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It was billed as a historic moment: a mass demonstration in Washington, D.C., where Iranian monarchists would rally support for the return of the Pahlavi dynasty. Promoted for months with sweeping claims and logistical backing—including offers of paid travel—organizers hoped the rally would mark a turning point in the fight against the Islamic Republic. What unfolded instead was a vivid portrait of a movement adrift: sparsely attended, politically disjointed, and riddled with contradictions.
With a few hundred attendees despite the mobilization of a diaspora estimated in the hundreds of thousands across the U.S. East Coast, the April 13 rally quickly became a case study in political miscalculation.
A Rally Without a People
The Pahlavi supporters’ failure to attract even a fraction of the Iranian-American community in Washington, Virginia, and Maryland was especially damning. Organizers admitted their disappointment. “We spared no effort for two months,” lamented one monarchist figure. “From TV stations to social media, from London tabloids to satellite channels—we were everywhere. Still, barely anyone came.”
But numbers were only part of the story. More revealing was the content and tone of the rally, which prioritized attacks on the organized opposition—particularly the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK)—over any coherent vision for Iran’s future. In a move that stunned even critics of the monarchy, speakers devoted much of their time to lobbying against the MEK.
#Iran News: State-Run Newspaper Says Reza Pahlavi and Monarchists Have Served Clerical Regimehttps://t.co/iey2VpMKXU
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 8, 2025
In the eyes of many Iranians, this misplaced obsession confirmed the monarchists’ irrelevance, if not complicity. “How can a group claim to oppose dictatorship while spending its energy attacking those who are actively resisting it?” one prominent activist wrote on X. “You were given a stage and chose to perform the regime’s script.”
Begging for Recognition, Receiving None
The rally’s political ambitions also fell flat. Organizers had lobbied hard for high-profile American political figures to attend or send messages of support—especially from the Republican Party and former Trump administration officials. None showed up. Not one U.S. congressman appeared. The absence was glaring, and it reinforced a broader truth: Iran’s monarchists may still dominate some satellite channels, but they hold no meaningful weight in Western capitals or on the ground in Iran.
Yet the rally’s official resolution offered no trace of humility. It declared, without irony, that “the Iranian people unanimously demand the restoration of the Pahlavi monarchy,” called for “granting full diplomatic authority” to Reza Pahlavi as Iran’s head of state, and urged the U.S. to “hand over Iran’s embassy in Washington to the exiled crown prince.”
In his litany of lies against Iran’s principal opposition group, like other Tehran pundits and “friendly journalists,” Reza Pahlavi relied on sources like the regime’s state media and officials to accuse the MEK #No2ShahNo2Mullahs https://t.co/uxbVX65FgO
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 7, 2023
Even some monarchist supporters found the text absurd. Critics noted that the resolution ignored the fact that no referendum, election, or credible survey had produced such a mandate. Others pointed out the contradiction between calling for the arrest of IRGC commanders while simultaneously boasting of backchannel communications with them.
As one commentator noted sarcastically, “The rally was less a declaration of strength than a wish list sent to Santa Claus—complete with calls for embassies, ambassadorships, and a throne long since buried.”
Repeating the Regime’s Talking Points
The most damaging aspect of the event, however, was its alignment with the clerical regime’s propaganda goals. By attacking the MEK—long recognized as the regime’s principal existential threat—the monarchist organizers echoed the very rhetoric used by Iran’s security apparatus.
The #Iranian Regime’s Calculated Use of Monarchists: A Political Decoyhttps://t.co/yBZ1QJSnHd
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 2, 2025
This convergence did not go unnoticed. “Whether by accident or design,” said one Iranian human rights lawyer, “they ended up playing the regime’s game: isolate the real opposition, inject confusion, and distract from the fight for democratic change.”
Even within the diaspora, backlash was swift. Ethnic and regional groups—Kurdish, Baloch, Azeri—condemned the monarchy as a relic of centralized authoritarianism that ignored Iran’s pluralism.
A Manufactured Mirage to Isolate the Real Alternative
The Iranian regime, after losing the illusion of reformist versus hardliner factions, has turned to promoting hollow alternatives like Reza Pahlavi to neutralize the real opposition. His visibility is artificially inflated by regime-affiliated media, cyber campaigns, and proxies like NUFDI, which is linked to figures with IRGC and SAVAK ties. This strategy serves the regime by both discrediting democratic change through association with the Shah’s dictatorship and diverting attention from the only viable alternative—the NCRI and MEK. Monarchists are elevated precisely because they pose no real threat: they lack support inside Iran, have no plan, and ultimately serve as a decoy to protect the regime from genuine overthrow.
Ambassador @LBJunior slams Reza Pahlavi and Iranian monarchists for treacherous strategies and their rooting for engagement with the #IRGCterrorists on "The Untold Story" podcast.#FreeIran2024 pic.twitter.com/HOe3ZTaARM
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 22, 2024
In this context, the April 13 monarchist rally was not just a failure; it was the result of a multi-month, multi-million-dollar campaign backed by monarchist networks, regime sympathizers, and foreign media allies. The rally was intended to showcase a popular mandate—but in reality, it exposed the emptiness of the monarchist movement. Despite months of promotion, cyber amplification, and promises of mass turnout, only a few hundred attendees materialized. This spectacle of absence became the loudest message of all.
A movement propped up by nostalgia and cyber bots, not substance or sacrifice, cannot answer the demands of a nation that has sacrificed so much for a democratic and inclusive future. The Iranian people’s chant—“Death to the Oppressor, Be it the Shah or the Leader”—rings louder than any imported slogans or PR campaigns.
The monarchists’ April 13 rally, meant as a show of strength, ended as a mirror. It reflected a political project stuck in the past, funded by looted wealth, driven by disinformation, and ultimately serving the regime it claims to oppose. Its failure underlines the one truth the regime most fears: the real path to change lies not in thrones, real or imagined, but in the organized struggle of a people who want neither crown nor turban—but freedom.