Why Iran Matters

Iran has practically dominated the news in 2026, and for good reason. But something that has stunned me is how little people understand about Iran and everything surrounding it. They don’t understand the Iranian people. They fail to grasp the significance of the war against the Islamic regime, or just how dangerous the world could become if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. Most importantly, they have little idea how profoundly a free Iran could change the world.

Many also misunderstand why so many Iranians are calling out the name of Reza Pahlavi, and why he has become such a central figure in the struggle to transfer power away from the Islamic Republic and back into the hands of the Iranian people.

I personally believe that when everything is said and done, the history books may remember this war as one of the most consequential in modern history. Perhaps even the Berlin Wall moment of our time.

If more people understood what was truly at stake, and the extraordinary possibilities that could emerge from the end of this regime, I believe many who oppose the war would reconsider their position. They might still object to aspects of how it has been conducted, but they would better understand why confronting this regime was so important.

A Great Civilization Held Hostage

We need to begin with the Iranian people, because one of the most common mistakes people make is assuming that Iran is simply another Arab-Muslim country, with a similar history and cultural identity.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Iran is home to one of the oldest and greatest civilizations in human history, with roots stretching back more than 5,000 years. Long before the rise of Rome, great empires emerged from this land, governing vast territories and building sophisticated systems of administration, trade and communication. Persian rulers bore the title King of Kings, and their influence stretched across much of the ancient world. By the time Islam emerged in the seventh century, Iran was already heir to thousands of years of history, with its own languages, traditions, religious beliefs and a deeply rooted cultural identity that had survived the rise and fall of empires.

One of the best-known Persian rulers was Cyrus the Great, remembered and admired for many reasons. For the Jewish people, he holds a particularly important place in history because of his role in ending the Babylonian captivity. Following his conquest of Babylon, he permitted Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem, helping make possible the eventual rebuilding of the Second Temple.

The relationship between the Persians and the Jews therefore stretches all the way back to the Old Testament. When you see an Israeli flag waving at a pro-freedom Iranian protest, understand that there is something far deeper going on there. These are two peoples whose histories have been intertwined for more than 2,500 years. We’ll return to that a little later.

Like every great civilization, Persia experienced periods of prosperity and decline, triumph and catastrophe. But to understand the Iran we see today, we need to move forward to 1925, when the Pahlavi dynasty came to power and accelerated some of the country’s most visible modern transformations.

Reza Shah Pahlavi ruled until 1941, when he was succeeded by his son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who remained in power until 1979.

Under the Pahlavis, Iran underwent enormous changes. Infrastructure expanded, education developed, industry grew, and the country increasingly looked toward the Western world. Women gained the right to vote, educational opportunities expanded, and Iran began developing into a major regional economic and military power.

Iran was moving forward at a remarkable pace, especially compared with much of the region surrounding it. Its economy was growing, its influence expanding, and opportunities that had been unimaginable to previous generations were becoming a reality. This was a country looking toward the future, with every reason to believe that its most prosperous years still lay ahead.

Then came the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

A country that had spent decades modernizing and building its place in the world fell into the hands of a revolutionary Islamist movement determined to remake society according to its interpretation of seventh-century religious law.

There is a famous photograph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini descending the steps of an Air France aircraft upon his return to Iran in February 1979.

It sends shivers down my spine whenever I see it.

Why? Because to me, it represents death. Like a figure of darkness slowly descending upon Iran, carrying with him a radical revolutionary ideology that would not only transform the country, but help set the entire Middle East on fire.

What followed was devastating.

The new regime began dismantling many of the freedoms Iranians had enjoyed. Women were subjected to compulsory Islamic dress codes and new legal restrictions. Political opposition was crushed. Even many of the leftists who had partnered with the Islamists to overthrow the Shah eventually found themselves persecuted, imprisoned or executed by the thousands.

Over the decades that followed, millions of Iranians left their homeland. Many loved their country deeply and had no desire to abandon it, but the political, religious and economic circumstances made life increasingly unbearable.

The repression imposed upon Iranian society was like throwing a dark cloth over a shining candle, smothering a civilization whose light had illuminated parts of the world for thousands of years.

Yet even under that suffocating atmosphere of authoritarianism, the Iranian people never completely surrendered.

Some secretly kept photographs of the Shah. Younger generations became fascinated with the Iran that existed before the revolution, rediscovering their ancient Persian heritage and a national identity much older than the Islamic Republic. Decades of propaganda could not erase thousands of years of history.

Iranians repeatedly challenged their rulers, from the student demonstrations of 1999 and the Green Movement in 2009 to the nationwide uprisings of 2017, 2019 and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of 2022. Each uprising carried its own demands, but together they revealed a population increasingly unwilling to accept the political and religious authority imposed upon it.

The yearning for freedom never disappeared.

One of the most remarkable demonstrations of the difference between the Iranian people and their rulers came after September 11, 2001.

As America watched nearly 3,000 people murdered in the worst terrorist attack in its history, footage emerged of Palestinians dancing and celebrating in the streets of East Jerusalem. In Tehran, however, something remarkably different was happening.

Ordinary Iranians gathered in candlelight vigils to mourn the American dead and express solidarity with a country their own government had spent decades calling the Great Satan. Thousands came together, only for security forces and pro-regime vigilantes to violently disperse some of the gatherings.

Think about the contrast. Under a regime that had made hatred of America part of its revolutionary identity, ordinary Iranians were risking confrontation with their own authorities simply to mourn innocent Americans.

The Iranian people are not the Islamic Republic.

Understanding that distinction is essential to understanding everything that follows.

The Regime That Set the Middle East on Fire

The Islamic Republic is not merely an authoritarian government concerned with maintaining power within its own borders. It was founded as a revolutionary Islamist state, committed to exporting its ideology and expanding its influence beyond Iran.

Its leaders have spent decades chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” These are not simply slogans shouted for domestic political theatre. The regime has built an extensive network of terrorist organizations and militias, poured enormous resources into its military capabilities, and repeatedly acted upon its declared hostility toward its enemies.

The Islamic Republic has long been designated by the United States as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. It has funded, armed and trained organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and numerous militias operating across Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Hezbollah, in particular, became one of the Islamic regime’s most devastating creations. Built into a powerful terrorist army, it has spent decades holding Lebanon hostage, dragging the country into wars and undermining its sovereignty. A country that might otherwise have prospered has instead endured repeated destruction, political paralysis and generations of insecurity, while Hezbollah maintained its weapons and imposed its will. Its tentacles have reached far beyond the Middle East, into Europe and Latin America, through terrorism, money laundering and drug trafficking.

Hezbollah was only one part of a much larger revolutionary project. In Gaza, the regime armed and financed Hamas. In Yemen, it helped turn the Houthis into a force capable of threatening international shipping. Across Iraq and Syria, its militias spread violence and instability, extending the Islamic regime’s reach far beyond Iran’s borders.

While ordinary Iranians suffered under economic mismanagement, sanctions and repression, their rulers poured billions into exporting their revolution, financing terrorism, building underground military facilities and developing an enormous arsenal of ballistic missiles and drones. All while pursuing the nuclear capabilities that could make this growing threat far more dangerous.

This is where things become truly frightening.

The Catastrophe We Risked

There is something particularly frightening about the ideology governing the Islamic Republic, and it deserves more attention.

The regime draws upon Twelver Shia Islam, which teaches that the Hidden Imam, or Mahdi, will return in the final days to establish divine justice. Some within the regime’s revolutionary tradition embrace apocalyptic interpretations of this belief, associating his return with great wars and chaos.

Now consider the kind of regime we’re dealing with. One that has glorified martyrdom, sent children into battle during the Iran-Iraq War, and spent decades threatening the destruction of Israel and America. During that war, young volunteers were sent into deadly assaults, with some reportedly given plastic keys symbolizing their passage into paradise—as their bodies were used to clear minefields.

This is a regime that has made death and sacrifice central to its revolutionary identity. Its threats deserve to be taken seriously.

Now imagine it armed with nuclear weapons.

For decades, the Islamic regime worked toward a military position that would make stopping its nuclear ambitions increasingly dangerous. Its strategy followed a logic similar to North Korea’s: build enough military power to make any attack against the regime too costly for its enemies to contemplate.

Thousands of ballistic missiles and drones, capable of striking Israel, American military bases and countries across the Middle East. Underground facilities protected against airstrikes. A growing arsenal designed to overwhelm air defences and punish any country that dared intervene.

The objective was to make the price of attacking the regime so high that nobody would risk it.

Then, under the protection of that arsenal, the regime could push toward nuclear weapons.

Once it crossed that threshold, we would all be waking up to a very different world.

The Islamic Republic could threaten the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil passes, with the added protection of a nuclear deterrent. It could intimidate neighbouring countries, knowing that any military response carried the risk of a nuclear confrontation.

Its terrorist proxies would benefit from the same protection. Imagine Hezbollah attacking Israel while Tehran threatened nuclear retaliation against anyone who tried to dismantle it. Imagine the consequences for Lebanon, already devastated by decades of Hezbollah’s power, or for the Gulf states forced to live under the shadow of an increasingly aggressive regime.

For the Iranian people, the consequences would be devastating too. A regime already willing to imprison, torture and kill its own citizens would now possess the ultimate means of deterring foreign intervention. Its grip on power would become almost impossible to break.

But the greatest danger would be the bomb itself.

The regime has spent decades shouting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” It has armed terrorist groups responsible for murdering civilians and invested enormous resources into weapons capable of striking its enemies. Those threats are not something the world can afford to dismiss.

Imagine a nuclear strike against Tel Aviv. A city turned into fire and ruins in moments, with hundreds of thousands of lives at risk. Israel would retaliate, and the Middle East could descend into a war unlike anything the region has ever experienced.

Now imagine the regime eventually acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles, placing targets much farther away within reach. The threats that once seemed confined to the Middle East could reach the capitals and cities of the Western world. Maybe even the United States.

One nuclear detonation could trigger retaliation, wider war and a chain of destruction that no government would be able to control.

This is why allowing the Islamic Republic to acquire nuclear weapons would be so dangerous. The regime would not need to launch a bomb immediately to transform the world. Simply possessing one could give it the protection to continue its revolutionary project with far less fear of military consequences.

That was the future we were moving toward.

It took Israel, a tiny country in comparison, to break the barrier of fear this regime had conjured up. They understood the existential nature of this entity more than anyone else. So they attacked and showed the world that the bully of the Middle East was not as powerful as it portrayed itself.

The danger has now been pushed back, thanks to Israel and America, but it has not disappeared. If the Islamic Republic survives, rebuilds its arsenal and resumes its nuclear ambitions, the world could eventually face the same nightmare again.

I believe future generations may look back at this moment and realize just how dangerous the consequences of inaction could have been.

Those who insist that this is “not our war,” or that events in Iran have nothing to do with them, fail to understand how quickly a threat in one part of the world can become a catastrophe for everyone.

Turning your back on a gaping hole in the ground does not prevent a monster from climbing out of it. It merely ensures that you won’t see it coming.

By the time you finally recognize the danger, it may already be too late.

The Iranian People and Reza Pahlavi

Today, we find ourselves in a different situation.

The Islamic Republic has suffered enormous military damage, but its ruling structures have not disappeared. Its capabilities have been weakened, yet the threat of their eventual reconstruction remains. A regime that survives a military defeat can rebuild, adapt and return with an even greater determination to secure the weapons it believes will protect it from another attack.

But there is another force in this story, one far more important to Iran’s long-term future than any missile or nuclear facility.

The Iranian people.

In January 2026, Iranians once again demonstrated extraordinary courage by taking to the streets and demanding an end to the Islamic Republic. Across the country, people risked their lives confronting security forces that had already shown, time and again, their willingness to kill those who challenged their authority.

Thousands upon thousands lost their lives in the crackdown. Families were shattered, protesters were imprisoned, and the regime once again attempted to extinguish dissent through terror.

Yet something particularly significant emerged during these demonstrations.

Protesters were chanting the name of Reza Pahlavi, the son of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran’s last monarch. Some shouted “Long live the Shah,” while others called for the return of the Pahlavi family.

Consider the significance of that.

For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic has controlled Iran’s education system, state television and official historical narrative. It has spent decades demonizing the monarchy and teaching successive generations to view the Pahlavis as enemies of the Iranian people.

Yet the name of the very dynasty the revolution overthrew was being shouted openly in the streets, by people who understood that doing so could cost them their lives.

This is where I believe many people outside Iran fail to understand the importance of Reza Pahlavi.

His significance is not merely that he is the son of Iran’s last Shah. It is that his name has become a powerful rallying point for Iranians seeking to bring down the Islamic Republic.

Previous uprisings demonstrated the courage of the Iranian people, but courage alone does not bring down an entrenched dictatorship. Protest movements also need political organization, coordination and a recognizable figure around whom people can unite.

For decades, the regime benefited from the absence of such a focal point. Iranians could take to the streets in enormous numbers, but converting that courage into a sustained, coordinated political challenge proved difficult.

Reza Pahlavi has changed the nature of that conversation.

Look at the demonstrations that followed the January uprising. In February, approximately 250,000 people gathered in Munich in response to Pahlavi’s call for international action. In Toronto, an estimated 350,000 people marched against the Islamic Republic, many carrying his portrait and the pre-revolutionary Iranian flag.

These were not small gatherings of nostalgic monarchists. They were enormous demonstrations of Iranians demanding a different future for their country, with Pahlavi emerging as a central figure in their mobilization.

The images speak for themselves.

There is something moving about watching people who have been scattered across the world, many driven from their homeland by the very regime they oppose, come together beneath the name of a dynasty the Islamic Republic has spent 47 years trying to discredit.

And I believe that connection goes deeper than politics.

Remember the civilization we discussed at the beginning? The thousands of years of history, the Persian kings, the cultural identity that existed long before the Islamic Republic?

For many Iranians, the Pahlavi name represents a connection to a different understanding of their country. An Iran that looked outward, developed its industries, expanded opportunities and imagined a future among the world’s modern nations.

In Reza Pahlavi, those historical memories meet the present struggle for freedom.

His importance lies in the fact that he has become a recognizable figure around whom a revolutionary movement can organize, while offering a political framework for what comes after the Islamic Republic.

And that framework is crucial.

Reza Pahlavi has spoken and written extensively about a future Iran, articulating four fundamental principles around which Iranians can unite: Iran’s territorial integrity, separation of religion and state, individual liberties and equality before the law, and the Iranian people’s right to determine their own political future.

That final principle matters enormously.

A free Iran would be one in which the people themselves decide, through a democratic process, whether their country should become a constitutional monarchy, a republic or another democratic system.

This is not about crowning a king before the Iranian people have had their say. It is about the struggle to remove a system that denies them that choice in the first place.

The Iranian people have spent decades trying to reclaim their country. What makes the present moment so significant is that a movement once repeatedly fragmented has found in Pahlavi a figure capable of bringing enormous numbers of people together behind that struggle.

And if that struggle succeeds, the implications could be extraordinary.

Imagine a Free Iran

We have spent much of this article examining the destruction brought upon Iran and the wider Middle East by the Islamic Republic. But there is another future worth imagining, one as beautiful in its possibilities as the alternative is horrifying.

Imagine a free Iran.

Imagine a country no longer governed by clerics who believe they possess divine authority over the lives of millions of people. A country where a young woman can walk through the streets without fearing arrest because of how she chooses to dress, where journalists can challenge politicians without disappearing into prison, and where religious belief is a matter of personal conviction rather than state coercion.

Imagine Iranian families who have spent decades separated by exile finally being able to return home without fear.

A country whose immense human potential is no longer suffocated by the demands of a revolutionary state.

Iran has an educated population, enormous natural resources, remarkable cultural heritage and a diaspora that has demonstrated its talents across the world. Under a stable political system with accountable institutions, those strengths could help transform its economy and restore its place as one of the region’s most important centres of commerce, innovation and culture.

International sanctions could eventually be lifted as relations normalize. Investment could return. Iranian businesses could reconnect with global markets, while international companies rediscover the opportunities offered by a country of more than 90 million people.

For Europe, the opportunities could be worth billions in renewed trade, investment and economic cooperation. Instead of dealing with a hostile regime threatening energy supplies and international shipping, Europe could gain a major trading partner with enormous resources, a growing consumer market and vast potential for development.

Imagine the universities, the industries, the scientific research and the technological advancements that could emerge from a generation no longer burdened by political repression and international isolation.

Imagine Iranian cinema, literature, music and art flourishing without the suffocating hand of state censorship. The beautiful architecture, landscapes and historical sites of Iran welcoming visitors from around the world, while Iranian families once again enjoy the opportunities that come with greater prosperity and freedom.

The transformation would not end at Iran’s borders.

A government no longer committed to exporting an Islamic revolution would have little reason to continue spending enormous sums arming terrorist organizations across the Middle East. Hezbollah, Hamas and other Iranian-backed groups could suffer a devastating loss of financial and military support, changing the balance of power that has shaped regional conflicts for decades.

Lebanon might finally have a greater opportunity to restore the authority of its own institutions. Yemen could move further away from becoming a battlefield for competing regional powers. Countries that have spent generations fearing Iranian-backed attacks could begin directing more of their resources toward development rather than defence.

Even the United States could find itself in a different position. For decades, America has maintained a major military presence in the Middle East, in part to contain the threats posed by the Islamic Republic and protect its allies. A stable, peaceful Iran could help reduce those threats and, over time, lessen the need for such an extensive American military presence in the region.

Think of what that would mean. Fewer resources devoted to containing terrorism and preparing for another regional war, and more opportunities for trade, investment and cooperation.

But perhaps one of the most moving possibilities concerns the relationship between Iran and Israel.

Remember Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who permitted Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem more than 2,500 years ago?

For centuries, the histories of the Persian and Jewish peoples have been intertwined. Even in modern times, before the Islamic Revolution, Iran and Israel maintained important strategic and economic ties.

Imagine those two peoples rebuilding that relationship.

Imagine Israeli tourists walking through the ancient ruins of Persepolis, while Iranians travel freely to Jerusalem. Imagine their scientists working together, their businesses trading, and their universities exchanging students. Imagine a Middle East in which the relationship between Iranians and Israelis is no longer defined by the threats of a revolutionary government, but by the interests, friendships and opportunities of their people.

There is something profoundly moving about the historical symmetry.

More than 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great helped make possible the return of Jewish exiles to their homeland. In our own time, Israel has played a central role in confronting the regime that has kept millions of Iranians under authoritarian rule.

History would have come full circle, though this time the relationship would not be between kings and their subjects, but between two peoples free to determine their own futures.

Of course, none of this would happen overnight.

Forty-seven years of repression, corruption, institutional decay and economic mismanagement cannot simply be erased with the fall of a government. A transition would be difficult. Institutions would need to be rebuilt, competing political interests reconciled, and a society traumatized by decades of authoritarianism would need time to recover.

There would be enormous challenges along the way.

But the possibilities are real.

We are not talking about inventing a new civilization out of nothing. We are talking about allowing one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with all its history, talent and potential, to flourish without the suffocating weight of the Islamic Republic.

Think about what that would mean for an Iranian child born today.

A child who might grow up without being taught to hate America or Israel. Who might never have to fear the morality police, a political prison or the consequences of speaking freely. Who could pursue an education, build a business, become a scientist, an artist or a political leader, and do so without having to flee the country of their birth.

Now imagine millions of those children growing up in a society where their futures are determined not by the demands of revolutionary clerics, but by their own ambitions and abilities.

That is the Iran worth imagining.

It is also the Iran that has been hidden beneath the dark cloth for nearly half a century. The candle was never extinguished. Despite everything, the Iranian people kept it burning.

And perhaps, after all these years, the world will finally get to see how brightly it can shine.

If you are someone who wants to see a safer, more prosperous world, not merely for yourself but for your children, their children and the people you love, then the future of Iran should matter enormously to you.

Because a free Iran would not simply be a victory for the Iranian people. It could become one of the most consequential transformations of our time, reshaping the Middle East and opening possibilities that generations have been denied.

That is why Iran matters.