A mummified body found near a shrine in Tehran could be of the early 20th-century Iranian monarch Reza Shah, a polarising figure whose reappearance would be problematic for the country’s present Islamic leaders.
Local media have published conflicting reports about this week’s discovery at Abdol-Azim shrine, close to a former royal mausoleum south of the capital where the shah had been buried.
Conservative news agencies sympathetic to the leadership rejected suggestions that the remains were of the former ruler, but many believe the denials may be linked to fears of royalist nostalgia taking hold at a time when the Islamic Republic is struggling to defend its achievements since the revolution.
The mausoleum was destroyed after the 1979 revolution, which deposed the Pahlavi dynasty, when an extremist cleric led a group who climbed its tower and destroyed it in a rampage using pneumatic drills. The cleric, Sadegh Khalkhali, later known as the “hanging judge” due to his infamous killings, expressed regret in his memoir that he was unable to find Reza Shah’s body.
It is still not clear if the mummified body is that of Reza Shah, but the location of the discovery and the resemblance between an image of the mummy and a photograph of Reza Shah before his burial have given credence to the claim.
Chants in support of Reza Shah, not heard for decades, featured strongly in weeks of unrest across Iran earlier this year, demonstrating the extent of public discontent about the state of the country under the ayatollahs.
“Reza Shah, bless your soul,” people chanted during protests over economic grievances that took on a political dimension as they spread to as many as 80 cities.