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\n Among the slogans chanted by protesters across Iran in the last two weeks, many have been calling for the return of the country\u2019s monarchy.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThis is the last battle. Pahlavi will return,\u201d demonstrators were seen shouting in video reviewed by CNN. \u201cJavid Shah (long live the king)!\u201d they cried. \u201cReza Shah, God bless your soul!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The man they were referencing, Reza Pahlavi, is the exiled son of Iran\u2019s last shah, the Persian word for king.\n <\/p>\n
\n Based in the US, he has sought to position himself as a de facto leader, declaring support for the protests and issuing direct calls for coordinated nationwide action.\n <\/p>\n
\n Pahlavi\u2019s father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted during Iran\u2019s 1979 revolution. Pahlavi was aged 16 at the time.\n <\/p>\n
\n In the years since, support for the deposed monarchy became taboo in Iran. Analysts say that it is unclear what might be driving the renewed excitement for the royal family in Iran.\n <\/p>\n
\n Arash Azizi, an academic and author of the book \u201cWhat Iranians Want,\u201d told CNN that, while Pahlavi \u201chas turned himself into a frontrunner in Iranian opposition politics,\u201d he is also a \u201cdivisive figure and not a unifying one.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The rallying around Pahlavi is the surest sign, analysts say, that Iran\u2019s Islamic Republic appears to have hit a dead-end.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIranians aren\u2019t opting for (Pahlavi) because he is present in the community but because they are despondent,\u201d said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and professor at Johns Hopkins University\u2019s School of Advanced International Studies.\n <\/p>\n
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