At protests and diaspora rallies calling for change in Iran, one figure appears again and again on posters and banners: Reza Pahlavi. Supporters sometimes refer to him as “King Reza,” but he does not actually claim the throne.

Pahlavi is the son of Iran’s last monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who ruled until the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Before the revolution, Iran was a secular state aligned with the West and maintained quiet strategic relations with Israel. That relationship ended when the monarchy collapsed, and the new Islamic regime built its ideology around hostility toward Israel and the United States.

Reza Pahlavi has lived in exile since the revolution and has become one of the most visible figures in Iran’s opposition movement, particularly among the global Iranian diaspora.