parsis.fund/public/official-statements/declaration-of-responsibility.html

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        <div class="classification">PUBLIC STATEMENT</div>
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            <div class="office-title">CYRUS PAHLAVI</div>
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                <strong>Document No:</strong> HRHCP-2026-02-01-01<br>
                <strong>Classification:</strong> Public Statement
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                <strong>Date:</strong> February 1, 2026<br>
                <strong>Pages:</strong> 8
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            Official Website: cyruspahlavi.com | Email: [email protected]<br>
            Press Contact: [email protected] | Government Liaison: [email protected]
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        DECLARATION OF RESPONSIBILITY AND INTENT
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        By Cyrus Pahlavi
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        In the name of God — the Merciful, the Forgiving
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        <strong>To the people of Iran</strong>—inside our homeland and across the world,<br>
        <strong>To our neighbors</strong> across the Gulf and the wider Middle East,<br>
        <strong>To the United States</strong> and to the international community:
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        My name is Cyrus Pahlavi.
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        I write as an Iranian—bound to Iran by blood, by memory, and by duty.
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        I do not treat lineage as a privilege above the people. I treat it as a burden of service: to defend Iran's dignity, to be restrained by law and conscience, and to remain accountable to the public trust.
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        Iran is a civilization older than any faction, deeper than any regime. We are the heirs of Persepolis and the great caravan routes; of scholars and jurists; of poetry that made ethics beautiful; of a people who have endured conquest, tyranny, and upheaval—yet kept their name, their language, and their pride.
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        Across centuries and across communities, Cyrus the Great is remembered for restraint after victory—for restoring sanctuaries and returning displaced peoples to rebuild their lives. In Jewish memory, he is honored for enabling the end of the Babylonian captivity and the return to rebuild in Jerusalem. The Cyrus Cylinder has been invoked by many as a global symbol of human dignity and fundamental human rights.
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        This is the Iranian standard I claim: strength under law; authority disciplined by conscience; faith honored without compulsion; pluralism protected by citizenship.
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        My grandmother was Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. She was called "La Panthère Noire"—the Black Panther—because she was fierce, outspoken, and unafraid of confrontation. She was formidable, often polarizing, and never indifferent to Iran's fate.
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        In July 1946, as Iran faced one of the early post-war tests of its sovereignty, my grandmother went to Moscow and met with Joseph Stalin at the Kremlin. She did not go as a spectator to history; she went to fight for Iran—directly, urgently, and with a patriot's refusal to be intimidated. That willingness to confront power, rather than flatter it, is the part of her spirit I intend to carry forward: not as entitlement, but as duty.
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        My great-grandmother was Queen Mother Tadj ol-Molouk—wife of Reza Shah and mother of Mohammad Reza Shah and Princess Ashraf. In her time, she became one of the first Iranian queens in the modern era to appear publicly in an official role, at a moment when the place of women in society was being contested, reshaped, and too often mishandled by the state.
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        My grandmother and great-grandmother insisted Iranian women must be full participants in national life, not shadows at the edges of it. Both served internationally and worked to elevate women's education, legal awareness, and public standing. I continue that legacy and commit myself to the dignity and security of Iranian women as a non-negotiable foundation of a free Iran.
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        My mother, Niloufar Afshar, belongs to that same line of Iranian women who carried family, country, and conscience through upheaval. In exile, she has stood for dignity without spectacle—and for duty without complaint.
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        The Pahlavi name is inseparable from Iran's modern history—its achievements, its wounds, and its unfinished work. Under our reign, Iran built the foundations of a civil state: schools and universities expanded; national institutions were strengthened; and the law began to recognize citizens—especially women—as full participants in the life of the nation, including women's enfranchisement and family-law reforms that strengthened women's legal standing.
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        Then the state collapsed in 1979. My family was driven into exile, and Iran was delivered into the hands of a revolutionary clerical order that replaced civil law with ideological power.
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        Today that order answers peaceful dissent with repression. Even in the regime's own account, the recent crackdown has left thousands dead; reporting has described far higher, contested estimates, and the true toll may not be known without an independent inquiry. Thousands more have been detained, and information has been choked by severe communications restrictions and blackouts.
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        The European Union has now designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—the central instrument of this repression—as a terrorist organisation. This is not symbolism. It is a recognition that Iran's crisis is not a normal dispute of politics, but a catastrophe of state violence.
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        I accept an inheritance of responsibility: to fight for a secular Iran, to speak for the dignity of the Iranian people, to insist on women's full equality, to defend Iran's unity, and to pursue peace with our neighbors through strength disciplined by law.
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        <strong>So I now make a clear pledge—moral, public, and binding on my own conduct:</strong>
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        <div class="commitment-title">A secular state, freedom of belief, and equal citizenship</div>
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            Iran is a nation of ancient faith and conscience. Our people pray in mosques, churches, synagogues, and fire temples; and many pray in silence, or not at all. In a free Iran, the state will stand neutral before every creed—so that faith is protected, not captured.
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            Iran must be governed by a secular constitution: no clerical monopoly over courts, schools, police, or public life; no religious police; no state ideology. The state will protect worship and conscience, not supervise them.
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            Every citizen—of every faith and none—stands equal under one civil law, with full security of life, property, honor, and worship.
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        <div class="commitment-title">National unity — one Iran, equal rights</div>
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            Iran's unity and territorial integrity are non-negotiable. Every Iranian—of every language, region, and belief—must have equal citizenship and equal protection under one civil law. Cultural dignity will be protected by the constitution; disputes will be resolved by courts and ballots, not violence or fragmentation.
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        <div class="commitment-title">Human dignity and equality before the law</div>
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            No Iranian is lesser before the law—ever. Not for gender, ethnicity, language, region, belief, or politics. Independent courts and due process are non-negotiable. Torture, forced confessions, arbitrary detention, hostage-taking, extrajudicial killing, and political imprisonment will end. This is not reform. This is the minimum standard of a lawful Iran.
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        <div class="commitment-title">Women's rights are national strength</div>
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            Women are half the nation and the foundation of every family. Equal legal protection, equal opportunity, and full participation in public life must be guaranteed—so Iranian women never again have to be heroic simply to live normally.
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        <div class="commitment-title">Justice without revenge</div>
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            I condemn atrocities and crimes against civilians—whoever commits them, whenever committed, in whatever name. But revenge cannot govern Iran. Iran must choose lawful accountability: truth-seeking, documentation, evidence, and due process—no collective punishment, no guilt by association, no show trials. Justice strong enough to be fair; fair enough to endure.
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        <div class="commitment-title">Peace with our neighbors — a doctrine of non-aggression</div>
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            Iran must be a source of stability, not disorder. I support non-aggression, respect for borders, maritime safety, de-escalation, and economic cooperation that benefits ordinary families—from Iran to the Gulf and beyond. Iran should keep agreements and seek prosperity—not export chaos.
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        <div class="commitment-title">Iranian self-determination — a credible, peaceful process</div>
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            Iran's future must be decided by Iranians: free speech, free assembly, free press, political pluralism, a transparent referendum, constitutional drafting, and elections. No foreign power will choose Iran's system; no domestic faction will impose it.
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        I will not pretend the question of Iran's future is small. It is not.
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        I make no demand for any system. I assert a principle: legitimacy comes from the nation, and authority must be bound by law.
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        If the Iranian people—freely and transparently—choose a constitutional monarchy, then the Crown must be limited by law: a guardian of constitutional continuity, a neutral symbol of the state, and a safeguard for peaceful transition—never a ruler above the nation. And if, in that lawful order, Iran calls for me to serve, I will not shrink from duty. I will carry it—and I will be bound by the constitution as tightly as any citizen is protected by it.
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        If the Iranian people choose a republic through the same credible process, that choice must be respected—fully and without obstruction.
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        To the international community, I ask for one thing above all: stand with the Iranian people without enlarging the suffering of the Iranian people. Support independent investigation, protection of civilians, release of prisoners of conscience, and accountability under law.
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        To my fellow Iranians: I offer my name and my life to one purpose—to serve and safeguard Iran's future—under law, with dignity, and with peaceful transition—whatever my station.
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        May God protect Iran.
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        May peace be upon the people of Iran, and upon all the peoples of our region.
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            <div class="signature-info"><strong>Cyrus Pahlavi</strong></div>
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            <div style="margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><strong>Witnessed and attested,</strong></div>
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            <div class="signature-info"><strong>Shahram Pahlavi-Nia</strong></div>
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        cyruspahlavi.com • HRHCP-2026-02-01-01 • Public Statement
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