For years, Pahlavi had presented himself as a unifying figure, in keeping with a tradition of Iranian kingship as the glue that had held the fractious Persian Empire together. His strategists, ancien-régime figures who had surrounded him for nearly thirty years, believed that an inclusive approach would showcase his ability to lead and secure potential backers in the U.S. and in Europe. As recently as 2022, Pahlavi was trying to work within the often quarrelsome sphere of Iranian diaspora politics. During the Women, Life, Freedom movement that fall, prominent activists in Washington, D.C., were vying to take credit for sparking the nationwide protests. When a coalition of figures assembled at a Georgetown University forum, in February, 2023, the former Crown Prince sat humbly in a row of eight, alongside two actresses, a soccer player, and an Iranian Kurdish separatist.