Son of Iran’s ousted shah takes controversial prize

Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran's deposed shah, received the Freedom Prize in Frankfurt on Saturday. The award was presented to the Iranian people by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, an activist group aligned with the liberal FDP party. Thousands of demonstrators cheered Pahlavi as he took the prize, waving flags representing the pre-revolutionary Iran.

In his speech, Pahlavi stated that the people of Iran are ready to exercise their voting rights and that a country not allowing democracy is not deserving of it. He also expressed his sorrow for the relatives of those killed during the anti-government protests of the past year, which were violently suppressed by security forces.

Despite the support he received, not everyone welcomed Pahlavi's acceptance of the prize. His father, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was the last shah of Iran, an autocrat who fled the country in 1979. Critics accuse Pahlavi of supporting Israel and not distancing himself enough from his father's rule. Some even refer to him as a symbol of a bygone dictatorship.

About 200 prisoners in Iran signed a letter protesting Pahlavi's prize, calling him a representative of a bygone dictatorship. Several political parties, including the SPD, Greens, and Die Linke, boycotted the event, arguing that Pahlavi could not represent the legitimate interests of the Iranian people. Pahlavi himself said he was accepting the prize only temporarily, until a democratically elected government was in power in Iran. He promised to return the award to its rightful owners in Tehran.