What are the “Immortal Guards” that , the exiled prince of Iran, refers to every now and then? Is this a body of dissidents capable of launching real developments or a mechanism of self-submission, concerning the public image of the leader of the pro-monarchist opposition? The question remains open to answer.
Prompts
In a press conference he gave a few days ago in Berlin in front of German media, the son of the last Iranian monarch, after trying to activate European reflexes by linking the war in Iran with that of Ukraine, highlighting their contribution to the “struggle for democracy”. It was not the first mention of the term, since in mid-March, and while the barrage of US-Israeli airstrikes against him was at its peak, the 65-year-old Pahlavi, who lives in Washington, addressed through his lengthy post on X an invitation to the “brave heroes of the Immortal Guard”, praising the courage of what he called thousands of pockets of resistance to the regime of the Islamic Republic. Speaking of “courage and self-sacrifice”, he even connected the action of the aforementioned groups with the massive anti-government demonstrations that began at the end of 2025 and lasted for about three weeks, shaking the country and leaving behind thousands of dead, the vast majority of them civilians.
Its placement was followed by the release of a digitized document which urges the creation of a network of small resistance groups that will for the time being be exhausted in acts of a symbolic nature. In fact, Pahlevi reiterated his belief that this way of acting works at the Congress of Conservative Political Action () of the Republican Party, where he attended about a month ago and made a statement about it. Although the former crown prince’s plans for widespread popular mobilization appear to have failed (so far at least), the naming is no accident.
History
The nickname “Guard of the Immortals” was what accompanied the Imperial Guard of the last Shah, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. But it traces its origin to the ancient historian Herodotus, who established the term to describe the ability of heavy infantry units of the ancient Achaemenid Empire to immediately replace dead or severely wounded hoplites, giving the impression that the bulk of their forces remains unchanged, without casualties. Going back to the 20th century, the action of the Imperial Guard – whose strength reached its zenith in the late 1970s, reaching 18,000 men – is linked to the harshest repression of protesters before the establishment of the theocratic regime. Iran’s Black Sunday, September 8, 1978, claimed the lives of 64 people and injured 205, due to the firing of the said guard on protesters.
Ridicule
Speaking of today’s “Immortals”, it is reasonable to wonder about the designs of the exiled Pahlavi. “It’s a show,” political scientist, Harvard University graduate and member Majid Rafizadeh said in a recent article. “This pattern of summoning the ‘Guard of the Immortals’ is driven more by nostalgia and spectacle than strategy. It would even be an insignificant event if it were not for its corrosive effect on the genuine opposition movements. These piecemeal actions are aimed at eroding the dynamics of organized resistance and blurring the distinction between activism and performance,” he adds, calling Pahlavi’s initiative “a dead end project, destined to become a new exhibit in the museum of failures of the would-be monarch.” “His failure to connect with the Iranian people, to whom he occasionally appeals by promoting an office that no one recognizes, makes him a ridiculous figure,” he concludes.
In a similar vein, Iranian-American University of Connecticut professor of mechanical engineering and pro-democracy activist Kazem Kazerounian called on Pahlavi before enlisting the “Immortals” to use “the hundreds of thousands of deserters that his entourage reports to be on his side.” Even more mocking are the comments on the social networking website platform, where, among other things, the infamous “Immortals” are compared to video game heroes, while Pahlavi’s political plan is characterized as “a melancholic, apocalyptic adventure”.
