The media office of Prince Reza Pahlavi on Saturday, 24 October 2026, released a short video of a message from activists inside Iran addressed to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. The activists' message is summed up in a single sentence: “Prince Reza Pahlavi is the voice of us Iranians.”
The message comes two weeks before a ceremony at which the German Naumann Foundation will present its 2026 Freedom Prize to the people of Iran, with Prince Reza Pahlavi accepting it on behalf of the Iranian nation. The Prince's media office released the message in both Persian and English so that the foundation's German and European audiences can hear it too.
2026 Freedom Prize for the people of Iran
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, which is affiliated with Germany's liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), announced on 14 September that it would award this year's Freedom Prize not to an individual but to the people of Iran. Steffen Saebisch, chairman of the foundation's board, said the aim was to honour the desire for freedom of hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have risked their lives for change.
According to the foundation, Prince Reza Pahlavi will hold the prize in trust until the day it can be handed over to the freely elected representatives of the Iranian people. The Naumann Foundation said it chose him because of his standing as the best-known figure of the opposition to the Islamic Republic and his commitment to restoring democracy in Iran. The award ceremony will be held on 7 November in Frankfurt's Paulskirche, and Bijan Djir-Sarai, the FDP's foreign policy spokesman, will deliver the laudation.
Voices from inside Iran ahead of the November anniversary
The message from activists inside Iran was released one day after 171 monarchist activists and political prisoners inside Iran declared their support for Prince Reza Pahlavi's leadership in a statement. Earlier, a group of journalists and managers of Persian-language media outside Iran had also expressed their gratitude for the award.
These messages come as the Islamic Republic, ahead of the anniversary of the November 2019 protests, has stepped up checkpoints and security pressure in cities. Activists who send messages from inside Iran in the name of Prince Reza Pahlavi knowingly risk arrest and fabricated charges.
Ahead of the Frankfurt ceremony, activists inside Iran told the Naumann Foundation that Prince Reza Pahlavi is the voice of the people of Iran.
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