Shabnam Assadollahi

Europe Has No Moral Authority Over Iran

“Le Monde and the West: Hypocrisy Over Iran”

Europeans love to lecture. Le Monde recently portrayed Reza Pahlavi as some “Israeli-influenced” figure. Yet the paper ignores the facts: France and Britain spent centuries exploiting Iran and the Middle East. They lecture Iran on democracy while their own hands are far from clean.

Britain’s Betrayal

In 1941, Britain invaded Iran, forced Reza Shah to abdicate, and exiled him to Mauritius. He died far from home, robbed of his vision for a modern, independent Iran. Britain has always chosen empire over ethics. Looting resources, weakening nations, and rewriting history—that is their pattern.

The White Revolution: Iran’s True Modernization
Mohammad Reza Shah’s White Revolution in the 1960s transformed Iran:
Land reform empowered farmers
Women gained the vote
Education and healthcare expanded
Industry flourished

Iran became one of Asia’s fastest-developing nations. But France and Britain feared a self-reliant Iran—they prefer nations weak enough to exploit.

France’s Role in the Islamic Republic
France, champion of liberty, sheltered Ayatollah Khomeini in 1978. From Paris, he toppled a secular monarchy. French authorities knew it would destabilize Iran, yet they allowed it. When the Islamic Republic took power, France normalized relations immediately. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Colonial Hypocrisy and Antisemitism

France and Britain looted India, Persia, Africa, and more, claiming to spread civilization. Both nations carry a history of antisemitism: the Dreyfus Affair, Britain’s 1939 White Paper. Today, anti-Israel hostility masquerades as “moral critique.” Le Monde’s attacks on Pahlavi are a stark example.

Meddling Abroad While Failing at Home
Western powers love to interfere abroad while ignoring crises at home:
Obama and Clinton left Libya and Syria in chaos
Bush destroyed Iraq
Biden compounded Afghanistan’s misery

How many more mistakes before they learn? Their meddling in MENA will not be forgotten.

Europe Fears a Strong Iran
A free, secular Iran terrifies France and Britain. They attack dissidents, ridicule monarchists, and amplify regime apologists. Iranians do not need colonial lectures. They want truth, justice, and respect.

A Warning
France and Britain have looted the world while preaching virtue. History remembers. The destruction they left in MENA, the lives lost, the displaced generations—these consequences will follow them. Iranians seek no saviors, only their own future. Western powers should beware: reckoning is coming and their crimes against humanity will not be forgotten.

About the Author
Shabnam Assadollahi is a human rights advocate, freelance journalist and educator. As a teenager, she was imprisoned for eighteen months in Evin Prison for her activisim against the Islamic Republic. She later became a recognized voice on Canadian radio, hosting Radio Hamseda, Ottawa for eight years, where she amplified education, culture, and resistance to oppression. Her advocacy contributed directly to the closure of the Islamic Republic’s embassy in Canada in 2012—an important blow to the regime’s transnational repression network. She is the recipient of multiple human rights and women’s rights awards for her sustained efforts to expose abuses inside Iran and beyond its borders. Shabnam’s primary and heartfelt interest is to focus on the Iranian community and world events affecting women and minority communities.
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