Son of Iran’s ousted shah takes controversial prize

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's former shah, accepted a Freedom Prize in Frankfurt on Saturday for the Iranian people. The award, presented by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a liberal activist group, was met with thousands of supporters chanting in support and waving pre-revolutionary Iranian flags. Pahlavi addressed St Paul's Church, site of Germany's first elected parliament in 1848-1849, emphasizing Iran's lack of democracy and readiness to exercise voting rights.

The ceremony drew criticism, with anti-government protests breaking out in Iran last year and a January crackdown resulting in tens of thousands of deaths. Pahlavi's father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was the last shah of Iran, an autocratic ruler who fled Iran in 1979. While some criticized Reza Pahlavi for his support of Israel and his father's rule, about 200 Iranians protested the award, viewing him as a symbol of a "bygone dictatorship."

The left-wing SPD and Greens in Frankfurt boycotted the event, and even the far-left Die Linke called for the church to reject hosting the ceremony. Pahlavi, however, accepted the prize temporarily as a trustee, with plans to pass it to the rightful owners in Tehran.