Toronto recently witnessed one of the largest demonstrations in the world calling for regime change. The city is home to a significant Persian/Iranian diaspora—large enough that at least three generations now coexist, dating back to the arrival in Iran of the first Ayatollah from Paris.
A common sentiment emerging from this community is that the theocratic Shi’a regime must face reality and relinquish its grip on power, wealth, and the spiritual lives of its people.
Some Iranians—and their children and grandchildren—look back to the Pahlavi era with a certain nostalgia, hoping for a return to those days of Western alignment. Yet this memory is complicated by the legacy of SAVAK, the Shah’s feared and brutal security apparatus, whose repression helped pave the way for the return of Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1979 revolution.
Others see a possible transitional role for Reza Pahlavi as a pragmatic way forward—perhaps the only viable exit strategy in the current moment. They hope such a transition could lead to the urgent lifting of repressive measures, particularly those affecting women and non-believers, and make Iran more acceptable to the United States and its increasingly strained alliances in a turbulent global landscape.
Still others, particularly those within the current power structure, are determined to hold on to their privileges and authority. Viewing themselves as the true representatives of Allah on Earth, they continue to operate with ideological conviction, echoing the revolutionary slogans of 1979: “Death to America,” “Death to Israel.”
One cannot help but wonder whether the current occupant of the White House and his advisors fully grasped how hardened and prepared Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and military have become over more than four decades.
Amid all these perspectives, one message stands out most clearly among the Persian/Iranian diaspora in Toronto: Stop this war now.
One can only hope.