Vive La Répression: How France Sold Out Iran
Liberté, égalité, fraternité? More like hypocrisie, duplicité, complicité: France’s Quiet Alliance with Iran’s Tyranny
When people talk about the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, they usually picture furious crowds, burning effigies of the Shah, and Ayatollah Khomeini descending the airplane stairs like some medieval prophet returning to reclaim his land.
But the real story? It happened from a small sleeping village in France. Croissants, cafés, cassette tapes, shishas and wine.
One of the strangest, slimiest betrayals in modern history is how France — self-declared champion of liberté, égalité, fraternité — helped build the first modern Islamic theocracy. And they’ve been protecting their investment ever since.
The Revolution Exported from Paris
In 1978, Iran was in chaos. Protesters were out. The Shah was weakening. And into this moment stepped a relatively obscure cleric: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Where did this supposed man of “Islamic purity” run his revolution from? A nice garden villa outside Paris, thanks to President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s personal invitation.
And this wasn’t just a safe house — it was a war room. Press offices. Recording studios. International phone lines humming like a telethon for the apocalypse. Journalists from Le Monde, The New York Times, and the BBC treated it like pilgrimage. Khomeini wasn’t hiding; he was directing the revolution — from France.
Cassette tapes of his sermons flooded Iran like pirated vinyl at a record fair. His speeches were coordinated with clerics in Qom and Tehran via French telephones. Western media delivered his propaganda daily to the world. The first Islamic theocracy of the modern age was broadcast from the land of Camembert and Sartre.
And why? Because France thought they were being clever.
Many in the French elite — those same intellectuals who couldn’t find their car keys but could write 500 pages about “imperialism” — thought they were striking a blow against American-backed dictatorship. Get rid of the Shah. Stick it to Washington. Surely Iran would pivot into some nice, moderate, European-flavored anti-imperialism.
I don’t need to do a spoiler alert; we all can see where we are: It didn’t moderate. It became more radical and vicious, including the lefty marxist that helped it take power.
Within months of landing in an Air France flight, Khomeini’s return in 1979: purges, executions, headscarves, public floggings, embassies burned, hostages taken, dissidents hanged from cranes. France handed Iran over to a medieval nightmare. Congratulations. Vive la révolution.
France and the Islamic Republic: Not Just Friends — Business Partners
Surely, after realizing they’d accidentally installed the Ayatollah version of Maximilien Robespierre, France must have felt regret, right?
Not exactly.
Despite little “diplomatic inconveniences” — like Hezbollah taking French hostages in Lebanon during the ‘80s — Paris kept one hand shaking Tehran’s while the other reached for contracts. TotalEnergies lined up for deals and expanded heavily since the 90s. French banks helped launder Tehran’s business. And when the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) was on the table, guess who was pushing for softer terms to save European trade profits?
That’s right — the country that gave us Voltaire decided their best legacy in the 20th century would be funding Islamic extremism for cheap gasoline and geopolitical leverage.
Why? Because French governments — left, right, socialist beret, conservative trench coat — have all shared the same fantasy: that Iran would be their tool for power in the Middle East. Iran was supposed to give France leverage against the Americans, the Saudis, and everyone else who dared drink coffee without pinkies raised.
Paris didn’t get duped. They signed up on purpose.
Macron’s Quiet Mission: Saving the Monster France Helped Create
Fast forward to today. Iran’s regime is hanging by a thread. Israeli has engaged in the most targeted and precise operation in history and the strikes are breaking the Islamic Republic, and the people of Iran are done with it too. The Islamic republic is on free fall.
Who’s still in their corner fluffing the cushions, whispering sweet nothings in the ears of the regime?
Emmanuel Macron. Now “warning that regime change” would be a grave mistake now.
Macron — who will happily deliver grand speeches about European values, women’s rights, secularism, democracy — is the guy still holding the door open for the Ayatollah’s crew. After Mahsa Amini’s brutal murder, Macron was the only Western leader to invite an Iranian delegation to major summits. Behind closed doors, his diplomats have worked desperately trying to salvage deals with Tehran.
Why? Because Macron isn’t defending Iran’s regime by accident. He’s preserving a half a century geopolitical project. The Islamic Republic of Iran is, to France, an investment. A tool of leverage in the Middle East. An ego trip dressed in foreign policy sophistication.
France doesn’t have dirty hands here. They have a dirty portfolio. And they’ve been collecting dividends from Khomeini’s revolution since 1979.
The Irony? France Gave Us Voltaire. They Also Gave Us the Islamic Republic and Khamenei.
The country that taught the world about secularism helped install the modern world’s most dangerous theocracy — and they’re still protecting it.
Iran’s people are standing in the streets screaming for freedom. And behind them, in the smoky diplomatic lounges of Europe, stand French officials with polite smiles, straightening their ties, keeping the regime’s seat warm.
Liberté, égalité, fraternité? More like hypocrisie, duplicité, complicité.
Incredible. Takes my breath away.
There is a commonality here or a way in which this seeming contradiction makes sense: for the French, esp the intellectual and creative classes, there is absolutely nothing more important than being proudly, vehemently, publicly anti-bourgeois. This pose has been frozen in place since 1789 and works almost like a Commandment for the Frenchman who wants a successful career as a thinker/artist: it doesn't matter if it's Communism, Satanism, Islamism, Sadism (of which they're very proud) etc, all that matters is that it "Épater la bourgeoisie", which helps to signal that you're not a middle-class square but an edgy rebellious free-thinking radical.
And even if this seems juvenile to the rest of us, a phase most of us grow out of, it is an essential element of French identity. The Revolution is a sacred event for them that they're very proud of and always hoping to re-create, esp if it's other people in other places who have to suffer and die for them to preen as grand historical actors.
They just can't help it, it's in the blood.