Last week, surrounded by crowds of cheering protesters, a man in Iran¡¯s western city of Khorramabad shattered a decadeslong political taboo and defiantly unfurled the banned monarchist Lion and Sun flag in a public square.
The video circulated on social media a day after Reza Pahlavi, Iran¡¯s exiled former crown prince and the late Shah¡¯s son, called on Iranians to join the protests, spurring thousands more to pour onto the streets. As Iran¡¯s leaders appear to have, for now, brutally suppressed another uprising, Pahlavi has emerged from his home in suburban Washington as an unlikely emblem, finally making inroads in his 40-year campaign to depose the clerical regime.
For decades, Pahlavi has drawn as much ridicule as veneration. For him to become a focal point for the biggest ever popular rebuke of the Islamic Republic underscores just how exasperated Iranians have become.
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