Farah Pahlavi: '1st time we have seen a movement on such a scale in Iran'

Iran's former empress Farah Diba Pahlavi called the women protesting the Iranian regime "courageous" in an interview with i24NEWS senior diplomatic correspondent Christian Malard that aired Tuesday on his show "Malard at Large."

Recent protests were sparked in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who was apparently killed by Iranian authorities after her arrest by modesty police.

“The death of my sister really broke and tore my heart,” she said, referring to Amini. 

During the interview at her home in Paris, France, Pahlavi expressed her condolences to Amini's family, as well as the families of the dozens of protesters killed in the demonstrations against the regime after the incident.

“It is not acceptable,” she said, urging the overthrow of the regime.

In February of this year, Iran marked 43 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that removed Pahlavi's late husband from power as shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

“To go from Cyrus the Great to Khomeini — that’s just unthinkable.”

Asked by Malard if there is a possibility of destabilization, Pahlavi said there was because "there has never been a movement like this" with so much global support.

"This is the first time we have seen a movement on such a scale in Iran, in all the cities of Iran," she said.

Her son, Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, also spoke to Malard, saying that he supports a democratically-elected government with a separation of church and state to lead the country.