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May 16, 2002 THE RETURN OF THE PEACOCK THRONE By Tom Plate The Iranians of Tehran West chatter about the overthrow of the Islamic regime back home (C) 2002 Asia Pacific Media Network |
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The hot topic is not whether the Iranian monarchy will someday return to power -- it is widely assumed it will -- but whether Reza Pahlavi III, son of the late Shah of Iran, deposed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, is a suitable heir to the throne. This is no joke. The conversations are visceral, angry -- and plotting. No wonder: This is the U.S. headquarters of Iranians-in-exile. Home to more than 3,000 Iran-born citizens, Beverly Hills has the largest concentration of Iranians in the country. About half the student body in the high school is Iranian. Very few Iranians here were happy to see the departure of the Shah Pahlavi, as repressive as his regime was. Some had worked for him in cushy jobs; others had made fortunes under his regime. For Iranian women, the Shah provided a sunburst of social equality. No mullah, representing a primitive, throwback system at odds with the Shah’s modernist approach, could get elected dogcatcher in Beverly Hills. The Shah’s 41-year-old son officially resides in Virginia, but if he ever does make a comeback, he should do so from this sister city of Cannes, home to Hollywood stars and studio moguls. Talk about wealth: the high school, breeding ground for actors such as Robert Redford and Nicolas Cage, even has a live oil well on its grounds, pumping revenue. In fact, there is probably more hard-cash liquidity here than in Argentina. So it won’t be for lack of funds if no serious effort is made to depose the Islamic regime in Tehran. In Beverly Hills, where every other resident seems to own a Mercedes or BMW, even the live-in help -- the maids and babysitters -- tool around in late-model Volvos. The ticklish topic of overthrow was raised anew with the downfall of the hated Talibans, viewed as clerical clones of the mullahs presiding over neighboring Iran. In Kabul, the triumphant return of 87-year-old Mohammad Zaher Shah after 29 years of exile in Rome prompted many Iranians here to dream of the day when the Pahlavi monarchy would also be restored. “I was very jealous,” an Iran-born Beverly Hills real estate agent told the Beverly Hills Weekly, a lively local paper. “I was wishing the same for my country. You don’t know how much my family is wishing and waiting (for) the new revolution.” That enthusiasm notwithstanding, the Iranian community here is deeply divided on the key issue of whether Reza III is the man for the job. Half the community seems to believe he is the rightful heir, no matter what his political views. The bloodlines of the Peacock Throne, as the Shah’s secular, pro-U.S. regime used to be called, go back centuries. But there’s a hitch in the story line of “The Return of the Shah.” The son doesn’t want the part; he wants to transform his beloved Iran into a modern parliamentary democracy. For many Iranians, the very idea is absurd. How can a monarch be a democrat? But the son’s insistence on bringing democracy to his country causes many to doubt his suitability to dethrone the mullahs -- and reestablish the Pahlavi glory days. If this well-heeled exile community ever does unite around the Shah’s son, it would be more than willing to give the Tehran government a violent push. Judging by the intense anti-fundamentalist feelings in Tehran West, the road to revolution begins in otherwise bucolic Beverly Hills. Call it the Rodeo Drive Counter-Revolution. |
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This column has appeared in the following papers: Honolulu Advertiser, South China Morning Post, The Straits Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Korea Times, and Japan Times. |
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Bio Remarks: Tom Plate is a professor of Policy and Communication Studies at UCLA where he founded the Asia Pacific Media Network. He is a regular columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International, the South China Morning Post, The Straits Times and the Honolulu Advertiser. He is a member of the World Economic Forum, the Pacific Council on International policy and the author of five books. He has worked at TIME, the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Mail of London. |
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Previous Columns: Political Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder (May 15, 2002) From World Cup to Peninsula Peace? (May 8, 2002) The Virtue of Keeping Mum on China-Taiwan (May 1, 2002) The Power of Saying 'No' or Doing Absolutely Nothing (April 24, 2002) |
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