From Hostages to Exiles: My Encounter with Iran’s Royal Family and History

Personal stories amid the turmoil of revolution and exile.

Some folks do not know the history of Iran. The current regime in Iran is the result of a revolution back in 1979, which I remember well. I was in the eighth grade when 66 Americans were taken and held hostage in Iran. They let 13 go after a couple of weeks, and then one more due to illness shortly after that. But the remaining 52 were held for well over a year.

Jimmy Carter was the president. I met that guy when I was barely four years old, and I thought he was creepy and fake even then. He was a weak, peacenik president, and the world knew he had no will to get anything done, so Iran held our hostages without fear. He tried a soft rescue that failed embarrassingly. Ronald Reagan smoked Carter in the election that year, and Iran let the hostages go on the very day Reagan was inaugurated because he promised he was going to get them out.

That is the same regime that, for the last 25 years, has been run by the man who has been threatening the destruction of Israel and the United States. The current “Supreme Leader” is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The founder of the current “Islamic Republic of Iran” was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He was the founder of their revolution, which overthrew the royal family seen in the picture above.

The royal family of Iran rose to power during a period of instability after World War I. Iran had been ruled by the Islamic Qajar dynasty and was in decline. Reza Khan, who became known as Reza Shah Pahlavi, was a military leader for Iran during WWI, and when the war ended, he was backed by Great Britain in a military coup against the Qajar dynasty and became the first “Shah” of the Pahlavi dynasty with the support of the Iranian parliament in 1925.

Reza Pahlavi was a Muslim, but a “Twelver Shia,” and he wanted to return to secular rule, like Iran was in the pre-Islamic era. Basically, he desired the glory of the Biblical era when “Cyrus the Great” was the ruler. He promoted Iranian nationalism, making Iran distinct from the rest of the Muslim world, and he reduced the power of the clergy over society. That is why Iran flourished from 1925 to 1941 and became a hotspot for tourism. Iran was free then.

The Shah passed his crown on to the next “Shah,” or “king” in the Farsi language, his son Mohammed Reza Shah. He was more authoritarian and was seen as corrupt, but he promoted women’s rights and modernization. He was seen as corrupt, but that may have been because he wanted to westernize Iran even more. He was the “Shah” in 1979 and thus was overthrown by the current regime.

I am writing this because of the perception that those of us who supported the bombing of Iran hate Iranians. It’s amazing how people make the political so personal. I cannot speak for the president or any member of Congress, nor for anyone else who has supported the efforts to stop Iran from fulfilling its threats against the United States and Israel, which the current regime is bent on doing. But I can speak for myself. I do not hate Iranians.

I thought I would share my experience with Iran.

Growing up in Southeast Texas, the only thing I knew about Iran was what happened in 1979. Iranians in Texas who were here on student visas were persecuted. I remember that. A friend of mine who went to Marble Falls for vacation ran into Iranians there, and they were attacked by locals and run off. I remember hearing on the radio the song “Bomb Iran,” which was a Texas thing made by a local Houston band, I think, but it played on the radio pretty frequently. It was set to the tune of The Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.” It was catchy, kitschy. We sang it with passion because we wanted our hostages released.

After Reagan took office, I never much thought about Iran. It wasn’t until 1999 that I met the first Iranian person I ever knew. I won’t put his name here because he was actually part of the royal family!

I was working in the SCADA industry, and he was running production at a major Fortune 100 company’s facility. He was automating all his production lines and asked our software vendor for someone who could make the automation system look exactly like the production lines, in 3-D (this was before 3-D made it into automation software). My company was recommended to him by the software vendor, and myself in particular, because that was my specialty—I had won awards for it three years in a row at that point.

He came to our office from his city. We met, and I demonstrated how I did my work and showed examples of other systems I had designed. He chose us, and not long after, we visited his facility and began work on the first product line.

After succeeding with that first line and developing a great rapport with his production personnel, we brought him down again to show him designs for the next lines. When he was in our office, in the middle of a meeting, he told me, “Dan, I told my wife this about you: if I put this guy Dan in front of you, in a million years, you would never guess what he does for a living.” I was confused. “Why?” “In a million years, you would never guess he was a SCADA engineer. He looks like Elvis Presley. He should be in Hollywood!” It was a running joke with some coworkers. I was flattered, and I saw the personable side of this fellow, whom I knew almost nothing about other than his professional identity.

Then, when we started installing the next production lines, I spent quite a bit of time with him going over minor modifications and changes. He loved our work, and we did multiple projects for him over several years. During that first set of installations, we got to know each other better. One day, just the two of us were chatting. I finally asked him where he was from because I like to satisfy my curiosity about those things, and I liked this guy a lot. He was in a position of power but was humble. He told me he was from Iran.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“What brought you to the U.S.?”

“I was exiled back in 1979.”

I knew enough about Iran to know that it was the royal family and loyalists who were exiled. “With the Shah?”

“Yes. I am part of the royal family.” This was about 2000. He was probably in his forties, so he would have been a child or teenager in 1979. I knew his name, but I’m certain it was an alias. He implied he was one of the princes. That is the understanding I walked away with, but I’m not certain of the exact wording of that conversation 25 years ago. If he was a prince, my suspicion is that he was not the crown prince but a younger brother or cousin. There were 63 princes and princesses exiled in 1979, and he could have been any one of them. I simply don’t know.

The point is, this was one of the nicest men I have ever met: humble, fair, and probably the best professional I ever worked for who contracted me and my team to build SCADA systems. I really liked him. He was personable, funny, laid back, and very kind.

So no, I do not hate Iranians, Muslim or not. I have since met other possible members of that royal family. One of them was a female who had the royal name and looked like a princess, but I never asked. I did tell her about my friend, though.

There are those in Iran who want the crown prince back. They want the royal family back. They want their freedom and prosperity back. And they are glad for what Trump did. People in America, including some of our top politicians, do not understand the background of what is going on over there.

Personally, I don’t think we will succeed in overthrowing the current government. I think Iran is part and parcel to end-time events—key, in fact. The current regime fits the dynamic of biblical eschatology. We are about to hit this concept in our Torah study on Thursday nights, too. It will be very interesting this time.

There are kind people everywhere. I have met and know some very kind Muslims. I do not paint a whole people group with one brush, though I’m sure I have been perceived to do so in the past. But I do think Iran will stay the way it is. I further think that the Sunni and Shia divide will be resolved soon, and the whole Mesopotamian region will unify. They are already discussing it. In 2023, they discussed creating the “Petro-Dinar.” I think this event could motivate them to do that. Biblically, I think they will eventually unite anyway—Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and possibly other Muslim nations in the region. That is what I think we are seeing.

So, no, I do not hate Iranians. But I do despise their current regime, and I do not trust them as far as I can spit in a West Texas headwind. I hope for Iran to become free, but that may not happen until Messiah is the one who does it—for the whole world. Islam will not go away until then.