Exiled Empress Farah Pahlavi says she is convinced the Iranian people will be victorious in their struggle against the clerical regime.
PARIS: The widow of Iran’s last shah says there is “no turning back” after a wave of protests against the country’s clerical authorities.
In an exclusive interview with AFP, 87-year-old Farah Pahlavi said she is convinced the Iranian people will emerge victorious.
Driven into exile with her husband in January 1979, she said her desire is to return to Iran.
“What truly matters is not my personal fate,” she said from her Paris apartment.
“It is that the youth and the entire Iranian people finally be free and rid of this criminal, backward and obscurantist regime.”
Pahlavi said it was her duty to convey a message of support to her compatriots and to the world, which she said must help them.
She posed for the interview in front of Iran’s former flag, emblazoned with a lion and a sun.
Crowned empress by her husband Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, her path shifted when they were driven from the throne by the Islamic revolution.
She has since lived in exile, dividing her time mainly between Paris and the United States.
Her eldest son, Reza Pahlavi, now says he is ready to lead a democratic transition in Iran.
Nationwide rallies broke out in Iran earlier this month, challenging the Islamic republic in power for over four decades.
The protests were triggered by smaller rallies over economic hardship and were met with a violent crackdown.
Rights groups say the crackdown has left thousands dead.
