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Quillette is where Freethought lives. We are an independent grassroots platform for heterodox ideas and fearless commentary.

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This week, we're going to be talking about what will become of Iran now that its supreme

leader, Ali Khamene, has fallen victim to the ongoing bombing campaign

by U.S. and Israeli forces. With me to discuss the issue is Kaveh Sharoos, an Iranian-born Canadian

lawyer and human rights activist who now serves as a senior fellow at the MacDonald-Lorgette Institute.

Before taking on this role, Kaveh served as a policy advisor on human rights to Global Affairs

Canada. A graduate of Harvard Law School in the University of Toronto, he recently led a successful

effort to convince Canada's parliament to recognize the 1988 massacre of political prisoners in Iran as constituting

crimes against humanity. During his career, Kavei has spent a lot of time networking with other

liberal-minded Iranian reformers. And we're going to discuss some of the tensions and rivalries

that exist within that community. Tensions and rivalries that exist within that community.

Tensions and rivalries that are coming to the fore, now that the demise of Iran's Islamist theocracy seems like a realistic short-term possibility.

In particular, we will discuss Reza Pallavi, the eldest son of the last Shah of Iran, who was

deposed in 1979.

For decades, Palavi has lived the life of a wealthy exile in the United States,

and he has used his wealth and freedom in the West to assemble a large body of supporters,

both on the ground in Iran and in cyberspace.

Many Iranians, especially those with positive memories of his father's strong-arm rule

before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, are looking to Palavi to take over the country

...