170 clergy, leaders and activists of Iran's Christian community, in a letter to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, backed the foundation's decision to award the 2026 Freedom Prize to the people of Iran and to entrust it to Prince Reza Pahlavi on behalf of the Iranian nation. Prince Reza Pahlavi's press office published the letter on Monday, 26 October 2026.
The signatories write that awarding the prize to the people of Iran is a sign of global solidarity with a nation fighting for freedom, and that they "fully" support entrusting it to Prince Reza Pahlavi to receive at St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt.
Defending freedom of belief and religious minorities
The authors of the letter recall that Iran's Christians, along with other religious minorities, have faced persecution, repression and systematic discrimination for decades under the Islamic Republic. According to them, Prince Reza Pahlavi has always defended the fundamental rights of all Iranians regardless of belief and religion, and has continued the Pahlavi family's path of protecting religious minorities, institutionalising freedom of belief and peaceful coexistence.
The signatories describe Prince Reza Pahlavi as a defender of religious minorities, especially Christians, and consider him a worthy trustee of the prize. They also thank the Pahlavi family for its quiet humanitarian help to Iranian Christian refugees in Greece and other countries who were forced to leave Iran because of persecution.
The 2026 Freedom Prize and the Frankfurt ceremony
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is close to Germany's Free Democratic Party, has awarded the 2026 Freedom Prize to the people of Iran and asked Prince Reza Pahlavi to accept it in trust on behalf of the Iranian nation until it can be handed to freely elected representatives of Iranians. The award ceremony will be held on 7 November at St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, and the Prince's supporters have called for a rally in Frankfurt on the same day.
Groups of Iranian republicans had earlier also backed awarding the prize to the people of Iran and its acceptance by Prince Reza Pahlavi; support that shows backing for his leadership of the transition to a free Iran has gone beyond political and religious boundaries.
170 Iranian Christian clergy and activists called Prince Reza Pahlavi a worthy trustee of the Iranian people's Freedom Prize.
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