I have vivid memories of the Shah’s visit to Berlin on June 2, 1967. At the time, many media outlets were more interested in the Shah’s display of grandeur and in the elegance of his wife, Farah Diba, who for many years served as a fashion icon for countless women. Many Berliners were also pleased to receive visits from foreign dignitaries during an era marked by the Berlin Wall, barbed wire, and the Cold War. That was understandable. Yet there were also many who wished to draw attention to the regime’s human rights abuses. And that, and making your opinion being heard is, as we know, also part of democracy. As one of the student representatives of the Free University of Berlin, I attended as an observer at the students` demonstration in front of Schöneberg Town Hall, where the Shah was paying a courtesy visit to then-Mayor Heinrich Albertz in order to sign Berlin’s Golden Book. The number of demonstrators outside the town hall was not large—as the photographs that remain available today clearly show—and the demonstration area was effectively…
