By Dr. Sofey Saidi
Scholar of International Relations & Latin American Politics
When Venezuela’s opposition leader and recent Nobel laureate María Corina Machado appeared alongside Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former monarch, she may have intended to show solidarity between nations struggling under dictatorship. Instead, she revealed the danger of confusing resistance with restoration. This raised a deeper question: is this a convergence of exiles, or a confusion of principles?
A month before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado remotely addressed an Iran-focused conference organized by groups sympathetic to Reza Pahlavi and his circle. Her brief remarks were framed as an expression of solidarity with the Iranian people’s struggle for freedom. Yet the venue itself raised uneasy questions about the boundaries of democratic fellowship. In aligning, even symbolically, with a platform tied to Iran’s former monarchy, Machado risked blurring the moral distinction between authentic popular resistance and elite nostalgia for restored power.
As an Iranian scholar specializing in Latin American politics, I recognize the symbolic appeal of both figures. Each claim to stand against authoritarianism, yet the parallel ends there. Pahlavi represents the ghost of a dynasty overthrown by the Iranian people in 1979, a people who rose up precisely to end hereditary rule. Any suggestion that he should lead Iran after the collapse of the theocracy betrays the revolution’s most fundamental lesson: democracy cannot be inherited.
Machado, for her part, has bravely opposed the Maduro regime. But she must also guard against the temptation of aligning with exiled elites who embody the very systems of privilege their nations once rejected. Her power lies in her authenticity as a woman who fought within her own country, not as a figurehead of transnational anti-authoritarian theater.
Democracy, whether in Tehran or Caracas, is not a stage for nostalgia. It is a structure of accountability built from the bottom up, by citizens, not heirs. For Iranians, this truth has been written in blood. The four-decade-old organized Resistance movement and the most recent uprisings reject both monarchy and theocracy as twin faces of patriarchal domination. The Iranian people do not seek to trade turbans for crowns.
Machado’s Nobel platform gives her a rare opportunity to champion the real architects of democracy: the women and men in Iran and Venezuela who resist oppression without expecting inheritance. By doing so, she can transcend the old model of exiles anointing one another as so-called legitimate saviors.
Reza Pahlavi’s quest to rebrand monarchy as democracy is a political mirage. His lineage, not his leadership, or rather, his lack of it, defines him. And while he speaks the language of modernity, he carries the burden of a dynasty that silenced dissent, enriched elites, and laid the groundwork for clerical reaction. Iran’s revolution was not perfect, but it was clear in one respect: sovereignty belongs to the people, not to a family name.
María Corina Machado would serve democracy best by rejecting both forms of tyranny, the clerical and the royal. The world has enough kings and messiahs; it needs builders of institutions. Her solidarity should be with Iran’s Resistance movement, the young women, students and workers who stand for genuine democracy without nostalgia for crowns or robes.
Solidarity, to have meaning, must be rooted in principle, not optics. It must elevate the powerless, not rehabilitate the powerful. The unholy solidarity between Pahlavi and Machado serves neither Venezuela nor Iran. It flatters Western audiences but betrays the deeper truth that freedom is not transferable and democracy is never inherited.
Author’s Note:
This article was updated to clarify that María Corina Machado’s remote address to an Iran-related conference occurred prior to her Nobel Peace Prize recognition. There is no record of her expressing support for Reza Pahlavi following that award. The author’s analysis regarding symbolic alliances and democratic responsibility remains unchanged.