Four-minute read
In the clerical dictatorship ruling Iran, survival is a science. Facing deepening internal dissent, economic collapse, and historic voter boycotts, the ruling clerics have developed a dual strategy to defend their grip on power. On one hand, they remain unflinching in their use of brute force. Protesters have been gunned down, imprisoned, blinded, or disappeared in every major uprising since 1992. But when repression alone risks provoking greater backlash, the regime turns to something more calculated: the engineering of false alternatives.
This is not just a regime that censors opposition. It is a regime that manufactures opposition, producing carefully managed dissent and stage-managed slogans to mislead the public and the world alike.
Among these tools, the periodic use of the slogan “Reza Shah, Rest in Peace” stands out—not for its popularity, but for its purpose.
Reza Shah Pahlavi, also called Reza Khan or commonly known as Reza the Bully, was the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty who ruled Iran with an iron hand until his forced abdication by the Allies during World War II.
The #Iranian Regime’s Calculated Use of Monarchists: A Political Decoyhttps://t.co/yBZ1QJSnHd
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 2, 2025
Behind the Stage: The Real Battle Is Over Alternatives
What Iran’s rulers fear most is not anger—it is direction. Discontent can be controlled. But organized, goal-driven opposition, rooted in a clear political alternative, is a threat of a different kind.
To preempt it, the regime invests heavily in information warfare and perception management. Through tightly controlled media, loyalist clerics, and embedded operatives in political and cultural spaces, it works to convince citizens—and international observers—that there is no path forward beyond the current system. If change is to come, they suggest, it must come from within: through so-called reformists, royalist nostalgia, or other deliberately weakened placeholders.
This effort is not new. But its sophistication has grown, especially in moments when social unrest begins to crystallize around demands for real regime change.
Golrokh Iraee from Evin Prison: Reformists and Monarchists Unite to Preserve Tyranny in #Iranhttps://t.co/5UEiw2HYx5
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 4, 2025
A Slogan with No Past, and a Political Function
One of the most revealing elements of this strategy is the orchestrated appearance of slogans that serve the regime’s narrative. The chant “Reza Shah, Rest in Peace” is a prime example. Before the late 2010s, the phrase was virtually nonexistent in Iran’s protest vocabulary. It surfaced during the 2017 protests, which began over economic grievances but soon evolved into broader expressions of dissent.
What made the chant notable was not its message, but its timing and choreography. In July 2018, the state-run Jomhouri-e-Islami published an article criticizing demonstrators outside the parliament who had used the chant. But the article let slip that the protestors had police escort, and were the same individuals often seen at regime-backed Friday prayers and public rallies. The page was quickly deleted, but the admission had already been picked up by other outlets, confirming what many had suspected: this was not a grassroots slogan, but a planted one.
“This group has become so brazen that they sent people to Parliament chanting unprecedented slogans like ‘Reza Shah, Rest in Peace’ and ‘Death to freeloaders.’ These same individuals regularly appear at Tehran Friday prayers and regime-organized rallies. They were even accompanied by the police, freely parading around,” Jomhouri-e-Islami wrote on July 5, 2018.
The Shah’s Dictatorship: A Shield for the #Iranian Regime’s Continuityhttps://t.co/bcMYgkoI4o
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 24, 2024
Weaponized Nostalgia as Political Smoke
The purpose of such slogans is not to call for monarchy—it is to disrupt the momentum of real dissent. At moments when protests gain traction, especially when they risk cohering into anti-regime movements, the regime revives carefully chosen symbols of a bygone era. These symbols, stripped of political context and marketed as apolitical nostalgia, offer a safety valve: they absorb anger while steering it into a direction whose face, Reza Pahlavi, has lived a lavish life for almost half a century and is openly calling for cooperation with the current security forces for “a peaceful transition of power.”
But the system knows when the trick won’t work. During the November 2019 uprising and again during the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, the slogan vanished entirely. In those moments, the streets echoed with chants aimed directly at the Supreme Leader. The regime responded with what it knows best: mass arrests, internet blackouts, and the use of live ammunition.
Every time Iranians have risen en masse to demand the fall of the dictatorship, the clerical establishment has chosen bloodshed over negotiation. But when it fears that open repression will inflame society further, it reaches instead for a toolkit of deception.
Who was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah, Iran’s Last Pahlavi Dictator?https://t.co/0t7nTCbetQ
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 26, 2023
The Anatomy of Manufactured Opposition
This is part of a larger regime playbook: simulate pluralism, suppress alternatives.
For years, the system has cast reformists as its loyal opposition—harmless in power, indispensable in crisis. Monarchists play the role of foil: nostalgic, fragmented, and incapable of organizing meaningful resistance. Together, they create the illusion of a contested political space.
Insider leaks and regime commentaries have even described this approach in strategic terms. One conservative outlet referred to the tactic as “parazit”—static injected into the national discourse to blur distinctions and cloud public perception. Intelligence officials have reportedly instructed state media to always mention monarchists when discussing dissent, ensuring no organized domestic alternative ever takes center stage.
What results is a form of political gaslighting: dissent is permitted, so long as it remains ineffective.
#Iran News: State-Run Newspaper Says Reza Pahlavi and Monarchists Have Served Clerical Regimehttps://t.co/iey2VpMKXU
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 8, 2025
Revolution, not Transition
The clerical regime’s most dangerous weapon is not its prisons or its bullets. It is its ability to curate the battlefield, shaping not just what people say, but what they think is possible.
The slogan “Reza Shah, Rest in Peace” is not a call for monarchy. It is a mirror held up by the regime to distract from the present. It is not dissent—it is diversion. And when it no longer works, the mask drops. Tear gas and bullets take their place.
As the international community seeks to understand Iran’s trajectory, it must resist the regime’s stagecraft. Manufactured opposition, simulated slogans, and co-opted movements are not signs of pluralism—they are evidence of how far the regime will go to survive. The challenge now is not just to support the Iranian people’s right to protest, but to recognize the difference between real resistance and the regime’s carefully scripted imitations of it.