side soon. But she's a grifter, so she'll find a way. God I hate her.
No disagreement from my side there.
This seems to be a new trend - people originally from that part of the world shilling for rogue regimes and terrorist proxies, all from the comfort of their armchairs in the west where freedom of speech allows the very dissent that would result in their immediate persecution if they supported western values in Iran and its proxies.
Would you consider yourself a monarchist Hanks? Would you support the return of the Shah?
Absolutely. And I wasn't always like this...Reading lots of deep history about my country over the last few years and access to a lot of information withheld to us previously has really opened my eyes and made me completely certain that return to Monarchy is the best and only viable alternative. Just a few reasons behind my personal opinion:
- Iran has had the oldest Monarchy institution in the world. It has always been a multi-ethnic nation, and such countries need a unifying figure, or else they'd fall into chaos. Monarchy provides that.
*** I think US' gravest mistake in Afghanistan was opposing the return of Zaher Shah, a unifying figure, after fall of Taliban, and attempting to turn Afghanistan with extremely weak political institutions, into a democratic republic with a weak figure like Karzai...which led to disaster of 2021 more than a decade later.
- Both the Pahlavi monarchs (Reza and Mohammad Reza) were extremely honouable men who did much much much more good than bad. They weren't perfect, but just as accomplishments:
> Secularizing the state and involving women in society (Reza Shah)
> Building the country's infrastructure, first radio, university, rail (Reza Shah)
> Issuing birth certificates for the first time, enforcing sanitary laws, improving public hygiene (Reza Shah)
> Land reforms program and abolishing Feudalism (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> Giving Workers' Right to Own Shares in the Industrial Complexes (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> Profit Sharing for industrial workers in private sector enterprises, 20% share of net profit (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> Assembling the strongest and most modern army in all Middle East (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> NO WARS or attempts to export an ideology (both)
> Amicable and respectful relationship with most Arab neighbours + peaceful and good relations with Israel (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> Economic welfare (for majority of population) , a strong currency and respected passport (Mohammad Reza Shah)
> Women's rights, first to be given right to vote in Middle East. When women in Switzerland still couldn't vote (Mohammad Reza Shah)
*** Unfortunately, he ruled in an era where there was zero access to information, mass superstition (people genuinely thought they are seeing Khomeini's face on the moon if you squint hard enough) , and a treacherous Leftist opposition who romanticized Shi'ite Islam (which in my opinion, isn't a revolutionary idea, since the whole concept is sitting idle and waiting for some Imam to get out of a hole after 1300 years and lead the world) and made it into a revolutionary idea with hope of taking power after the regime is overthrown, only to be absolutely crushed and destroyed immediately after, by the same snake (Islamist ideology) that it helped grow and gain power.
- If you look at the Middle East region, the monarchies are the thriving countries with highest welfare for their own citizens (UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain) , whereas the republics are in constant state of chaos and destruction (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, IR Iran, PakistanYemen). Look at this chart comparing the inflation rate in 2024 in Iran vs. Arab monarchies in the region
- And I believe citizen's welfare is significantly more important than idealism of a full-democracy. Give me the authoritarianism of UAE/Singapore over the "democracy" of Lebanon or Turkey (now that's one country which will be the biggest loser of all in case Iran becomes a viable normal country again) any day of the week, twice on Sundays.
- Also, people love throwing around the word "puppet" a lot in political terms. The reality is, unless you're a big superpower country, you're gonna have to pick your battles and lean politically and strategically towards one of the superpowers. I much rather be a US-puppet than a Russia or China puppet. Don't like it, cry elsewhere. The world isn't lived in idealism, but in realism.
and I can go on and on. We have a family with proven track record. and a healthy, well-known and ready Crown Prince that is actually a trained fighter jet pilot, who is easily the most popular figure inside the country. He's a lot more democratic-oriented and liberal than his father even (a bit too much for my personal liking actually), but easily and by far and away the best alternative. He has 3 daughters and no sons, so in case he returns as Shah, Iran could be ruled by a Queen in 2 decades. Now that would be something !
With Trump back in the WH and some of his new admin picks (Waltz, Rubio) having me with Crown-Prince over the last 4 years (so far Trump's admin thankfully is void of MEK-sympathetic folks like his last admin was), Israel in state of war and determined to get rid of this existential threat (Islamic Republic ideology), and the regime significantly weakened compared to 8 years ago (much worse economy, angry population, Khamenei pushing 86, proxies severely weakened) ... I think this is the most golden window of the last 45 years to reclaim the country. It may be our last chance.
Also, this is one book I recommend reading if interested in more. Written not by a Monarchist (actually ciriticizes the Shah a fair bit), but by a Newzealnder Historian. Was an emotional roller-coaster reading this.
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Heaven-Pahlavis-Final-Imperial/dp/0805098976
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This is all well and true, Iran modernised rapidly in the 20th century. But the biggest issue with the old monarchy - and especially Mohammed Reza Shah - was that he simply pretended to be a dictator, without actually ever going through with the acts dictators have to do to ensure their reign. He was fundamentally weak. Too weak to allow multi-party democracy and become a constitutional monarch, too weak to mow his own people down when revolution came.
And in regards to Gulf monarchies are effectively fascist states with very small populations. They cannot be compared to Iran, their prosperity is largely down to all investment earmarked for Iran flowing to the Gulf post-1979. Even Saudi has only got a population of 30m and by all accounts they inflate that figure.
Whatever comes next needs to be some sort of multi-party democracy with free and fair elections. Constitutional monarchy if necessary. But if Iran returns to whatever the old monarchy was, whilst infinitely better than now in hindsight (it wasn't popular at the time), it will never achieve its potential.
- Agreed. As we say in Farsi, The Shah wanted to have both "Khoda" and "Khorma". Both run autocratically with near absolute power, and satisfy Western demands of free political assembly and non-use of force against violent rioters demands. Unfortunately in reality it didn't work. I do think given just 5 more years, he would have given the parliament much more executive power now that many goals of the White Revolution had been achieved, but of course he ran out of time. He says as much in his memoir: "Answer to History".
- The population point is valid, but it's still our best odd. I like to think of an examplory country we can relate ourself to for growth and coming of age, but countries with similar profile to Iran (region, wealth, natural resources, population) almost don't exist. I've seen the Polish economic and social miracle first hand that the country is now experiencing a reverse brain-drain with lots of long-term immigrants now coming back from the West to live in their own country again (Poland)...now that's the success story I want for Iran. I have a feeling Turkey could be going in the reverse direction to us and having their own Islamist state in the not-so-distant future.
- I agree. I don't want return to absolutist monarchy because it's unsustainable at the long-run since we aren't a family-run country like Saudi. I want constitutional monarchy with multi-party participation, but also I don't want the monarch to just be a ineffective symbol like in UK for example. I would hope the Monarch would play a more active role ALONGSIDE the ruling government at least in the first decade to steer the country in the right direction. I'll respect what ever the majority of the nation would vote for in the referendum post fall of the regime to determine the form of next government. Man, just thinking about that day makes me buzz. Imagine having a national flag you can be proud of !
***Still haven't given up at having our Lion and Sun flag back for the 2026 World Cup
You cannot seriously believe that Iran will accept the return of the Shah's offspring? Or that they should? It is mental.
@Hanks when I can find the time I will reply to your post properly. So I'm presuming you're Iranian yourself or come from Iranian ancestors? But you've not been raised or live in Iran? Do you have much interactions with anti monarchist Iranians or visit the country often? Or are most of your engagements with fellow pro monarchists?
That's why no one shoul learn history based on Google Search.
The amount of propaganda is insane.In the entire revolution process, fewer than 900 people were killed. One of the reasons revolution succeeded was Shah's refusal to use brutal force and deciding to leave the country instead of bowing down to pressure from generals to keep the throne with blood. As he said in his last ever interview while on exile: "A king can not a dictator and the throne can't be at the cost the nation's blood. The history will reveal everything of who was on the right side and who on the wrong side."
Few months before the revolution, Queen Farah was in Iraq to meet with one of the influential Shi'te imams to talk about getting more moderate imams involved to decrease the religious fervor in the country, Saddam Hussain reportedly asked to meet Farah in which he offered her to have Khomeini killed and told her to pass this message to her husband (Shah) : "It's better if 10,000 Iranians die now, than 1 million later." A crazy prophecy that came to fruition after the Iran-Iraq war.
Was he a Finland-style liberal democrat? No! but he was by far and away the most liberal and soft-heartened ruler in the entire Middle East and even compared to many of the Western countries at the time (this is the time that Spain, Chile and South Korea had full-on fascist regimes). The Western portrait of Shah is so twisted and demented, I mean Ben Affleck literally portraying the Iranian Queen bathing in milk...are you insane? that's North Korea level propaganda and lies.
Thankfully, it looks like the people inside Iran have seen past the propaganda now that all the history and information is out there, and videos of the Shah get millions of likes and positive comments by ACTUAL Iranians (not those basing their entire understanding of a nation and history off Wikipedia and Google Search).
https://www.instagram.com/azin.fact/
https://www.instagram.com/toonel.zamaan/
Iran's biggest and most famous celebrity, Ali Karimi, posted this video about the Shah..just read/translate the comments. I let the people of Iran decide. You can be sure if the Shah was the monster the Western media and historians and Leftist marxists made him out to be, in this era of full access to information, history and knowledge, his memoirs wouldn't be so well-received. I let the people speak!
@OmgTheyKilkenny
, I am Iranian. Born and raised in Iran, and left as a teenager. I was born a decade after the revolution actually, so i experienced this unspeakably evil regime and their propaganda machine in my early schooling years. Majority of my family still live in Iran, and funnily those in Iran are a lot more pro-monarchy and pro-Shah and his son than some in the diaspora (Canada is filled with IRGC families now and previously mostly leftist and 'reformist' diaspora) and Europe diaspora was mostly communists with sparse MEK-fans, and US diaspora is by far and away most monarchists.
But family and friends inside Iran? easily 70%+ pro-Shah. Everytime even there is an Instagram or X poll with over tens of thousands of vote about your gov't preference post IR/most trusted Iranian politician/ Constitutional Monarchy + Pahlavi wins 65%+ of the vote.
Again, I just want us to get to the day that we can vote in a referendum about the nature of the next regime/system. I'll vote for return of Monarchy with Pahlavi as head of state. I will respect whichever result is achieved, but I am very positive that the majority of Iranians want the same thing as me, just by judging the online sentiment (as shared here) as well as my own contacts inside the country. But we'll see what the vote result will be.
Overall, it's very hard to understand Iran as the eye of an outsider. Such complex history and geopolitical importance. What I'll say though, is that the fall of this regime will have such immense impact on the World as a whole, on par with the fall of Berlin Wall.
I would just note that that my post has sources for every single claim. It's not some wikipedia thing. Granted, it's not the lived experience you have, but then there are millions or Iranians who would completely disagree with you. Thanks for the clarification.
It's a bit insane to deny the Shah's crimes, there are plenty of sources out there.
I appreciate the civilized exchange as well. And of course, I'd be very worried if 90 million people all agreed
This is the overall type of Iranian Political affiliations:
- Islamic Republic hard-core fans (hardliners)
- Islamic Republic soft-core fans (reformists)
- Monarchists
- Leftists ("democratic republic") --> they've never explained what sort of country they want to model Iran on or who their leader is.
- Federalist Republicans with less-powerful centralized gov't
Most important thing right now, is that at least 75 million of them agree that the current regime must go.
Step by step.
Surely that's wishful thinking? Not saying you're wrong, but if 75 million people in a nation where something like 40% of all people are under the age of 30 or so agreed that the regime had to go, then it would be gone. That would include basically every single adult in Iran.
The participation rate in "Elections" is less than 25%. This is from 2021 Presidential election which was before the Woman,Life, Freedom massacre which alienated millions more from the regime. Back in 2021, only 25% of people participated in the system which is a good gauge at the level of support the regime has. Especially when Khamenei repeatedly says before each election: "A vote in the election, is a vote to the Islamic Repubic system first, and the candidate second." ....so if it was 25% in 2021 before the biggest protests of last 40 years...I take it currently at 15%.
But this 15% have complete monopoly on guns and zero red lines in using them. I think it's hard for Western audience to understand "zero red lines" in using guns. I remember posting videos on this thread when Iran lost 0-1 to USA 2 years ago in Qatar and many of people went to celebrate the loss due to anger at non-support of the players during the height of the protest. that day, a protestor, Mehran Samak, was shot for HONKING his car. This is what gets you killed under the regime. Honking !!!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63805284
In the last page, there was posts posted detailing the sexual abuse and murder of a 16-year old teenager Nika Shakarami in 2022. Her mother has now been jailed since 40 days ago for crime of posting Instagram stories in support of the Crown Prince. Many of the parents of killed protests are now jailed.
Fear is very effective and a deterrent and their monopoly on violence and willingness to use it at will has what has kept them in power so long.
But they've absolutely never been so weak both internally, economically, and externally. In previous rounds of protests, they could easily import suppressors from Hezbollah, Hamas, Hashad-Al-Shabi (Iraq) and such. All those forces are severely weakened now. Regime is facing financial disaster and with Trump coming, the screws will tighten on them even more. so this next 4 years is the extra-golden chance imo.
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Do they need to import? Isn't the Revolutionary Guard millions strong? Edit: apparently only a couple hundred thousand. I always thought it was about 2 or 3 million (maybe the entire armed forces).
I don't say there isn't turmoil in Iran. Or that there won't be a change. I just find it hard to see that change being the return of a monarch. If the regime were to "fall", I suspect it would be the army at first and then something "else" (not the Shah's children) after that.