Pan-Iranist Progressive Reflection: The Lingering Shadows of Qajar and Safavid Ethics in Modern Iran
Inherited Mentality Across Dynasties and Regimes
The ethical and political mentality of the Qajar and Safavid dynasties continues to haunt both the Pahlavi monarchy and the semi-political factions of the Islamic Republic. These legacies are not merely historical—they are behavioral codes, rhetorical patterns, and governance instincts that shape how power is wielded and how truth is avoided.
Today’s factions accuse one another of betrayal, corruption, or incompetence, yet both are deeply implicated in the same inherited frameworks. The ethics of flattery, avoidance, and theatrical diplomacy—hallmarks of Qajar court culture—persist in modern political theater.
Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Romanticization of Fath-Ali Shah
The former foreign minister’s recent praise of Fath-Ali Shah’s intelligence during the Russo-Persian wars is emblematic of this distortion. To elevate a monarch whose reign saw catastrophic territorial losses as a symbol of wisdom is not historical analysis—it is political nostalgia. Zarif’s comments on women’s freedom and minority representation are similarly framed within a Safavid-Qajar lens: symbolic gestures, not structural reform. These ethics prioritize appearance over accountability, and legacy over justice.
Bakhtiari Silence and the Jiroft Landlord Assassination
The Bakhtiari people, renowned for their oral history and ancestral preservation, have disappointed those who seek truth and reconciliation. Their silence regarding the assassination of the Jiroft landlord—a survivor of Zand-Afshar lineage and alleged bearer of hidden dynastic wealth—is not just political.
It is a moral failure. What do they have to lose? Soraya Esfandiary is gone, her descendants hold no claim to Iran’s future crown. The Pahlavi properties remain dormant, waiting for reclamation—unless Prince Reza has already sabotaged their return.
Farah Diba and the Score Unsettled
Queen Farah, in exile, has had every opportunity to distance herself from the Qajar-Safavid-Pahlavi entanglement. Yet she remains silent on the matter of dynastic restitution and historical justice. Her legacy, too, is shaped by the ethics of inherited privilege and selective memory. The Pan-Iranist Progressive movement demands clarity, not nostalgia.
The Psychology of an Exile Queen: Disillusionment, Legacy, and the Rise of Pan-Iranist Resolve
The Weight of Dynastic Expectation
As the third wife of Mohammad Reza Shah, Queen Farah Diba carried not only the ceremonial role of consort but the psychological burden of dynastic continuity. Her marriage symbolized a final attempt to stabilize a monarchy already shaken by internal dissent and external pressure. In exile, her identity became tethered to the hope that her son, Reza Pahlavi, would rise to reclaim the throne—not merely as a political figure, but as a cultural and historical redeemer.
Maternal Disappointment and Dynastic Disintegration
When that son fails to meet the expectations—refusing the full weight of royal responsibility, avoiding decisive leadership, and distancing himself from the deeper cultural obligations of Iranian heritage—the psychological impact on the queen is profound. This is not simply political disappointment; it is existential grief. She witnesses the unraveling of a legacy she once embodied, now suspended in exile, with no clear heir willing to carry the torch. Her silence becomes a form of mourning, her public gestures increasingly symbolic rather than strategic.
The Rise of the Pan-Iranist Progressive as a Psychological Counterforce
Into this vacuum steps the Pan-Iranist Progressive—a movement not born of nostalgia, but of active remembrance and principled defiance. Where the exiled prince hesitates, the Pan-Iranist speaks. Where the royal heir retreats, the movement advances. This shift is not just political—it is psychological. The queen, once the emotional center of dynastic hope, now watches as her son’s inaction is eclipsed by a grassroots revival of Zand, Afshar, and Safarid values. Her chin drops, not in shame, but in stunned recognition: the crown she preserved in exile is being reimagined by those who never wore it.
Autumnal Symbolism and the Fall of Illusions
The image of chins dropping “like leaves in autumn” captures the quiet collapse of illusion. Autumn is the season of reckoning—when what was once green and vibrant falls away, revealing the bare truth beneath. The queen’s psychological state mirrors this seasonal metaphor: a slow, graceful descent from hope to disillusionment, from dynastic pride to historical humility.
Legacy Reclaimed Beyond Bloodline
In the Pan-Iranist Progressive, the queen may see a reflection of what her lineage failed to protect: a movement rooted in cultural accountability, historical literacy, and warrior ethics. It is not a rejection of monarchy—it is a reclamation of its original purpose. The psychology of an exile queen, then, is not merely maternal—it is mythic. She becomes a witness to the rebirth of Iranian dignity, not through her son, but through the people who remember what the crown once stood for.
Conclusion The exile queen’s psychology is shaped by loss, expectation, and the painful clarity of watching history move without her. Yet in the rise of Pan-Iranist Progressive values, she may find a bittersweet redemption—not in the heir she raised, but in the heritage she once represented.
The True Values: Zand, Afshar, and Safarid Lineage
The classic Pan-Iranist party once stood for Iranian-centric values now progressively rooted in the warrior ethos of Zand and Afshar dynasties is a great idea. These were dynasties of resistance, not submission. The Safarid dynasty, often overlooked, embodied revolutionary patriotism with swords in hand and no tolerance for foreign domination. Today’s political parties lack this clarity. They jump from the 10th century to the 14th, skipping the thousand-year struggle that defines Iranian resilience.
Isfahan and the Safavid Myth
As someone born and raised in Isfahan—the capital of the Safavid dynasty—I know firsthand that the people do not blindly cherish Safavid ethics. They remember the excesses, the exaggerations, and the betrayals. Nader Shah Afshar’s order to override a painting of Shah Abbas was not vandalism—it was a correction of myth. The battle was exaggerated, and the truth was buried beneath brushstrokes.
A Toast to Shah Abbas
There was only one way to make a memorable wine toast with Shah Abbas: with clarity, courage, and no illusions. The Pan-Iranist Progressive does not drink to nostalgia. It drinks to truth, to resistance, and to the restoration of Iran’s rightful dynastic dignity.