Reza Pahlavi Receives Freedom Prize in Frankfurt Amid Criticism

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last shah, received a "Freedom Prize" in Frankfurt on Saturday, awarded to the Iranian people by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, an activist group close to Germany's liberal FDP party.

Some 18,000 people gathered in Frankfurt to show support for Pahlavi, according to a police statement. The event was held at St Paul's Church, which hosted Germany's first-ever elected parliament in 1848-1849.

Pahlavi said that Iran "is a country not waiting to be taught democracy, this is a country being prevented from practicing it." He also said, "A people ready to die for the right to vote is willing to exercise the right to vote," and "You could not have chosen a people who better understand the meaning of the word 'freedom'."

He said he was accepting the prize only as a "trustee" until a democratically-elected government comes to power in Iran. "I hold it only temporarily," he said. "One day I will place it in the hands of its rightful owners, not on foreign soil but in the capital, Tehran."

Pahlavi's father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was the last shah of Iran, an autocrat who fled into exile after being deposed in a 1979 revolution. The 1979 revolution was followed by the transformation of Iran into an Islamic republic and the consolidation of power around the Shiite Muslim clergy.

Criticism accompanied the ceremony. About 200 prisoners held in Iran signed a letter protesting Pahlavi's receipt of the prize, according to Sahar Sanaie, spokeswoman for the Society for German-Iranians in Hesse. The letter described him as the symbol of a "bygone dictatorship."

The Frankfurt branches of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the environmentalist Greens boycotted the event and said he could not be considered a legitimate representative of the Iranian people. The socialist Left Party argued that the church could not be used as a venue for the event due to Frankfurt city statutes that prevent the use of places of worship for political gatherings.

Pahlavi has faced criticism for his vocal support for Israel and for failing to distance himself from his father's autocratic rule. He has in the past offered to lead a transitional government in the event of a democratic transition in Iran and has said he does not aim to use this proposed position to reinstate the Iranian monarchy under his father's dynasty, instead planning to leave the decision to a later referendum.

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